Patterns and Inconsistencies in Collaborative Tagging Systems : An Examination of Tagging Practices

Kipp, Margaret E. I. and Campbell, D. Grant Patterns and Inconsistencies in Collaborative Tagging Systems : An Examination of Tagging Practices., 2006 . In Annual General Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Austin, Texas (US), 3-8 November 2006. [Conference paper]

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English abstract

This paper analyzes the tagging patterns exhibited by users of del.icio.us, to assess how collaborative tagging supports and enhances traditional ways of classifying and indexing documents. Using frequency data and co-word analysis matrices analyzed by multi-dimensional scaling, the authors discovered that tagging practices to some extent work in ways that are continuous with conventional indexing. Small numbers of tags tend to emerge by unspoken consensus, and inconsistencies follow several predictable patterns that can easily be anticipated. However, the tags also indicated intriguing practices relating to time and task which suggest the presence of an extra dimension in classification and organization, a dimension which conventional systems are unable to facilitate.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: tagging, information organisation, coword analysis, tag frequency
Subjects: I. Information treatment for information services > IE. Data and metadata structures.
L. Information technology and library technology > LC. Internet, including WWW.
Depositing user: Margaret E. I. Kipp
Date deposited: 01 Jan 2007
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:05
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/8720

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