Decius wrote:
] What are people's thoughts about replacing the topics system
] in MemeStreams with a folksonomy like Del.icio.us?

I was tossing the idea around in my head recently.. I don't think its a bad idea.

The folksonomy style of handling topics holds potential of being both more flexible and forming cultural norms. Topics are fixed, and few positive side effects spring from that rigid nature.

Decius wrote:
] ] a conversation between Clay Shirky, Stewart "Flickr"
] Butterfield,
] ] Joshua "Delicious" Schachter and Jimmy "Wikipedia" Wales at
] the
] ] O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego.
] Folksonomy
] ] is the process of letting users generate and apply their own
] tags
] ] to shared items and then discovering which tegs users share
] with
] ] one another. Unlike previous ventures into this field, the
] tags
] ] aren't "controlled"
]
] What are people's thoughts about replacing the topics system
] in MemeStreams with a folksonomy like Del.icio.us?

[ I'm with Rattle. I think it's a fine idea. Strict hierarchies are either too complex, and thus unmanageable, or not complex enough, and therefore not useful for real categorization. If the category can't be determined automatically via semantic indexing (which is the most difficult, but still, i think, the best) then total flexibility is better. Of course, even the best semantic analysis isn't always going to mark a document with all the tags you might consider relevant, so this would even be useful as an addition to that level of categorization. There's no reason something shouldn't get multiple tags, in fact, though memestreams I guess only sets that on initial submission... -k]

k wrote:
] Decius wrote:
] ] ] a conversation between Clay Shirky, Stewart "Flickr"
] ] Butterfield,
] ] ] Joshua "Delicious" Schachter and Jimmy "Wikipedia" Wales
] at
] ] the
] ] ] O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego.
] ] Folksonomy
] ] ] is the process of letting users generate and apply their
] own
] ] tags
] ] ] to shared items and then discovering which tegs users
] share
] ] with
] ] ] one another. Unlike previous ventures into this field, the
]
] ] tags
] ] ] aren't "controlled"
] ]
] ] What are people's thoughts about replacing the topics system
]
] ] in MemeStreams with a folksonomy like Del.icio.us?
]
] [ I'm with Rattle. I think it's a fine idea. Strict
] hierarchies are either too complex, and thus unmanageable, or
] not complex enough, and therefore not useful for real
] categorization. If the category can't be determined
] automatically via semantic indexing (which is the most
] difficult, but still, i think, the best) then total
] flexibility is better. Of course, even the best semantic
] analysis isn't always going to mark a document with all the
] tags you might consider relevant, so this would even be useful
] as an addition to that level of categorization. There's no
] reason something shouldn't get multiple tags, in fact, though
] memestreams I guess only sets that on initial submission...
] -k]

I'm forced to agree. This type of free-flowing organization offers a much wider ability in the area of usage. I'd like to suggest however that if it were considered, so then might be, a core or initial tagset from which branches might grow. Making them vanilla enough to be useful and unconstrictive, both giving some internal engine the ability to make relevant high-end references to any user created tag. And perhaps even a method for users to update or grow the coreset, with obvious limitations.
This might help handle the initial potential for it growing into chaos and also give any "transition software" a leg up.

Decius wrote:
] ] a conversation between Clay Shirky, Stewart "Flickr"
] Butterfield,
] ] Joshua "Delicious" Schachter and Jimmy "Wikipedia" Wales at
] the
] ] O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego.
] Folksonomy
] ] is the process of letting users generate and apply their own
] tags
] ] to shared items and then discovering which tegs users share
] with
] ] one another. Unlike previous ventures into this field, the
] tags
] ] aren't "controlled"
]
] What are people's thoughts about replacing the topics system
] in MemeStreams with a folksonomy like Del.icio.us?

I'm down with it... but I also think it can decend into chaos rather quickly.

Decius wrote:

] What are people's thoughts about replacing the topics system
] in MemeStreams with a folksonomy like Del.icio.us?

I strongly support it and have been working on a message about it.

I, for one, have abandoned the "Topic" bar -- I don't look at the autogenerated topic subpages, and I no longer file appropriately. "Misc", generally. I would care more if I had my own tag-file system; putting in a bunch of free form key words is much more intuitive to the stream of memes that I've come to use on a regular basis.

Lacking them, I'm forced to consider memestreams like a Web Generation 2.5 app where its real comparables (delicious and that ilk) are Gen 3.
(Yes, I have a generational taxonomy).

dmv wrote:

] Lacking them, I'm forced to consider memestreams like a Web
] Generation 2.5 app where its real comparables (delicious and
] that ilk) are Gen 3.
] (Yes, I have a generational taxonomy).

I'm curious to hear how you broke this stuff down into a clear hierarchical taxonomy?