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Tagging That Works

Thomas Vander Wal


Presented to: Web 2.0 Expo
San Francisco, California :: 16 April 2007

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What Is A Tag?

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What’s A Tag?

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Wutzatag?

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Tagging: Definition

❖ Simple data/metadata externally applied to


an object
❖ Used for sorting
❖ A hook for aggregating
❖ Provides identifier and/or description
❖ Personal markers

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History of Tagging

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The “F” Word

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Folksonomy

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Folksonomy: Definition

❖ Folksonomy is the result of personal free


tagging of pages and objects for one's own
retrieval

❖ The tagging is usually done in a social


environment (shared and open to others)

❖ The act of tagging is done by the person


consuming the information

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Folksonomy:Value
The value in this external tagging is derived
from people using their own vocabulary
meaning, which may
and adding explicit meaning
come from inferred understanding of the
information/object.

People are not so much categorizing, as


providing a means to connect items
(placing hooks) to provide their meaning in
their own understanding.

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“The beauty of tagging is that it taps
into an existing cognitive process without
adding much cognitive cost”

Rashmi Sinha
http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_09/tagging-cognitive.html

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Every person is an
expert in their own
vocabulary (tags)

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Every Tag is Sacred

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Folksonomy Triad
Object Identity
Interest

Definition
Vocabulary

Metadata

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Dual Folksonomy Triad
Object Interest Identity

Culture Vocabulary

Definition

Terminology
Community Metadata

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Finding More Objects
Object 1 Identity Object 2

Metadata

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Folksonomy
vs.
Taxonomy
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Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy
Business Customer

Taxonomy Product Folksonomy

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Taxonomy & Folksonomy

Taxonomy Folksonomy
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The Value of Tagging
for Business

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Business Tensions
Naming control People’s vocabulary

Sample groups Every perspective

In-house Outside service

$$$ w/ value $ w/ unknown value

Consistent Emergent

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Business Gains: Internet

❖ Improved understanding of customers

❖ Current terminology (all of it)

❖ Market segmentations

❖ Target message to language, need & taste

❖ Ability to easily follow the customer

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Business Gains: Intranet

❖ Improve refindability

❖ Understand context

❖ Ease sharing of resources by perspective

❖ Cost effective means of building taxonomy

❖ Allow term use in and across silos

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Understanding Scaling

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Cold-Start Problem
& Beyond

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Scaling and Functionality

D A - Personal Use
B - Serendipity
C C - Social Tagging
Powerful
People Tagging

B
D - Mature System
A

Times Object is Tagged


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Phases of Interaction
❖ Saving and tagging
❖ Refinding
❖ Clicking, pivoting, exploring
❖ Searching
❖ One’s own tags
❖ Other’s tags
❖ Group
❖ Everybody
❖ Group Social Interaction

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Personal to Social
Social
Personal Serendipity Mature
Powerful
Save & Tag X X X X
Refind X X X X
Pivot & Explore X X X
Search X X
Group Interaction - X

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So, Who Tags?

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As much as 28% of
Americans have tagged
Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/201/report_display.asp

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Daily 7% of people on
the Web in the U.S. tag
Pew Internet Life Project: Report on Tagging
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/201/report_display.asp

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Why do People Tag?

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Reasons People Tag
❖ Their OWN use/value first
❖ Add Perspective/Context
❖ Missing metadata
❖ Emergent Vocabulary
❖ Personal descriptors
❖ Refindability
❖ Aggregation of information
❖ Task-based aggregation
❖ State Interest
❖ Sociality
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Spheres of Sociality
Mob
Collective
Selective
Personal

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Social Context

Personal - Social -
❖ Capture ❖ Share
❖ Hook/Copy ❖ Point
❖ Annotate ❖ Collaborate
❖ Refind ❖ Filter
❖ Privacy ❖ Trusted Groups

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Shape of Tags

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Where Do People Tag?

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Tag Venues
❖ Social Bookmarking del.icio.us, RawSugar, Ma.gnolia
❖ Media Flickr, Dabble, LastFM,Viddler
❖ Shopping Amazon
❖ Geo-Location Platial, Socialite
❖ Museums Steve.museum, Powerhouse
❖ Intranet IBM Dogear, Scuttle, ConnectBeam
❖ Dating Consumating
❖ OS (files) Mac OSX Tiger & Microsoft Vista
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Tag Venues

Wherever there is a
digital object or marker

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People Using
Tag Services

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Tag Services Offer
❖ Tagging
❖ Descriptions
❖ Feeds
❖ Interface
❖ Additional offerings
❖ Groups
❖ Favorites
❖ Rating
❖ Search
❖ Save page

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Interaction
❖ Tags
❖ Delimited combinations
❖ Comma
❖ Text box per tag term
❖ Space
❖ Quotes for compound words
❖ Suggested tags
❖ From own tags
❖ From other’s tags
❖ Automated from object content

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Interaction
❖ Privacy
❖ Open to all
❖ Open to community
❖ Personal only
❖ Selective sharing
❖ By object tagged
❖ All posts to a Group
❖ Community tags
❖ Send to

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Scanning

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Sociality

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Collective

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Selective

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Personal

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Filtering

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Clustering

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Tag Combinations

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Algorithms

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TagCloud

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TagClouds Best on
Granular Items

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Shopping

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Amazon

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Art of the Pivot

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Latest Activity

Reviews

Listmania!

Amazon Friends

Tags used
Products tagged
Easy Tagging

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Tag Yes/No

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What Is Going On?

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Improvements

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Value of Tagging
for Non-taggers

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Volatility of
Tagged Object

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Tethering Needed

❖ When object is updated


❖ Corrected/Edited
❖ New Content
❖ Removed
❖ Similar items
❖ Archive access

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Granular Social
Network

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Interoperability

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Tag Commons

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URL: http://infocloudsolutions.com
E-mail: thomas@infocloudsolutions.com
E-mail: thomas@vanderwal.net
AIM: vanderwal
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2007

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