Social Bookmarking and Tagging

I just finished reading a video news article in ZDnet.com on Joshua Schachter, the developer/creator behind del.icio.us, one of the first, social bookmarking tools, created del.icio.us because he needed a more sophisticated bookmarking tool to handle his large and growing collection of links. He needed a better tool that offered greater functionality and scalability and allowed him to retrieve both his favorite and most frequently used links, as well as information less frequently used, but important to him when he needed it. He defines this as an efficient tool that helps to "keep found information on the internet found".

Folksonomy or social bookmarking is the Folksonomy, a term coined by information architect Thomas Vanderwal, combines the people or "folks-y" approach to building taxonomy and defines folksonomy as "a type of distributed classification system". It is usually created by a group of individuals, typically the resource users. Users add tags to online items, such as images, videos, bookmarks, and text. These tags are then shared and sometimes refined. Folksonomy is

"a naturally created classification system which arises as a result of user-based tagging. A user tags an object such as a bookmark in order to remember it later; that information is then added to the global tag cloud and helps to create a folksonomy".

Wikipedia defines Tagging as

• A tag acts like a subject or category.
  
• A keyword is used to organize Web pages and objects on the Internet.
  
• Each user "tags" a Web page or image using his or her own unique tag. An image or Web page may have multiple tags that identify it.
  
• Web pages and images with identical tags are then linked together and users may use the tag to search for similar Web pages and images.
  

According to Thomas Vanderwal, folksonomy involves three data points that is:

• Web page and/or media
  
• The individual tag
  
• The distinct person tagging
  

He also categorizes folksonomy into two categories:

Broad: "Delicious is a broad folksonomy, where a lot of people are describing one object," Vanderwal said. "You might have 200 people giving a set of tags to one object, which really gives a lot of depth.... No matter what you call something, you probably will be able to get back to that object."

In a broad folksonomy, Vanderwal continued, there is the benefit of the network effect and the power curve because so many people are involved. An example is the website of contemporary design magazine Moco Loco , to which 166 Delicious users had applied the tag "design."

But 44 users had also assigned the URL the tag "architecture," 28 "art," 15 "furniture" and so on. That means that because so many people applied so many different tags to Moco Loco's site, it could be located in a number of different ways.

Narrow: Flickr's system is a narrow folksonomy, because rather than many people tagging the same communal items, as with Delicious, small numbers of users tag individual items. Thus many users tag items, but of those, only a small number will tag a particular item.

"You don't have quite that capability of the power curve," said Vanderwal, "but you do have that ability of adding metadata to an object."

Folksonomy and user intelligence:

Like Wikipedia social bookmarking as Tim O'Reilly puts it, harnesses collective intelligence of its users to find information on the internet and encourages user participation. The success of Google, Amazon in user engagement and has proved that,

• It is a truism that the greatest internet success stories don't advertise their products. Their adoption is driven by "viral marketing"--that is, recommendations propagating directly from one user to another. You can almost make the case that if a site or product relies on advertising to get the word out, it isn't Web 2.0.
  
• Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia based on the unlikely notion that an entry can be added by any web user, and edited by any other, is a radical experiment in trust, applying Eric Raymond's dictum (originally coined in the context of open source software that "with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow," to content creation.
  

All the above definitions of folksonomy aligns with what Joshua Schachter says that the most interesting thing about social bookmarking is "sharing" the information found with other users, in his words this means, "we're going to go from a world where] machines are telling you what's important and searching information [to a world where] we're actually going to be able search the knowledge of other people and get access to other people's opinions and thoughts and so on in much more direct manner". When I visited the del-icio-us site I was given a code (like that of Youtube when a video URL has to be embedded)to be pasted in the html to create a network badge thereby involving the user in the creation and application of software emphasizing "user-created content" – a Web 2.0 characteristic.

Social ties and folksonomy:

In her blog Rashmi Sinha discusses about social ties formed during tagging with the help of an illustration (mentioned below):

• Ad-hoc groups
  
• Lots of weak social ties
  
• Conceptually mediated ties
  

Folksonomy's future:

As folksonomies are very new, it is difficult to predict what directions people will take them in. From the graphs and analyses available, it appears that use of folksonomies is still on the upswing, and discussion in the "blogosphere" continues. There are many predictions of tags being incorporated into everything from search engines to home computers, to warnings of tags creating clutter, unusability, and advertising.

Some believe that folksonomies will become unmanageable, that the cost of classification is being transferred from the information creator to the information user.

