This weeks articles cover the many aspects of tagging and folksonomies and their advantages and disadvantages from a variety of viewpoints. I wondered why Ellyssa Kroski called her article 'The Hive Mind' and looking at Wikipedia it is a kind of groupthink or collective consciousness and conformity or a software framework - maybe the collective consciousness of social insects such as bees. The article was inaccessible on the Internet on Tuesday evening (June 26th) around 9.30 pm. However I had read it earlier in the week and was interested to read about the 'Long Tail' phenomenon which had not come across before. It is relevant to tagging where the views of the minorities with less popular tags will be more in number than the more popular tags. The non mainstream topics outnumber the more popular ones and it is descriptive of a graph showing a long tail at the end of the statistical distribution.
Two of the articles this week, one by Emanuele Quinterelli and by Carol Ou talk about finding the 'middle ground' between user tagging at one end and the classification by a librarian at the other end and this may be the future direction of social bookmarking. Alex Wright wrote that
'a middle ground between.. bottom up tagging and top down controlled vocabularies....where end users could freely create, adopt or reject terms stored in a distributed repository that gets administered by a representative authority that 'owns' the vocabulary'
Emanuele Quinterelli says that 'All that we have to do is to merge and leverage emerging and traditional tools to improve findability. Somewhere at the intersection of those two models is a more powerful framework for identifying, sharing and finding information.'
He concludes by saying that 'Traditional hierarchies for organising information (or reality) will not be replaced by tags, but through tagging we are finding new ways of thinking about classification and new applications for organising and sharing knowledge'. He sees tagging and the new bottom up system as being a step towards a new way of organising information that will develop in the future. This is the view supported by Jon Lebowski.
In summary I liked the comment by Timo Hannay where he describes a folksonomy as a 'liberating, not restrictive; bottom up, not imposed; relational, not hierarchical. It also cleverly harnesses selfish acts and directs them towards the common good. But most of all, it just seems to fit the way our brains work'
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Del.icio.us in the Libraries
Looking at the case studies this week showing how libraries use the social tagging site 'Del.icio.us' reminded me of the old 'Vertical File' system I used to maintain working in a public and school library. These were documents that I would save under a specific label which might be useful for someone researching this topic of for a school project for example. The difference here is that I would be the only person doing this and presumably in the libraries in the case studies there are many people choosing articles from the Internet and 'saving' them in a file under their library name in Del.icio.us. Why are the saving them?? I was looking at the tag cloud in the LaGrange Park Library and wondering why anyone would tag a website showing a list of free knitting patterns. I have nothing against knitting, but what does this have to do with the library? There is a tag called 'cicadas' which takes the user to a very nice site on cicadas in Illinois, but where is the relevance to the library?
I have looked at Maui Community College library and wondered why there would be tagged a site on the Big Business of Dairy farming? It is even listed on the library homepage. Its an interesting informative site, but what is its relevance with Maui Community College Library?
The Penn Tags site opens with a tag cloud of popular tags and then lists pages and pages of boring information that would take hours to unravel and work out what the content is. I am really not sure what all this is about.
The Seldovia library at Del.icio.us is more of what I would expect for a library to tag and there appears to be many tags related to library information. Once again it looks like a vertical file with the library related tags in a darked and larger font making them more visible. It would be nice to be able to link the title of the library on the top of the page to the library website. I would like to use that to find out where the library was located.
The Thomas Ford Memorial Library has only 65 tags in the tag cloud which is a small number considering that they have been tagging for at least two years. Once again I am not sure why tags for 'recipes' and 'food' are listed here.
It seems by looking at these tags for libraries that anything can be tagged and there are no rules or guidelines to decide what can or cannot be included in a library's bookmarking site.
The number of tags at Lansing Public Library is enormous and once again looks like the old 'vertical file'. If the purpose for the long alphabetical list of subjects under the auspices of the library is to provide an access point for students or any researchers to find information on anything listed, then this is surely not the way to do research. I looked under the 'Dickens' tag and found only one site, 'Birds' had 4 sites, 'Ecology' had 4 and 'Soccer' had 4. Based on this it would be more efficient and effective to search 'Google' to find any required information.
Michael Jenson in his article on 'The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority' in the Chronicle Review described Del.icio.us as 'a collection of favourite sites where descriptive tags denoting contents raise the authority of the listed site'
If this is the purpose of tagging a site especially under the auspices of a library, then there needs to be some guidelines established as to the authority, content and future use of the website.
