Well over a decade ago we started using metadata to enable us to manage online resources. In a sense we were transferring our organisational skills and know- how from the physical environment to the online environment. And in so doing instead of saying we are cataloguing or creating records about online resources we chose terminology appropriate for the online world and said we are creating metadata or are using metadata to manage web resources.
Basically, this activity has given us the means to create some order and structure in storing information to enable us to retrieve it when we want it. Metadata has worked well in managing digital collections and online web services. That is, metadata has enabled the description and collocation of similar resources. Some of the disadvantages of metadata have been that the application of controlled vocabularies and classification systems that are meaningful to information professionals and librarians hold little relevance to the typical online user (this online user can be a student, a mum, an administrator, etc).
The emergence of services line flickr and del.ic.ous brought into prominence social tagging – in other words, as an end user I could organise my online collection of resources according to tags or key words that provided meaning to me. So the practice of tagging is currently thriving — but my question is how effective is tagging in terms or organising and managing resources for educational purposes? Are we likely to use the same terms to tag the same resources? I would say no.
So the question is – Is there a place for tagging? As I see it there is a place for tagging but I see tagging as an individual activity that meets the information management needs of an individual. We contextualise resources differently and as such apply different tags. The purpose of large collections is to organise them in a manner that provides consistency. I’m not against tagging but I feel it has its place. The current practice of tagging has resulted in unmanageable tag clouds on some websites.
One way of confining the usage of tags is by collaboratively agreeing on terms to be used. The following URL circulated by a colleague is a good example of how tags can be controlled http://www.classroom20.com/page/page/show?id=649749%3APage%3A52065
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