[Web4lib] del.icio.us tags and bookmarking sites -- WHY DO IT?

[Karen Harker]

The main potential I see is a mapping system whereby descriptive data actually entered by users is mapped to controlled vocabulary, thus enabling greater recall, although precision would suffer.  However, I really wonder how much our users would actually contribute directly to the description of resources.  A better system may be one which ties keywords entered by users to those resources chosen from the results list. But there are still flaws in that method.  

I think it could prove to be a good data source to study how people describe things (topic, format, slang, proper nouns, broad, narrow, etc.).  



Karen R. Harker, MLS
UT Southwestern Medical Library
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX  75390-9049
214-648-8946
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/library/

>>> "Drew, Bill" <drewwe at MORRISVILLE.EDU> 5/23/2005 9:13:45 AM >>>
I posted this to my blog this morning.   I would really like to know
this stuff but I am having a hard time getting the importance of it from
what I have read so far.
 
I may be missing the boat here but I do not really understand the
significance given by Steven Cohen and others to del.icio.us tags,
folksonomies, and bookmarking sites. Would someone please explain it to
me?

Del.icio.us tags and bookmarking sites are not yet reflected in any
search engines that I know of. Until they are, how will they improve
peoples ability to find information? I looked at del.icio.us and find it
of no real value to me. If it is of potential value to me and to our
students and faculty at Morrisville College, please tell me how in plain
language. 

Why should I care what tags someone puts on my website or blog? Are
there any scientific studies of how people use tags?

Are tags and bookmarking sites just a passing fad? 
 
Bill Drew
drewwe at morrisville.edu 
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