In my opinion, just because someone tags it for personal future use be it in a library or not, does not immediately raise the authority of the site.
I have looked at Maui Community College library and wondered why there would be tagged a site on the Big Business of Dairy farming? It is even listed on the library homepage. Its an interesting informative site, but what is its relevance with Maui Community College Library?
The Penn Tags site opens with a tag cloud of popular tags and then lists pages and pages of boring information that would take hours to unravel and work out what the content is. I am really not sure what all this is about.
The Seldovia library at Del.icio.us is more of what I would expect for a library to tag and there appears to be many tags related to library information. Once again it looks like a vertical file with the library related tags in a darked and larger font making them more visible. It would be nice to be able to link the title of the library on the top of the page to the library website. I would like to use that to find out where the library was located.
The Thomas Ford Memorial Library has only 65 tags in the tag cloud which is a small number considering that they have been tagging for at least two years. Once again I am not sure why tags for 'recipes' and 'food' are listed here.
It seems by looking at these tags for libraries that anything can be tagged and there are no rules or guidelines to decide what can or cannot be included in a library's bookmarking site.
The number of tags at Lansing Public Library is enormous and once again looks like the old 'vertical file'. If the purpose for the long alphabetical list of subjects under the auspices of the library is to provide an access point for students or any researchers to find information on anything listed, then this is surely not the way to do research. I looked under the 'Dickens' tag and found only one site, 'Birds' had 4 sites, 'Ecology' had 4 and 'Soccer' had 4. Based on this it would be more efficient and effective to search 'Google' to find any required information.
Michael Jenson in his article on 'The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority' in the Chronicle Review described Del.icio.us as 'a collection of favourite sites where descriptive tags denoting contents raise the authority of the listed site'
If this is the purpose of tagging a site especially under the auspices of a library, then there needs to be some guidelines established as to the authority, content and future use of the website.
In my opinion, just because someone tags it for personal future use be it in a library or not, does not immediately raise the authority of the site.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Libraries turning into bookstores and Tagging at 'Lavalife'!!
The idea behind social bookmarking or tagging is that the person who will retrieve the information at a later date is the one who decides which tags to use. 'Folksonomy' is the general public or folk choosing their own keywords to tag the items they want to remember or return to at a later date. The same idea is behind wikis previously discussed whereby folks who have no previous experience with web design or html can contribute to a website and feel that their opinion and input are as important as those web designers who have extensive technological knowledge. The idea of wikis, social bookmarking and blog creation is opening up many doors for the 'common man' to contribute in many ways with his ideas, knowledge and creativity.
Tony Hammond talks about 'phonetags' whereby listeners hear a song and use a cell phone to tag it to a website and retrieve it later and see the bookmarked songs. The same system could be used for retrieving information about books, titles or authors that someone was looking at in a bookstore or library which they wanted to remember. The site 'Del.icio.us' as a social bookmarking manager could also be used to remember a list of titles or authors as is shown by two of themore popular tags such as 'toread' and a 'wishlist'.
Adam Mathes in his article entitles 'Folksonomies' makes an interesting point when he talks about people's behaviour being influenced by other users of the same social bookmarking site and developing relationships with groups of users who share tag use. If the retrieval systems incorporate user centered managment tools, these schemes developed by users have the potential to be popular and well used. As a translation if 'Joe Public' tagged the books in a library it would be used and understood and be more accessible by more people. In my opinion it would probably result in a real mess! Is it just a matter of time before tagging extends to the 'real world away from the technological one and libraries consider a complete different organisation of resources.? The Gilbert Library in Arizona is the first library in the USA to reorganise its books based on a book store model. However I am not sure how inter library loans between branches would work if one library developed its own system. But I am sure there will be ways around this.
Joshua Porter talks about not being blinded by the aggregation light and emphasises the fact that people do not tag for the sake of tagging. The articles must have value to the tagger before he or she will tag and and he stresses that software developers must ensure that they produce something that people will value and want to tag. The opportunity to tag will be beneficial to those people who are already engaged in certain activities on the Internet and tagging will be the 'cream on the cake'.
In the many dating sites on the Internet the opportunities are enormous to tag 'people' that look interesting and build a 'possibilities' list for future reference. Such tags as 'musical', 'hockey dad' or 'sports jock' might be seen on a 'del.icio.us/lavalife' site !! The opportunities are endless!!
