Tuesday 9 October 2007

#13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Well, this was an interesting exercise. Firstly I looked at Del.icio.us and read a few articles about tagging. Then I set up my own account in Del.icio.us and tagged about 4 sites. Once I'd clicked on "show tags as a cloud" I could see the social value of this tool. It isn't just about adding sites to your "favourites" folder, it's about seeing who else is interested in same topics (tags).

I was thinking about this task while I was enjoying my morning ablutions - a very peaceful, reflective time of the day I find - and I was prepared to blog about this in a negative way. I was thinking that learning by serendipity can sometimes be the more rewarding as an experience. Stumbling across a piece of music that sends goosebumps over your flesh, finding an image or a poem that renders you speechless....... I was going to comment on the fact (opinion really) that lots of librarians and information specialists like to control knowledge or define it in terms of Dewey, UDC, LCSH, Sear's and so forth - perhaps "control" is too strong a term, "harness" perhaps? KWIC and KWOC (keyword in context and keyword out of context) have existed in days pre-www when computers lived in rooms, BASIC was the language of the day and data was input via punched cards. So what's new about "tagging"?

Serendipity aside, I think the value of these online tagging tools is for the access to specific information/data and access to like-minded persons whether on a personal or professional level. I'm going to be open-minded about this discovery exercise and play with my tags further........