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August 21, 2006

Tagging RSS Feeds

Right now I use OMEA reader for all my offline RSS stuff - I don't think it matters which reader(s) you use - the categorisation systems are often the same.

For example - most categorisation software of this ilk allows you to build categories and subcategories to represent you favourite feeds - a tree stucture view.

You end up with a taxonomical structure that is like a directory hierarchy - easy to build and find things if you are used to organising structures likes this - but very contstraining if you want to build a cloud based directory.

I end up with a big tree structure which I can navigate easily - after all I've categorised and sub-categorised the feeds according to my own personal categoisation system - but which can be (a) very big, (b) highly personalised, and (c) search is clunky for other people - you end up bolting on a search engine for free text search.

So - underneath the root of my tree I build taxononomic structures based on my knowledge of directory structures, my preferences and my chosen categories.

BUT - suppose the RSS newsreader I was using DIDN'T use a taxonomic-directory tree type structure all the time?

Suppose I just multi-tagged each RSS feed as I subscribed to it - and then the RSS reader organised my feeds according to a tag similarity metric - and not just according to my fixed categorisation.

The representation of my feeds could still be a tree structure - but it could also be represented as cloud structure.

Then I just need to add in a reliable tag semantic extraction program which looks at the content of what I read and there will be yet another view of my data - a roving cloud that had "highs" and "lows" and "storms" when something big hits my RSS SyndicSpace.

Then my I wouldn't be restricted to a directory view of my feeds - I'd have multiple views that would dynamilcally change as RSS SyndicSpace changes.

I wouldn't need to work my way through all my feeds category by category, feed by feed, in a linear fashion.

If something becomes "hot" and many weblogs are carrying information about that subject - my representation of SyndicSpace would change to draw my attention to what is new.

Technorati does a lot of this for me right now

In my RSS reader I have a whole bunch of categories which are nothing but clusters of tags based on my chosen categories. I still have to check them out daily - but I can see everything that is written about the subjects withing the tag clusters.

It makes my life simpler - I know what I am interested in right now so I can navigate my tree structure easily - but it makes "discovery of the new" very difficult.

My categories are my fixed view of the world - not the world itself - and when the world changes - I want my view of the world to change also.

What I need is something that takes account of my personal preferences and automatically tags new information according to what I want that day - it will make the "discovery of the new" much easier.


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Posted by drk at 06:04 PM |

Private tags vs Public Tags

I tried to explain to someone the other the day that there were at least two kinds of tags that I used - "public tags" and "private tags"

Of course both kinds of tags are public - its the reasons why I tag and how I tag that gives rise to this dichotomy.

When I tag something in a social bookmarking system like del.icio.us my express intention is to make that bookmark easily findable by me - the social bookmarking aspect is a desirable effect of the way that del.icio.us handles tags.

But when I post something to my blog and tag it with Technorati tags my express intention is allow other people to find it - the social ranking aspect is just a desirable effect of the way that Technorati handles my tags.

I'll give a concrete example: When I tag sites or posts in del.icio.us with "extreme tales": it means that I want to be able to find those information resources within the context of the "extreme tales" book project I am currently working on.

But when I tag my Extreme Tales blog posts in Technorati with the tag "extreme tales" it means that I want other people to find those posts using the tags "extreme tales" - I don't need those tags for myself because I already know where to find the article I have written.

The tags remain the same but the intentionality behind the act of tagging is different in both cases.

The ultimate private tags are when you tag resources according to something personal - when I tag resources with the name of my wife - that tag has no meaning for anyone else but myself and my wife.

It's an act of private tagging solely designed for our mutual private search space - to enable access to resources that otherwise would be lost.

Anyone else looking at that particluar tagspace would only be confused - a huge bundle of content that is only related by one thing - the personal preferences of someone they don't know and are unlikely to know - tagged solely with their name. This private tag strategy gets a little harder if your wife is called "Ubuntu" or you husband is called "Ajax".

No matter how good tagging, folksonomy and the semantic web become people will still retain these two motivations for tagging - so "private tags" and "public tags" are here to stay.


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Posted by drk at 06:01 PM |