Week #6 - things #10, 11, 12 - Tagging and Folksonomies

thing #10 Tagging and Del.icio.us

Okay, now we're talking or tagging or meta tagging. And as you will see from this week's lesson, there's lots to talk and tag about... are you still reading? Here goes ...

Welcome to the world of taxonomy!

I come from a background in news research and archiving. I used SLA tagging of newspaper articles and photos for internal archives. A great resource for deadline reporting, statistics charts, and photo montages. I have also dabbled in metatagging.

Check out my work at: www.projo.com.
I tweaked page titles, navigation bar subject tabs' keywords and descriptions.

Search Engine Optimization is your opportunity to get your "stuff" found and read or viewed. Writing and images get their chance to be seen and heard. Here's where you can put yourself at the top of the list.

Speaking from an English major's point of view, it's all about using the right words.

You want your writing to be read by many people, whether it be for entertainment, education, self-fulfillment, self-aggrandizement or money-making. One way of doing this is to tag your "stuff" with keywords that explain your message and catalog it in such a way that the search engines perk up and take notice and put you at the top.

Tagging is like putting your best foot forward in an interview (wear the suit) or a first date (put on the lipstick).

Make that great first impression - make yourself figuratively pretty!

It's all about competition, baby!

In doing so, people will find your website over another's, along with your advertisers, and everyone is happy. There is quite a science to this and it's always changing. The goal is to get yourself to the top of that 1st page of search results.

Climb that ladder taggers.


You are at the search engine's mercy unless searchers find you on their own. So you can kiss search engine spider's butt or take the chance that you have chosen the right words to get your searchers' attention. You have to put yourself in the mind of the common searcher not the advanced searcher. This is a challenge for trained librarians / researchers.

Stay strong writers, editors, photographers, librarians ... the 2 worlds can come together intelligently.

Del.icio.us - this idea of info-sharing is greatly welcomed. Organized tagging saves so much time and frustration. Why waste your time when someone has already found what you need? Thank you librarians!!

Info-gatherers can be territorial and possessive. However, when they work together, they learn new things, save time and ultimately find the accurate/legitimate info they need for their "customers."

It's not that you need to know everything - you just need to know where to find it!

thing #11 Technorati

Well, it is highly improbable that I have gotten Technorati's attention or that I want it for my blog, for that matter. Perhaps if I had a blog of more cutting edge info, they would stand up and notice me. But since I am only spitting out diary homework assignments, I will refrain from trying to get the spiders' attention.

I have had experience in working with tagging and metadata to improve a dying newspaper's footprint on the web. The old-school side of me didn't want to sell out to search engine spiders but the new-school side of me found it a challenge to get their attention and take advantage of what technology offered.

Just a FYI - Had a where's Waldo? moment on the Technorati page. The instructions didn't tell me to click the Technology tab to find "Rising Blog posts by Attention." Okay, I'm back.


Rising blog posts by attention as of 5/04/09:

Trent Reznor Responds To Apple: You Want Obscene, I’ll Show You Obscene

Xbox 360 Propaganda For Japan [Only In Japan]

AT&T picks up Acer Aspire One 10.1″ netbook; available from Costco on May 11th

Amazon press event Wednesday: See you and the bigger Kindle then

Nokia's flagship N97 gets its own website, pre-order link ($699?)

Dumpsters pool

Trent Reznor rips Apple, rates smartphone OSes

Rising news posts by attention

Publishers Nurture Rivals to Kindle

Engadget SlashGear DVICE Amazon Crude

Exposing Liberal Media Bias Does Linux Suck?

The Burgeoning Momentum Behind Unified Communications

The Irony of Failure: Apple, Microsoft ... and Google?

Apple's Changes Can't Rattle These Bones

VoIP Provider Vonage Dodges State USF Fee in Nebraska, for Now

Finding Space for All in Our Crowded Seas

Some Facebook programs will go 'off-site'

Food-safety labs get FDA up to speed

In my opinion, the blog posts have a gossipy / entertainment-slanted news edge while the news stories are closer to my heart. I trust the headlines more in the newspaper and journal/magazine posts. Old journalistic habits die hard.

The blogs and news' drop down menus have both competing for attention in the list. Their rankings are different as well.

Tags from what’s rising

What bloggers are saying now

60 minutes affect all and cellphones compatibility crowded dating facebook finding for free in like our seas space tech technologies twitter

Blogger Central - top tags of the day:

free
business
guardian.co.uk
news
sport
nba
football
middle east
in
premier league

All I can say is ugh....

Folksonomy -

Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Darryle Pollack called her first blog "I Never Signed Up For This" in honor of all the times she has said those words at some point in her life- as a mother, breast cancer survivor, artist, chocoholic, former TV journalist ...

Tags: Soft, International, Propaganda, Power, Diplomacy, Breast Cancer, Persuasion, cancer survivor

These are at least better tags than the top tags of the day but still somewhat vague ... this is a challenge when I come from using industry specific keyword lists (e.g.; crimes-murder, crimes-arson, crimes-robbery....) Well, you get my idea.

The tag search for "libraries" turned up pretty good results. The postings seem educational and informative. The "what's going on" in the library world. Yea!! Taggers aren't using the "libraries" tag needlessly.

Accuracy in blog directory categories vs. searching tags

Survey says .... (my survey, that is) Can you tell I'm tired and should probably stop?. There's always tomorrow to blog .... but I must ...

Well, the blog directory was a letdown.

And the libraries - research - info category is where? tsk, tsk, tsk. Maybe they need a librarian to index their site? Hmmmmm.....

And a link to the site map would be nice.:)

Well, I've tired of Technorati or it has tired me. Either way - good night.



part #12 Web 2.0 & Library 2.0 - the future of libraries

Are we there yet? Very long things in this week #6. Whew.