Standard or popular terms for tags are also encouraged by the number of views that they are likely to attract if, for instance, they show up in Flickr's popular tags cloud. Clay Shirky suggests group classification as the "next frontier." Under this scheme, people would be able to select whose tags they want to view.

Hierarchies, search engines, and file folders are not likely to go away, but there is room to supplement and personalize their features with folksonomies and tags.

According to Mary Beth Lakin of American council of education, "there are disadvantages to social bookmarking. Although the organization of social bookmarking is flat with no folder fuss, the tools are still evolving and not all are user-friendly. Also, people create the tags. As a result, they create a level of meaning and context not found in current search engines (Wikipedia on Social Bookmarking). However, no consistent standards and management exist for tags, which can create confusion and result in wasted time.

The current focus of social bookmarking services is on individual users, but some trends point toward more collaboration and group use.

Organizations across sectors, from manufacturing and software companies to health care and social services, could make use of social bookmarking systems to more effectively serve their clients. Social bookmarking could also help professionals who need to easily store, access, and share information.

In another area, the marriage of social bookmarking to the digitization of books (Google's current book-scanning project has provoked a mix of opinions) offers the potential to expand reading as a community activity. As noted in a recent New York Times article: "Bookmarks can be shared with fellow readers. . . . You might get an alert that your friend Carl has annotated a favorite book of yours. A moment later, his links are yours. In a curious way, the universal library becomes one very, very, very large single text: the world's only book" ("Scan This Book," May 14, 2006).

In colleges and universities, students and professors could use social bookmarking systems to share course-based knowledge from one year to the next, leaving a "legacy for the next generation" of students and faculty (Tony Hirst, "Towards a Managed Social Bookmarking Environment in Higher Education," November 4, 2005). To better serve adult learner groups, support staff in academic advising, career services, and counseling could create bookmark communities.

Finally, social bookmarking might offer relief not only for researchers, students, and teachers, but also for the general public. With the abundance of online information, lifelong learners across sectors often feel overwhelmed and left behind. Through this electronic word of mouth, learners can mark it, manage it, and share it".

As I read more about folksonomy and spurred on by Vanderwal's tip "The more people getting involved with tagging, the greater the value", I created my del-icio-us account and tagged these websites that has interesting information on folksonomy, web usability, information architecture, technical writing and visual design:

UIE Brain Sparks

Good website on visual design and interface usability- be sure to check out their podcasts and brainsparks blogs maintained by Jared Spool

Technical Writing Tips, Tricks and Tutorials | Free Word Templates

This website has a lot of practical tech writing tips and provides lot of goodies like document templates

http://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html

Article on Folksonomy

Monet Painting

The assignment that I completed on aesthetics involving famous paintings was an eye-opener. I am now eager and ready to "wild guess" the answer to Monet's painting to which the answer I think is that it may be used by a company to advertise its product for allergy medications - "pollen and sneezing" was the first thing that came to my mind when i saw the flowers. I wonder how Monet (had he been alive) would react to the advertising company's novel treatment of his painting's concept in order to manipulate the viewer.

Web 2.0 – First look

After reading the O'Reilly 's article on Web 2.0 I recalled an article I read on NY Times a couple of weeks ago by David Pogue who talks about Web 2.0 as websites whose content is provided by the people. He also raises a question as to what would Flickr be without its photos, YouTube without the videos, Craigslist without the ads, eBay without the auctions, TripAdvisor without people's travel reviews?, and answers that these mega-sites would be only empty white pages if the audience didn't supply their materials. In his article he cites examples of the two people generated and collaborated Web 2.0 apps that are well-known such as Craiglist.org and Goloco.org - an upcoming carpool initiative in which passengers will actually pay the driver a little something for his trouble. He says that there is a similar cab service in England called Texxi: where you send a text message to a special address; computers field the requests and compare locations; and a taxi comes by to pick you up and other people who share your itinerary. All the passengers save money, and the cab company makes money. He says that this system works especially well when there are lots of people waiting in the same place: a pub or club on Saturday night, a football game that's just ended, and so on.

As I read this I realized that whatever was only talked about in Web 1.0 era such as ability to take advantage of Web services, having rich internet apps, to socialize and collaborate – all this were difficult but now it is realized –thanks to Web 2.0.

Pogue also adds that we haven't even scratched the surface and feels that there are dozens or hundreds of huge Web 2.0 ideas that have yet to materialize and how a website becomes popular is a mysterious thing that is dependent on factors like buzz, timing, software design.

I also wanted to research further on the degree of corporate involvement in the Web 2.0 realm and found this interesting pie illustration charlnorman.comthat shows a moderatly active participation.





