E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

Via e-learningpost las ik een aardig stuk over folksonomies en taxonomieen door Patrick Lambe. Hij spreekt hier vooral over de mogelijkheid van serendipity bij het gebruik tagging. Hij noemt hierbij de definitie van folksonomy van Thomas VanderWal:

“There [is] tremendous value that can be derived from this personal tagging when viewing it as a collective when you have the three needed data points in a folksonomy tool: 1) the person tagging; 2) the object being tagged as its own entity; and 3) the tag being used on that object… keeping the three data elements you can use two of the elements to find a third element, which has value. If you know the object (in del.icio.us it is the web page being tagged) and the tag you can find other individuals who use the same tag on that object, which may lead (if a little more investigation) to somebody who has the same interest and vocabulary as you do. That person can become a filter for items on which they use that tag.”

Wat Thomas en Patrick aangeven is dat het taggen voor meer gaat om de mensen, dan alleen om de tags. Zoals Patrick schrijft: We are much better at picking up information and knowledge cues based on perceived similarities and differences compared to other people, than we are at picking up clues from a people-free environment.

Je kan hiermee een veel rijkere serendepity behalen, voorwaarde is wel dat er voldoende content is vanuit verschillende achtergronden.