Friday, February 8, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Part of the Cleanup Crew
Periodically, I join the virtual cleanup crew, and we organize my various online homes and storage units. Today, I worked with del.icio.us to pull together some related articles.
How do I cleanup the data tags? I find or create ONE data tag that relates to all MY bookmarks I want to group. I do this in a similar way I organize my kitchen cabinets to make MY life more effective and creative.
By synchronizing related data tags, I also speed up work flow.
Previously, I discussed the importance of appropriate data tags. I want to explain my thinking about finding a common factor, a data tag, that can synchronize all bookmarks that I will want to access later....when I need them, as a unit.
Initially, while I bookmark resources, I try to use as many data tag synonyms I can think of AT THAT MOMENT of bookmarking. In del.icio.us, I use the data tag cloud, ordered alphabetically, to find related data tags. The size variation tells me the number of times that I used a particular data tag.
As always, I agree that you may use any bookmark organizational tool, yet I am suggesting one way to organize your bookmarks that I developed over several years of datamining. Try this method. From here, you will most likely adapt an organizational style that works best for you.
Later, after searching for synonyms among my data tag cloud in del.icio.us, I will examine a particular set of bookmarks that are tagged with the current topic of focus. For instance, the data tags cyberspace and virtual world are synonymous with one another, but I don't know that all my bookmarks with the tag cyberspace are also tagged virtual world.
Since virtual world seems to be gaining momentum as the most used synonym referring to interactive, online, social networks, I will add that data tag to all bookmarks that contain the cyberspace tag.
All I hope to achieve is to find related bookmarks about my current topic of interest. That is why I frequently join the cleanup crew to run organizational tests on my data tags of interest. This process is now easily accomplished. Afterwards, I can access all my del.icio.us bookmarks on a topic of interest when I need them.
Try this technique. I think you will find it very effective. Remember, you will want to focus on a FEW topics each time you join the cleanup crew. I suggest that you will be more effective if you don't try to cleanup the whole del.icio.us storage file at once. Over a period of time, you will find clarity within your bookmark topics. In all probability, you will increase your overall productivity within the area of accessing the resources you want.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A Blog, Without Tag Clouds?
The blog LearnMore: Library Stream by Steve Campion is a wonderful introduction to tags and clouds, and I will pass this URL on to those I think need it. I have noticed that teched people are often very informed about computers, yet sometimes lack insight into cataloging and datamining. Both of these are skills I continue to hone. I enjoy the activity of deconstruction of text to summarizing tag clouds.
One specific problem area that I am noticing as I read other people's blogs, is what seems to be a total indifference to the necessity of tags. Another major problem is their lack of tags using words found in the posting. For example, a blogger had asked us, the forum participants, to provide some teched resource information, but the words used in the posting were not those used in the tags. Because the tags were incomplete and inaccurate, they were ineffective. This caused confusion among the readers.
Recently, I noticed a forum posting that referred me to a teched blog, but the blogger had not given the correct URL for the posting referenced. After an hour of sorting through the blog titles, I finally found the posting. I don't ordinarily stick with an issue such as this, but there was a desire to share this major issue (lack of tags or even proper titles) with others. Other bloggers can learn from this experience. It is an opportunity.
Being more like a chaotic stream of consciousness, blogs do not have the organizing structure that is inherent in websites and wikis. I believe it is the responsibility of bloggers to organize their chaos through tagging and clouds.
The tag cloud is very visual, yet it is text. I believe this understanding enables a wide variety of learners to access the blog posting they want to read. Isn't that what bloggers want? Visitors...Readers....Clickers;D
Steve Campion posted a wonderful blog about a critical issue in the interactive web. Tagging is a very important skill, and I believe those who can search effectively may also tag effectively.