Tags and tagging. Creating meanings, organizing, and socializing with metadata: Report on the <täky> project

Asta Bäck, Magnus Melin, Pirjo Näkki, Sari Vainikainen, Risto Sarvas, Lassi Seppälä, Sami Vihavainen

    Research output: Book/ReportReport

    Abstract

    This report summarises the results of the <täky> project (User created metadata as meaning indicator and part of the user experience). The project wanted to bring understanding on the role of tags and tagging as a part of user experience and value to companies when developing future media products and services. The project also wanted to study how freely defined tags and more formal ontologies can be connected to each others. The project looked at tagging both in mobile and web applications. In mobile applications, the key question was what kind of a role does the user interface, application and the visibility of tags play. In web applications, the aim was to study user-friendly ways of creating and utilising tags. Tags were defined in the project as the automation of keyword search. This definition refers to that fact that a tag typically creates a dynamic link to other resources described with the same tag. Tags are more than keywords: they offer functionality. Another aspect differentiating tags from keywords is the cumulative effect of many people adding tags. In current applications, tags are not a single well-defined concept. The applications and their user-interfaces as well as the purpose of tagging affects what kinds of tags are being created. When adding tagging to an application, it is important to consider all these aspects carefully in order to be able to provide a valuable feature to users. A large number of user tests were made during the project, both utilising existing applications, such as Jaiku and del.icio.us, and applications that were developed in the project. Tilkut application was developed in the project for testing semantic support in tagging, and CamQ for playful mobile tagging. Results of user tests are presented throughout the report. Existing ontologies for describing tags and tagging are presented with examples. Opportunities and challenges in adding tags to a commercial service were studied with the help of interviews, questionnaires and by utilising a framework for evaluating and comparing social media features in existing applications and by comparing current and potential future features.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationEspoo
    PublisherVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
    Number of pages94
    ISBN (Electronic)978-951-38-7238-0
    Publication statusPublished - 2008
    MoE publication typeNot Eligible

    Publication series

    SeriesVTT Tiedotteita - Meddelanden - Research Notes
    Number2449
    ISSN1235-0605

    Keywords

    • tags
    • tagging
    • social bookmarking
    • social media
    • mobile
    • presence
    • location
    • applications
    • web application
    • semantic web
    • semantics

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