Comments on: User-Centric Tagging, or, Let’s Throw Away Namespace http://fstutzman.com/2006/05/17/user-centric-tagging-or-lets-throw-away-namespace/ Thoughts about information, social networks, and privacy Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:54:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: jkd http://fstutzman.com/2006/05/17/user-centric-tagging-or-lets-throw-away-namespace/comment-page-1/#comment-124 jkd Wed, 31 May 2006 00:04:00 +0000 http://127.0.0.1/~fred/projects/blog/?p=247#comment-124 okay - so why not take this a step further. why not think about it in terms of developing user-centric tagging not as a standalone application but as one expression, one feature, of an entire user-centric online identity.<br/><br/>reading your post about the social networking sites brought back some of the thoughts I had when Friendster came out - I adopted early and, despite the frustration with the site, developed an extensive network/online persona there. I also do have a MySpace, Orkut and Facebook account, but those are significantly less-developed networks (for a variety of reasons; my co-hort for the most part graduated college well before Facebook). And there's (some) overlap of network connections on those, but it's always been frustrating to me the repetitive/redundant work of doing what is, really, the same thing several times over. And for what? Resolving e-mail, IM contacts; same. And when I do blogging, or other online writing projects - same thing. <br/><br/>All this work and capital and ME is stranded out there, somewhere.<br/><br/>So - claimID is definitely a logical step towards staking a central pivot to what's already out there, and that's good. I think, tho, that going forward it might be useful to think of these systems not as individual components but as modules to the unitary online experience: e-mail, IM, blogging, commenting, tagging, social networking are all of a piece. <br/><br/>The hard part, of course, is getting a whole lotta people to agree on a single standard that would then be interoperable across a whole range of sites/features/modules, and getting people cool with the idea that the primary owner and mover of the information is not the site owner/developer but the user, who can with little or no sacrifice move their usage elsewhere if the features are better. As you point out, right now both user and site owner/developer lose value if the user leaves; making it easier for a user to leave with the value of the site experience (e.g., their tags) intact would, I think, actually also end up benefitting the sites. Because an easily portable and interoperable user identity could then be plugged right back in - with no wasted effort on either side - to a site if it became better (i.e., added/gained features that were a proximate cause for the user leaving in the first place). okay – so why not take this a step further. why not think about it in terms of developing user-centric tagging not as a standalone application but as one expression, one feature, of an entire user-centric online identity.

reading your post about the social networking sites brought back some of the thoughts I had when Friendster came out – I adopted early and, despite the frustration with the site, developed an extensive network/online persona there. I also do have a MySpace, Orkut and Facebook account, but those are significantly less-developed networks (for a variety of reasons; my co-hort for the most part graduated college well before Facebook). And there’s (some) overlap of network connections on those, but it’s always been frustrating to me the repetitive/redundant work of doing what is, really, the same thing several times over. And for what? Resolving e-mail, IM contacts; same. And when I do blogging, or other online writing projects – same thing.

All this work and capital and ME is stranded out there, somewhere.

So – claimID is definitely a logical step towards staking a central pivot to what’s already out there, and that’s good. I think, tho, that going forward it might be useful to think of these systems not as individual components but as modules to the unitary online experience: e-mail, IM, blogging, commenting, tagging, social networking are all of a piece.

The hard part, of course, is getting a whole lotta people to agree on a single standard that would then be interoperable across a whole range of sites/features/modules, and getting people cool with the idea that the primary owner and mover of the information is not the site owner/developer but the user, who can with little or no sacrifice move their usage elsewhere if the features are better. As you point out, right now both user and site owner/developer lose value if the user leaves; making it easier for a user to leave with the value of the site experience (e.g., their tags) intact would, I think, actually also end up benefitting the sites. Because an easily portable and interoperable user identity could then be plugged right back in – with no wasted effort on either side – to a site if it became better (i.e., added/gained features that were a proximate cause for the user leaving in the first place).

]]> By: rick spencer http://fstutzman.com/2006/05/17/user-centric-tagging-or-lets-throw-away-namespace/comment-page-1/#comment-117 rick spencer Sat, 20 May 2006 16:40:00 +0000 http://127.0.0.1/~fred/projects/blog/?p=247#comment-117 this is pretty interesting. It reminds me of FOAF, and you've addressed an issue that I've read very little about but am increasingly interested in. Everytime a new service or capability pops up 1800 groups produce their take on it, and then in trying them we find that our work gets scattered across domains. My mail and loose paper work is sitting on a coffee table, a counter, a dinner table and the floor. Gosh I wish I had ONE PLACE for it. I suppose you could invent a standard for centralizing these tagging efforts, but it would only be used by those people who so heavily tag, that the pain of the disorganization is in some way overwhelming.<br/><br/>The reason my mail is on the floor is that when I dropped it I wasn't thinking about my mail, I was thinking about something else, and the reason I have accounts at del.icio.us and ma.gnolia and g.odkn.ow.swhatelse.com is because they didn't come along in order, but in the middle of doing something else. Now I'm realizing the disparities, and frankly I'd rather be doing things than cleaning my desk, or "organizing" <br/><br/>I don't think my opinions detract or in any way denigrate your idea, it's cool, I'm just offering something to consider along the way. I don't think del.icio.us would be as cool as it is if not for the invention of the bookmarklet.<br/><br/>rick spencer this is pretty interesting. It reminds me of FOAF, and you’ve addressed an issue that I’ve read very little about but am increasingly interested in. Everytime a new service or capability pops up 1800 groups produce their take on it, and then in trying them we find that our work gets scattered across domains. My mail and loose paper work is sitting on a coffee table, a counter, a dinner table and the floor. Gosh I wish I had ONE PLACE for it. I suppose you could invent a standard for centralizing these tagging efforts, but it would only be used by those people who so heavily tag, that the pain of the disorganization is in some way overwhelming.

The reason my mail is on the floor is that when I dropped it I wasn’t thinking about my mail, I was thinking about something else, and the reason I have accounts at del.icio.us and ma.gnolia and g.odkn.ow.swhatelse.com is because they didn’t come along in order, but in the middle of doing something else. Now I’m realizing the disparities, and frankly I’d rather be doing things than cleaning my desk, or “organizing”

I don’t think my opinions detract or in any way denigrate your idea, it’s cool, I’m just offering something to consider along the way. I don’t think del.icio.us would be as cool as it is if not for the invention of the bookmarklet.

rick spencer

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