Social / Distributed Categorization*

(This assignment is a copy of Assignment 5 of INFO 202: Information Organization and Retrieval, taught by Robert Glushko, at Berkeley. Mr. Glushko holds the copyright to this information.
The original syllabus can be found at: http://rosetta.sims.berkeley.edu:8085/sylvia/f07/view/202.complete)

In the past several weeks, we have discussed many techniques for organizing information, including metadata standards, controlled vocabularies, faceted classification, contextual capture of metadata and classification. In this assignment, you will apply these techniques to analyzing and organizing your own information collection in the context of a social / distributed categorization application, either del.icio.us or Flickr.

The assignment instructions are slightly different for people who currently use del.icio.us or Flickr and people who do not currently use either site. Please decide which category you are in and follow the corresponding instructions to complete the assignment. Please bring one printed copy to class to turn in.

CURRENT FLICKR OR DEL.ICIO.US USERS

You can consider yourself a current user of del.icio.us or flickr if you have 20 or more items categorized in the application as of April 17, 2008.

1. Tell me which of the two systems you are using for the assignment and its URL so I can take a look at your item collection.

2. ANALYZE YOUR CURRENT TAG USE. Have a look at your tag list and counts. (In Flickr, you can find this information using the You/YourPhotos/Tags menu choice. In del.icio.us, this information is visible on your home page.)

In 200-400 words (1-2 pages), answer the following questions:

1. How long have you used the system (the date of your first Flickr photo or del.icio.us bookmark) and how many items are now in your collection?
2. What percentage of your items are tagged? (In del.icio.us, items without tags will be tagged "system:unfiled" by default.) What factors determine which items you tag and which you don't?
3. How many different tags do you use? Comment on the frequency distribution.
4. Are tags more likely to relate to the specific resource or to its type or category?
5. Are there any problems with your tagset, such as inconsistent naming conventions, redundant tags, semantically ambiguous tags, or tags that just don't make sense to you anymore?
   
6. Do you use a controlled vocabulary, either an external one like geotagging or one of your own invention?
   
7. Do you use any of the other organizational features of the application? (For example, photo sets in Flickr, saving links for others or tag bundles in del.icio.us; chronological sorting in both).

3. DEFINE EXPLICIT TAGGING OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES: Now that you've analyzed your current use, you can evaluate your tagging practices in light of what you've studied in this course.

1. Identify from one to three objectives for a "principled" tagging approach. You might already be trying to do some or all of them, but the point here is to be explicit about it. These objectives might include:
   • Finding items more easily
     
   • Helping others find your items
     
   • Sharing your opinions on items in the system
     
   • Creating a customized feed of tagged items for use outside the site
     
   • ...something else
2. For each objective, specify one or more principles or guidelines that you could follow in future tagging that would help you meet those objectives and explain why you think they will work. By "explain" I mean that you should relate something you've learned about concepts and techniques for information organization in this course to the desired outcome.
3. TAG AT LEAST 10 ITEMS IN YOUR COLLECTION ACCORDING TO YOUR PRINCIPLES. If you've waited until the last minute to do this assignment, you'll get little enjoyment or enlightenment from this task. Follow the explicit tagging principles you defined in the previous activity to tag at least 10 items, and after you've done that, reflect (one paragraph, approximately 100 words) on the costs and benefits of a more systematic approach to tagging.

IF YOU AREN'T CURRENTLY USING FLICKR OR DEL.ICIO.US

1. You will use del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) for the assignment.
2. ANALYZE CURRENT TAG USE. Browse around del.icio.us and find some user who seems to share some of your interests. Ideally, this should be one of your classmates. Have a look at this user's tag list and counts.
   
   In 200-400 words (1-2 pages), answer the following questions:
   
   
• How long has this user been tagging items in del.icio.us (the date of their first del.icio.us bookmark) and how many items are now in their collection?
• What percentage of the user's items are tagged? (In del.icio.us, items without tags will be tagged "system:unfiled" by default.) If the percentage of untagged items is greater than 10% of the total, try to distinguish the categories of "tagged items" and "untagged items."
  
• How many different tags does the user employ? Comment on the frequency distribution
  
• Are tags more likely to relate to the specific resource or to its type or category?
  
• Are there any problems with the tagset, such as inconsistent naming conventions, redundant tags, semantically ambiguous tags, or tags that just don't make sense to you?
  
• Does your user employ a controlled vocabulary, either an externally specified one like geotagging or oneof his or her own invention?
  
• Does your user employ any of the other organizational features that del.icio.us provides (saving links forothers, tag bundles, chronological sorting...).
  
  
3. DEFINE EXPLICIT TAGGING OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES:
   Now that you've analyzed your current use, you can evaluate your tagging practices in light of what you've studied in this course.
1. Identify from one to three objectives for a "principled" tagging approach in del.icio.us. You might already be trying to do some or all of them, but the point here is to be explicit about it.
   
   These objectives might include:
   
   • Finding items more easily
   • Helping others find your items
   • Sharing your opinions on items in the system
   • Creating a customized feed of tagged items for use outside the site
   • ...something else
     
     
2. For each objective, specify one or more principles or guidelines that you could follow in future tagging that would help you meet those objectives and explain why you think they will work. By "explain" I mean that you should relate something you've learned about concepts and techniques for information
   organization in this course to the desired outcome.
   
   
4. TAG AT LEAST 10 ITEMS ACCORDING TO YOUR PRINCIPLES. Create a del.icio.us account. You can pick any username you like, but make sure you tell me what it is. If you've waited until the last minute to do this assignment, you'll get little enjoyment or enlightenment from this task. Follow the explicit tagging principles you defined in the previous activity to tag at least 10 items, and after you've done that, reflect (one paragraph, approximately 100 words) on the costs and benefits of a more systematic approach to tagging.

This assignment is a copy of Assignment 5 of INFO 202: Information Organization and Retrieval, taught by Robert Glushko, at Berkeley. Mr. Glushko holds the copyright to this information.
The original syllabus can be found at: http://rosetta.sims.berkeley.edu:8085/sylvia/f07/view/202.complete