Tony Hammond talks about 'phonetags' whereby listeners hear a song and use a cell phone to tag it to a website and retrieve it later and see the bookmarked songs. The same system could be used for retrieving information about books, titles or authors that someone was looking at in a bookstore or library which they wanted to remember. The site 'Del.icio.us' as a social bookmarking manager could also be used to remember a list of titles or authors as is shown by two of themore popular tags such as 'toread' and a 'wishlist'.
Adam Mathes in his article entitles 'Folksonomies' makes an interesting point when he talks about people's behaviour being influenced by other users of the same social bookmarking site and developing relationships with groups of users who share tag use. If the retrieval systems incorporate user centered managment tools, these schemes developed by users have the potential to be popular and well used. As a translation if 'Joe Public' tagged the books in a library it would be used and understood and be more accessible by more people. In my opinion it would probably result in a real mess! Is it just a matter of time before tagging extends to the 'real world away from the technological one and libraries consider a complete different organisation of resources.? The Gilbert Library in Arizona is the first library in the USA to reorganise its books based on a book store model. However I am not sure how inter library loans between branches would work if one library developed its own system. But I am sure there will be ways around this.
Joshua Porter talks about not being blinded by the aggregation light and emphasises the fact that people do not tag for the sake of tagging. The articles must have value to the tagger before he or she will tag and and he stresses that software developers must ensure that they produce something that people will value and want to tag. The opportunity to tag will be beneficial to those people who are already engaged in certain activities on the Internet and tagging will be the 'cream on the cake'.
In the many dating sites on the Internet the opportunities are enormous to tag 'people' that look interesting and build a 'possibilities' list for future reference. Such tags as 'musical', 'hockey dad' or 'sports jock' might be seen on a 'del.icio.us/lavalife' site !! The opportunities are endless!!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Wiki Cases: the dormant, the stagnant and the blog??
Writing reviews on books lends itself well to the idea of a wiki whereby the community can contribute frequently, authoritatively and enthusiastically on chosen literature. This works well with the Princeton Public Library Book Lovers wiki. The adult members of the summer reading program could either create a review on the wiki directly after obtaining a log in agreeing to certain rules and disclaimers or they could e-mail the review to the library who would input it to the wiki. The result is list of 17 genres with over 225 titles, with a star rating which represent the summer's reading reviews for the community who participated. This wiki represents a limited period of time and seems to have been set up primarily for the summer reading club. There has been little activity on this wiki for almost a year. It seems to be a dormant wiki but it appears that it will be revitalised in the summer of 2007 whereby it will serve the same purpose as the summer of 2006. There is no indication at this time whether the list will be added to with the 2007 additions or a seperate list will be created. I especially like the links to the authors from the reviews.
The Wyoming Authors Wiki seems to have been a great idea to include every author who lives in Wyoming or has done or who writes about Wyoming. But at some point the wiki will stagnate as all list becomes complete and there are vere few additions. The wiki includes links to book events and new books but for 2007 there have only been 2 new books added so farwhereas in 2006 there were 44 new books. The wiki looks a lot like a blog with a side bar with links to education, business, government, employment in the State as well as links to the library and catalogue. There is a link to an upcoming book fair in Cheyenne in the Fall. However the future of this wiki must be in jeopardy unless an effort and invitation to the community is made to contribute some information other than a list of Wyoming authors. This is a very narrow wiki with an uncertain future.
Both of the above wikis are for a controlled group of users who are required to log in, and receive permission to create and edit information.
The Bull Run Library wiki, at a first glance, looks a lot like a blog rather than a wiki especially with the links in the sidebar to resources and archives. However the word wiki is in the URL and 'Front page' and log in at the top and pb wiki at the bottom but the word wiki does not appear in the text on the page. I could not find any invitation to the community to contribute anything to this wiki and it just appears to be a page of links to other resources and library related sites and information. This wiki does not appear worth exploring futher and does not invite any user input, creativity or editing. Clearly the creators do not want any public or community input. It would be best to turn this into a blog!
The Wyoming Authors Wiki seems to have been a great idea to include every author who lives in Wyoming or has done or who writes about Wyoming. But at some point the wiki will stagnate as all list becomes complete and there are vere few additions. The wiki includes links to book events and new books but for 2007 there have only been 2 new books added so farwhereas in 2006 there were 44 new books. The wiki looks a lot like a blog with a side bar with links to education, business, government, employment in the State as well as links to the library and catalogue. There is a link to an upcoming book fair in Cheyenne in the Fall. However the future of this wiki must be in jeopardy unless an effort and invitation to the community is made to contribute some information other than a list of Wyoming authors. This is a very narrow wiki with an uncertain future.
