Thomas Vander WalPresented to: Enterprise 2.0
Boston, MA, USA :: 10 June 2008
After Noah: Making Sense of the Flood (of Information)
2 Common Statements
Nobody is using our services
Good
OMG we have way too much information
GreatUtterly fantastic
Add or improve guidance for use
Keep in mind: perceived light use can have high value
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008
Number of Tags Per Item
0
22.5
45.0
67.5
90.0
A6473
Distribution of “x Tagged”#
Peo
ple
Tagg
ing
Median
Focus on values derived
Who is using the service?
What value is gained?
Quick instructional videos
http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english
Easy tagging - similar to Amazon
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
Tag Yes/No
Provide many use cases
Continually highlight various success stories
Move to pervasive tag tool integration
Integrate with search
Collective search
Selective social search:
• Groups
• Co-worker
• Selected interests
Personal contextual search
Lacking structure
• Tags are taken as singles terms
• Not using co-occurrence
Lacking context
• No grouping of taggers
• ID does not tie to a persona or profile
• Lacking relationship of tagger
Across many applications and services
External incentive encouraged tagging
Taggers are adding tags terms to self-stem
(e.g. tag, tags, tagging)
Many misspellings
Tools need improved guidance & in-line help
Single tags
• Interface encourages diversity of tagging
• Use more than one tag
• Detect homogeneity
Use a taxonomist who understands folksonomies
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008
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
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. 2008
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
Tool is simple
• Simplicity is good, but they need to be smarter
• Surface multiple context
• Surface co-occurrence of tags
• Lacking individual tagging
Embrace structure
• Use co-occurrence of terms
• Use identity and personal relationships
• Tie to a taxonomy
• Existing
• Generic
- Andy Edmonds @ http://surfmind.com/muzings/?p=107
Show context
• Human
• Object
• Related terms
Identify facets• Interface
• Takes time - neg
• More complex interface may deter taggers
• Automated
• People
• Products & type
• Geo-location
• Temporal
Tools Get Out of the Way
Aggregate tags across tools
• Tag in and across applications
• Blogs, wikis, Sharepoint, etc.
• Retrieve across applications and services to provide breadth and more value
Remove false incentives and focus real value - such as refindability
Auto-stemming
• Identify synonyms
• Plurals
• Spelling variations (incl. mis-spelling)
• International terms
Improve application guidance
Pulling it all together
Human needs and support
Support various uses
Improve the tools used
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
Thank You!
InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2008
URL: http://infocloudsolutions.comE-mail: thomas@infocloudsolutions.comE-mail: thomas@vanderwal.netAIM: vanderwalSkype: tjvanderwal