Thomas Vander Wal - InfoCloud Solutions, Inc.15 November 2010

Taxonomy Bootcamp - Washington, DC

Integrating Folksonomies With Traditional Metadata

One View...

Workshop Orientation

Low use can have high value

Validation

Identify Gaps

Fill Gaps

How?

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The “F” Word

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Folksonomy

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❖ 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

Folksonomy: Definition

InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2010

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

Folksonomy: Value

The value in this external tagging is derived from people using their own vocabulary and adding explicit meaning

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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Object Identity

Metadata

Interest

VocabularyDefinition

Folksonomy Triad

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The “F” Word

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Object Identity

Metadata

Definition

Vocabulary

Terminology

Interest

Culture

Community

Dual Folksonomy Triad

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Taxonomy Folksonomy

Business Employees

Object

Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy

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Taxonomy Folksonomy

Taxonomy & Folksonomy

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70% of Folksonomy tag terms not in Taxonomy

J. Trant regarding Steve.museum

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Compensating

Taxonomy Folksonomy+ Structure - Messy+ Efficiency - Difficult Findability+ Solid foundation - Slow to emerge- Resource intensive + Relatively inexpensive

- Not emergent + Emergent by nature- Difficult to validate + Continual validation

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Terms Around an Object

Taxonomy Folksonomy

- Ball- Sphere- Blue- #A6437

- Ball (89)- Circle (63)- Blue (23)- Orb (11)- Sphere (6)- Gradient (3)- ToBuy (3)- Darkblue (2)- Round (2)- … 26 more

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Part #A6473 Terms

0

22.5

45.0

67.5

90.0

A6473

Distribution of TermsValidate

taxonomyor add totaxonomy Interest

& watch

Value inSynonyms &Unique views

InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2010

Part #A6473 Terms

0

22.5

45.0

67.5

90.0

A6473

Distribution of TermsValidate

taxonomyor add totaxonomy Interest

& watch

Azure

InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2010

❖ Their OWN use/value first❖ Add Perspective/Context

❖ Missing metadata❖ Emergent Vocabulary❖ Personal descriptors

❖ Refindability❖ Aggregation of information❖ Task-based aggregation

❖ State Interest❖ Sociality

Reasons People Tag

Where is it?

Social Bookmarking

Social Software Applications

SearchSearch

Mainstream Enterprise Tools

Context

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The “F” Word

Metadata

Core Elements

•Object

• Tag

• Identity

Ancillary Metadata

• Date Added (last modified)

• What Service

• Corpus of tags (co-occurrence)

• Who else tagged

• Role: Publisher / Authority / End user

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1, 1, 2, 2 ?

Design

= Software Design

= Visual Design

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Object Identity

Metadata

Interest

VocabularyDefinition

Device/Service Context

Context1

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Object Identity

Metadata

Interest

VocabularyDefinition

Device/Service Context

Context2

Disambiguation

• Spelling

• Tagging Conventions

• Multi-word tag terms

• Mashed-up

• Word delimiters ( _ . - )

Lack of Use From:

• Inconsistent and/or poor interface

• Lack of familiarity

• Personal use value missing

The 4 rings of enterprise social tools

Tools

Enterprise Social Tool: Components for Success

Tools Interface /

Ease of Use

Enterprise Social Tool: Components for Success Capabilities

Tools Interface /

Ease of Use

Sociality

Capabilities

Intelligence &Business Needs

Enterprise Social Tool: Components for Success

Tools Interface /

Ease of Use

Encouraging Use

Sociality

Capabilities

Expand Use &

Increase ROI

Social Comfort

Intelligence &Business Needs

Enterprise Social Tool: Components for Success

Moving to Taxonomy

Validation

Identifying Gaps

Filling Gaps

Automate Check

• Validate in taxonomy

• Ensure same understanding

• Identify co-occurrence of other terms

Term Not in Taxonomy

• Useful term easy review

• Repetitive use

• Term in objects or links to objects

• Term in related objects

• Synonym

Term Not in Taxonomy

• Human examination

• Some repetitive use

• Who / Group / Role

• Cyclical

• Other occurrences of the term

Metadata Structures

• Microformats

• XRD / XRI - iTags

• Common Tag Format

Pulling it all Together

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URL: http://infocloudsolutions.comE-mail: thomas@infocloudsolutions.comAIM: vanderwalSkype: tjvanderwalTwitter: @vanderwal or @infocloud