Blogger Hacks, Categories, Tips & Tricks

Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Tagging as Social Phenomenon
Another great essay from Rashmi Sinha, this one focusing on the social aspects of tagging.
Tagging enables social coordination that is simultaneously more direct and abstract than collaborative filtering. More abstract since we are exchanging conceptual information. More direct, since there is no algorithm mediating our connection. When we navigate by tags, we are directly connecting with others.

Flickr and del.icio.us both show that tagging helps in the spread of ideas, memes, trends and fashions. A related question - what role does it play in concept development, in social consensus building? ....What role do tagging systems play in ebb and flow of concepts."
This feels especially timely to me given the recent relaunch of Freshtags, which is all about the construction of community in the blogosphere through the use of tags, and the appropriate display of relevant information.

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Posted at 6:28 PM by John.
1 Comments:
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
It never ceases to amaze me just how popular tagging has become. A little over a fortnight ago we implemented a folksonomy tagging tool into Rogue Connect. The response has been great amongst members, with more people using it than our group fashion blog (which we had always tought would be a focus point of the site) within the first few days.

It's particularly interesting in the way people are using it. Only a few have tried to write a phrase as opposed to single worded (or condensed) tags, and most are currently sticking with generic tags such as 'sexy'. Only a few have ventured 'out' to create more interesting ones, one of the most frequently used being 'nakedunderneath'. After that tag appears a few times, we've noted that other users have begun to use it when tagging.


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