TY - GEN
T1 - Structuring folksonomies with implicit tag relations
AU - Matthes, Florian
AU - Neubert, Christian
AU - Steinhoff, Alexander
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Tagging systems allow users to assign arbitrary text labels (i.e., tags) to various types of resources, such as photos or web pages, to facilitate future retrieval and selective sharing of contents. The resulting system of classification is referred to as a folksonomy. The uncontrolled nature of tags leads to inconsistencies in the usage of terms which impairs the utility of the system. Approaches to this problem that map tags to concepts of external knowledge representations, such as ontologies, are often inapplicable since they require that corresponding concepts exist and that they reflect the meaning of tags as intended by the users. In this paper, we present the notion of implicit tag relations. Our aim is to improve the accessibility of contents in tagging systems without significantly reducing the flexibility and universal applicability of tags. Instead of explicitly relating tags to each other, we propose to give users the ability to retroactively alter folksonomies by changing the tags of many resources with a single operation. This way, the usage of tags can be harmonized and it can be controlled how they are used in combination. We highlight the benefits of our approach compared to explicit tag relations and discuss important implications as well as its limitations.
AB - Tagging systems allow users to assign arbitrary text labels (i.e., tags) to various types of resources, such as photos or web pages, to facilitate future retrieval and selective sharing of contents. The resulting system of classification is referred to as a folksonomy. The uncontrolled nature of tags leads to inconsistencies in the usage of terms which impairs the utility of the system. Approaches to this problem that map tags to concepts of external knowledge representations, such as ontologies, are often inapplicable since they require that corresponding concepts exist and that they reflect the meaning of tags as intended by the users. In this paper, we present the notion of implicit tag relations. Our aim is to improve the accessibility of contents in tagging systems without significantly reducing the flexibility and universal applicability of tags. Instead of explicitly relating tags to each other, we propose to give users the ability to retroactively alter folksonomies by changing the tags of many resources with a single operation. This way, the usage of tags can be harmonized and it can be controlled how they are used in combination. We highlight the benefits of our approach compared to explicit tag relations and discuss important implications as well as its limitations.
KW - Folksonomies
KW - Organization structures
KW - Social tagging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864035375&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2309996.2310051
DO - 10.1145/2309996.2310051
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84864035375
SN - 9781450313353
T3 - HT'12 - Proceedings of 23rd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media
SP - 315
EP - 316
BT - HT'12 - Proceedings of 23rd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media
T2 - 23rd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, HT'12
Y2 - 25 June 2012 through 28 June 2012
ER -