Both of the above wikis are for a controlled group of users who are required to log in, and receive permission to create and edit information.
The Bull Run Library wiki, at a first glance, looks a lot like a blog rather than a wiki especially with the links in the sidebar to resources and archives. However the word wiki is in the URL and 'Front page' and log in at the top and pb wiki at the bottom but the word wiki does not appear in the text on the page. I could not find any invitation to the community to contribute anything to this wiki and it just appears to be a page of links to other resources and library related sites and information. This wiki does not appear worth exploring futher and does not invite any user input, creativity or editing. Clearly the creators do not want any public or community input. It would be best to turn this into a blog!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Wikis have it all - Knowledge, Communication, Sharing, Technology - the epitome of social software
I like one of the comments from Meredith Farkas when she says that 'the key is to use a wiki to fill a need, not to find a need for a wiki because you want to use a wiki'. There seems to be numerous occasions and reasons to use this collaboratitve tool in the library world. Angela Kile's discussion of knowledge management and libraries seem to reinforce the idea that staff and employees have much more to contribute than they have been able to previously and that everyone can gain by tapping into this knowledge that they before now did not have an acceptable outlet or platform to be exhibited. Wikis can be used internally in libraries and improve the efficiency, accuracy and consistency of information, work is carried out more effectively and with a rapid transfer of knowledge between all levels within the organisation and libraries can remain competitive and current with the constant changes in the field.
For wikis in the workplace to be successful, they need an environment where there is a high level of trust in the users and a certain amount of control when it is first set up in terms of the goal and objectives, the frequency of communication, the best technology to use, how many users will be able to edit the wiki, whether there will be a log in required and how much training staff will need to understand the use of the wiki.
Angela Kile talks about using wikis in library reference work to share knowledge about best practices in library processes and information sources. Using a wiki for frequently asked questions and as resource guides for subject librarians as well as for instruction. The Oregon Library has such an instruction wiki which appears to be new as there has been little input so far. The Biz Wiki was developed by the Ohio University Library as a specific subject resource guide.
Wikis have been described as 'conversational technology' by supporting the natural process of conversation and recording the result and updating as frequently as anyone edits a page. By their very nature wikis capture the here and now of the topic or situation in question. They are never static, ever moving and represent the latest and most current thoughts and ideas from a defined audience. To summarise this blog I like another comment from Meredith Farkas when she says that the wiki administrator needs to be a gardener
" They need to keep their rows of flowers (pages) nice and neat and organized. They need to keep constant watch on their garden to keep the weeds (spam) at bay. The more they make their garden a good environment for growth (of ideas), the more growth they will see. If you do a good job as a wiki gardener, you will eventually see the fruits of your labours'
For wikis in the workplace to be successful, they need an environment where there is a high level of trust in the users and a certain amount of control when it is first set up in terms of the goal and objectives, the frequency of communication, the best technology to use, how many users will be able to edit the wiki, whether there will be a log in required and how much training staff will need to understand the use of the wiki.
Angela Kile talks about using wikis in library reference work to share knowledge about best practices in library processes and information sources. Using a wiki for frequently asked questions and as resource guides for subject librarians as well as for instruction. The Oregon Library has such an instruction wiki which appears to be new as there has been little input so far. The Biz Wiki was developed by the Ohio University Library as a specific subject resource guide.
Wikis have been described as 'conversational technology' by supporting the natural process of conversation and recording the result and updating as frequently as anyone edits a page. By their very nature wikis capture the here and now of the topic or situation in question. They are never static, ever moving and represent the latest and most current thoughts and ideas from a defined audience. To summarise this blog I like another comment from Meredith Farkas when she says that the wiki administrator needs to be a gardener
" They need to keep their rows of flowers (pages) nice and neat and organized. They need to keep constant watch on their garden to keep the weeds (spam) at bay. The more they make their garden a good environment for growth (of ideas), the more growth they will see. If you do a good job as a wiki gardener, you will eventually see the fruits of your labours'
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
June 4 - June 10. Blogging Vacation week 1.
Happy Blogging everyone, I'll be back on June 11th 2007.
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