My thoughts on the perspectives on Library 2.0. From the articles I read and the video I saw (read?) on Youtube, it was refreshing to see that the librarians of the Library 2.0 slant are willing to learn and share new info. Some words and phrases that come to mind are: change is good, patience on both sides, hopeful, receptive, unthreatened, anticipatory, not info gatekeepers but door openers, reinvention, never stop learning, be curious.

I am lucky that I work in an environment that supports this kind of "change" and has the means to make it happen. This is not true everywhere. Due to restrictions of budget and staff and also resistance to change, other libraries have fallen behind and become victims of the same technology that 2.0 promotes.

I found the annoyed librarian blog very amusing. I do agree and find it sad that a 2.0 concept has to exist. Isn't it the sharing of knowledge that draws librarians to their profession in the first place? It is unfortunate that librarians have to be reminded of what their job is: to help people. If that means to learn something new, explain it in a new way, present it in a different format, preserve it, then that's what you do.

If librarians and libraries don't reinvent themselves, they will fall by the wayside like newspapers. And that would be a huge loss. We need to document ourselves accurately as a culture in some way, however self-serving that may be. We were here!

To the figuratively shy librarian: Undo the stereotypical bun, take off the glasses and step out of the shadows!

Week #5 - Play week - avatar

This week is my online version of spring break. I have created an avatar, an alternate personality, so to speak. Well, she is blonde, like me, but she is thinner - who doesn't want to be thinner? After all the possible choices on yahoo - wardrobe, background, etc., now I have to attempt to upload my girl. Here goes ...

Well, that went pretty well. Yahoo was very self-explanatory and made it easy! It is a challenge being cyber-social, I must admit, in blogging. My avatar is in the top left of the blog.

So I lightly looked at Rollyo and don't think I need more than I have with bloglines and Google reader and local Yahoo news.

Virtual news bombardment doesn't seem like my thing today considering the real-time weather is so nice. I like to web-wander and have the freedom to take a walk without a plan - can we say spontaneity and impulsive? Maybe I will revisit this concept later ... when the sun goes down.

I checked out Library Thing or thang and I can see the ocd need to organize my books. I have done it with my music CDs, VCR tapes and DVDs back in the day and then I moved. And life got in the way of trying to be obsessively organized ... where's a good snow storm when you need to get things done at home, huh?

I can see the benefit of others' opinions. I guess this is a good place for aspiring book critics. It does seem like a great platform for eBay but that would be sacreligious. No no no used bookstore owners. My question is: who has time to catalog their books when all they really want to do is READ?

Week #4 - things 8 & 9 - blog, blog, blog ... RSS

This week I am learning about blogs and RSS feeds. There is a bit of info overload. This is what I get for being an all-or-nothing student.

I have visited bloglines and Google reader. There seems to be a lot of toggling back and forth in my blogging education world. Between the 23 Things instructions and the different websites, I am trying to apply my findings to my own blog. I also am constantly registering for another account online.

How many times can I mention blog in one posting?

I am learning that my web life is quite exhausting. The horror ... the horror!

But I digress.

So I clipped a blog article about making the "healthy choice of side" when ordering a "less than desirable" food choice in a restaurant. It reminded me of the old saying - "I'll have a Tab with my chocolate cake." That's when a Tab was a diet soft drink on the menu and not a software menu layout choice.

Catch up and recap - for my own sanity

This is my need to recap my progress:

16 March - 22 March

Week 1: Explore

#1 About this program Assignment
- listened to tutorial

#2 Lifelong learning habits Assignment

a - I have stated my goals, obstacles, toolbox needs, help and path. I have also signed my contract.
b - I reread my habits list and remind myself to PLAY! This will prove to be the hardest for me.

23 March - 29 March

Week 2: Blogging
#3 Set up your own blog and add your first post Assignment
- I did set up my first blog and promptly lost my logins/passwords. I now have a 2nd blog.

#4 Register your blog Assignment
- done and done again

30 March - 5 April

Week 3: Explore Flickr

#5 Explore Flickr Assignment
- Checked out Flickr, set up an acct and remembered I have a snapfish account too.

#6 Flickr fun, mashups, and 3rd party sites Assignment
- made a flickr badge and posted it to my blog

#7 Create a blog post about anything technology-related that interests you this week Assignment
- tech blog post related to my goals

Week #3 - thing 7 - Techies unite!!!

I don't portray myself as a techie but I aspire to as one of my goals.

To become more familiar and better at troubleshooting laptop / wifi network connections, I must practice, practice, practice (or play)!

The 7 1/2 habits will really come in handy for this one, especially if I can get to the point of teaching others.

There seem to be a lot of reasons for why a laptop doesn't connect:

- bad hardware (power cords, bricks, older model laptop, etc.)
- too many wifi slots in use
- competing network connections
- changed passwords

Week #3 things 5 and 6 - Explore Flickr - visions of Zen

This is my Flickr badge, courtesy of the public images out there.

www.flickr.com More photos or video tagged with zen on Flickr

Week #2 things 3 and 4 - Blogging - Picture this ...

I will now attempt to post a photo to my blog. One of the many pix I took on my trip thru the Mediterranean - first stop: Rome, Italy. Although I must say most things are better in person. Note to self: remove date stamp from digital camera.

Week #1 things 1 and 2 - Explore - Finding myself on the web...

If you found me at http://lifelearner-lifelearner.blogspot.com/,
I have now moved to http://lifelearner-mylifelearning.blogspot.com/.

It seems in the days away from this blog, I have already forgotten what I learned. Not a great start but I will soldier on. I now have many logins and passwords out there.

Let's see - The 7 1/2 habits are already coming into play. #2 - Accept responsibility for your own learning - or lack thereof.