1. Folksonomies

2. But First: Metadata What is it?

3. Metadata It is data about data. It is information about information.

4. Metadata: Structured information about documents, books, articles, photographs, web pages, etc. This data is designed for specific functions usually to facilitate some organization and access of information.

5. Traditional Metadata Dewey Decimal Library of Congress Traditional metadata is high quality but costly and it doesn’t scale well.

6. Author Created Metadata For example I might create an xml document that contains data about my CD collection: Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde Funkadelic Maggot Brain

7. Author Created Metadata Dublin Core XML RDF Has better scalability but suffers from the same problems As traditional metadata: users are disconnected from the process.

8. User Created Metadata(Folksonomies)‏ Del.icio.us

9. Folksonomies This term is attributed to Information Architect Thomas Vander Wal. It is the combination of two words. Folk:Of, occurring in, or originating among the common people: folk culture. Taxonomy: A division into ordered groups or categories.

10. Weaknesses Ambiguity: There is no synonym control so multiple words may be used to describe the same thing. The same word may be used for multiple meanings. For instance the ant maybe used to describe: The insect. Actor Network Theory in the domain of sociology. A java programming language tool.

11. Strengths Browsing Del.icio.us is an exploratory tool that supports browsing. User centered Directly reflects the vocabulary of its users. Desire lines Supports the creation of emergent “paths”. Namespace Has a flat name space/non-hierarchal categorization.

12. Examples (from Clay Shirky)‏

13. Dewey, 200: Religion 210 Natural theology 220 Bible 230 Christian theology 240 Christian moral & devotional theology 250 Christian orders & local church 260 Christian social theology 270 Christian church history 280 Christian sects & denominations 290 Other religions Dewey Decimal Religions of the World

14. Library of Congress World History D: History (general)‏ DA: Great Britain DB: Austria DC: France DD: Germany DE: Mediterranean DF: Greece DG: Italy DH: Low Countries DJ: Netherlands DK: Former Soviet Union DL: Scandinavia DP: Iberian Peninsula DQ: Switzerland DR: Balkan Peninsula DS: Asia DT: Africa DU: Oceania DX: Gypsies

16. What is being optimized?

17. When do traditional cataloging systems work well? Domain to be Organized Small corpus Formal categories Stable entities Restricted entities Clear edges Participants Expert catalogers Authoritative judgment Coordinated users Expert users

18. When do traditional cataloging systems not work well? Domain to be Organized Large corpus No formal categories Unstable entities Unrestricted entities No clear edges Participants Uncoordinated users Amateur users Naïve catalogers No Authority