Dave Lemen

Tags and Taxonomies

Clay Shirky makes a lot of sense: Tags != folksonomies && Tags != Flat name spaces (viewer discretion advised for language). He validates some things that have been stewing in my head related to this problem, though I couldn't possibly have articulated them well.

The question I'm left with is: How do you use tags in a system with multiple dimensions? Say, for example, that you want to organize things by geopolitical region, subject (topic), and source. Do you need to enforce uniqueness of tags across all three dimensions or not? If not, I suppose you have to tack something onto the tag behind-the-scenes before indexing.

I'd want to stop somewhat shy of swangling (PDF) in any event.

And then there's the desirability of a hierarchy for navigation. Let's say I have a fairly complex set of documents to assist folks with navigating. I understand it's a problem to assign documents to a category in a hierarchy. It's preferable to assign name=value pairs, where the name equates to a dimension/facet. Do I then redefine the categories in my browsing tree as canned queries?

Any answers from a practitioner would be very welcome.