These are the thoughts that crossed my mind when I saw this illustration with regard to the economic aspects. I feel that in order for these companies to sustain their service in the long run these companies have to come up with the economic model that is either fee-based or advertisement driven. This is required because Web 2.0 applications are cost-driven and have to be economically feasible

Paintings & commercials

I came across two videos that are great accomplishments of bringing art to life. Both the videos have been made by famous U.K ad agencies for “Johnny Walker” and “Guinness” brand drinks respectively. They are A 60 second Johnnie Walker spot from Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Aardman Animtons. The other one is the “Surfer” spot for Guinness that has drawn inspiration from Walter Crane’s painting of Neptune’s Horses(1893).

In the Johnny Walker ad

, the spot’s central character begins as one of the warriors in Eugene Delacroix’s The Battle of Taillebourg and proceeds to travel through works by Seurat, Miro, Magritte and Hokusai.
In this video the animation studio has showcased several art styles but I am going to discuss the paintings that belong to the work and perception of two different artists who lived in different periods of time showing different contexts.




In the first picture Delacroix has painted a battle scene that evokes strong emotions in the viewer. Both in the video and the painting besides the context our eye is drawn to the “white horse” in the centre and the soldier in the red cloth with the head gear. The entangled bodies, the weapons, the soldiers and the surroundings in which they are confronting their enemy (the place looks does not look like a typical battlefield but it looks like trench near a fort) has been painted in a dramatic and striking way. In this painting” color” seems to be the main element that rules the composition. The painter has not paid much attention to the form or outline which is not very clear in this painting.
The painting looks magnificent, realistic with the color, tone and visual elements such as the soldier’s fighting each other, the spears and other weapons in their hands (creating visual tension), their head gear, the majestic looking horse which is of light color contrasting with the surrounding that is much darker in tone, the horse that is almost upside down in the background and the trench with its brick wall create the mood and impacts the emotions of the viewer.
In Eugene’s own words:

The work of a painter who is not a colorist is illumination rather than painting. If one intends something other than cameos, color is, strictly speaking, one of the founding principles of painting, no less so than chiaroscuro, proportion and perspective... Color gives the appearance of life.
The ad ends with the central character disrupting the quiet stillness and the languid summer afternoon party that George Seurat’s characters in Sunday Afternoon on The Island of La Grande Jatte are enjoying. It is one of those rare works of art that stand alone. Herethe theme of the work is not some profound emotion or momentous event, but the most banal of workaday scenes- Parisians enjoying an afternoon in a local park. The beautiful landscape, a good use of space when painting a crowded party scenario is surrealistic and beautiful.

In Seurat’s words

This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off!
The use of light, the contrasting colors make the characters look real.
The elements that create hierarchy are the several human characters, especially the ladies with their umbrellas and flowing gowns reminiscent of the bygone era. The scenario looks like a scene from a film corresponding (romantic) to that era. The landscape with the trees and bushes painted in a striking green and the grassy knoll is contrasted with the color of the landscape.
The painting persuades its viewers to immediately relax and transports them to a world of pleasure.
The animation video shows the varied emotions, experience, people that the central character encounters and when he is just about to relax in the party(Seurat painting) the ad ends as if supporting the theme related to the product being advertised.



Jonathan Glazer’s 1999 “Surfer spot for Guinness, inspired by Walter Crane’s painting Neptune’s Horses.


This is an illustration by Walter Crane who is a famous children’s story illustrator. The video's theme is an inspiration drawn from this painting. The makers of this video say that the aim of this spot was to persuade the viewers to think that power and danger are synonymous with “surfing”. This illustration is an allegory, a striking visual narration of Greek mythology, the ever-powerful horses are here like Eugene’s painting but they are shown here for their resilience, they appear to be more like mythical creatures, they symbolize power, masculinity and epitomizes adventurous spirit found in the men doing the ad. The strong tidal waves showing the danger and risk involved in the sport.
Elements such as light, color contrast, symmetry, line and shape are present in this picture. The sunlight’s effect on turquoise color water, and the water droplets create a visual tension. Unlike Eugene’s painting this one uses pastel color palette but the man in this ad is contrasted and dark in tone compared to that of the horses.
The picture showing the "motion" of the horses and the use of space between them and around them creates a visual tension that has been dramatized in the advertisement showing a group of men on thsir surfboards. The natural rhytmic wave pattern found in the ocean and the hooves of the horses splashing in the water creates a 3D effect you can almost hear the splash and feel the water in your legs.

I think to paint four moving horses in water each one showed with a visually striking posture (creating line, symmetry and visual tension) is a difficult one- the effect created is dramatic, magical and a timeless, beautiful visual expression.