A Phenomenological Framework for the Relationship Between the Semantic Web and User-Centered Tagging Systems

Abstract

This paper uses Husserl's theory of phenomenology to provide a model for the relationship between user-centered tagging systems, such as del.icio.us, and the more highly structured systems of the Semantic Web. Using three aspects of phenomenological theory-the movement of the mind out towards an entity and then back in an act of reflection, multiplicities within unity, and the sharing of intentionalities within a community-the discussion suggests that both tagging systems and the Semantic Web foster an intersubjective domain for the sharing and use of information resources. The Semantic Web, however, resembles traditional library systems, in that it relies for this intersubjective domain on the conscious implementation of domain-centered standards which are then encoded for machine processing, while tagging systems work on implied principles of emergence.

Effective Use of Ontologies

“…Aquest coneixement reflecteix les opinions independents i diverses d'un grup de persones (Sunstein 2006). Les etiquetes d'aquesta folksonomy (Angeletou et al 2007) estan sovint força relacionades entre si, ja que poden ser utilitzades per un usuari per etiquetar recursos relacionats, o per diferents usuaris per etiquetar el mateix recurs (Wu, Zhang, and Yu 2006;Campbell 2006). Els patrons que sorgeixen d'aquestes pràctiques d'etiquetatge proporcionen, no només una manera d'organitzar la informació per als usuaris (Kipp and Campbell 2006), sinó també una capa de semàntica feble (Dye 2006) …”

Folksonomias: características das etiquetas na descrição de recursos da Web

“…Ferramentas que possibilitam que os usuários marquem suas páginas e atribuam etiquetas para representar seus temas de interesse (CAMPBELL, 2006).…”

Issues in User-Centered Design in LIS

“…It has been suggested that a certain pattern will appear among individual tags created in the uncontrolled way if there is enough participation (when a lot of people tag the same item); that is, eventually some kind of structure will emerge in a bottom-up fashion. As Campbell (2006) puts it, the notion is, "if you let users tag their own resources in their own ways, with their own words, patterns of order will emerge; these patterns will be truer, more convincing, more user-centered, and more useful than the pattern imposed by formal classification schemes. What's more, they will acquire greater accuracy and greater sophistication as more and more people use them" (p. 4).…”