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October 20, 2004

Metadata without tears

Peter Merholz, AKA peterme, has an excellent article at Adaptive Path called Metadata for the Masses:

But what if we could somehow peek inside our users’ thought processes to figure out how they view the world? One way to do that is through ethnoclassification [1] — how people classify and categorize the world around them.

He takes del.icio.us and Flickr as examples of "ethnoclassification" (a phrase he tracks back to Susan Leigh Star),. (I am enamored of the branch of ethnoclassification on exhibit at del.icio.us if only because people have started calling it "folksonomy.") He looks at the benefits. Then he addresses the problems, and suggests the paths out of the forest we're making for ourselves.

Jay Fienberg points us also to Jon Udell's article on "collaborative knowledge gardening." I've also been looking at some related issues (e.g., here, here, here, here and here), but Peter has the advantage of knowing what he's talking about.

Posted by D. Weinberger at October 20, 2004 04:02 PM

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» Metadata und wie wir sie nutzen könnten from Lummaland - das Weblog
Peter Merholz schreibt über Metadata for the Masses und versucht, Ordnung in das vermeintliche Chaos zu bringen, das entsteht, wenn jeder fröhlich drauflostaggt, also Din... [Read More]

Tracked on October 20, 2004 05:17 PM

» Get down and get taggy from Joi Ito's Web
I'm going to quote David's whole post because it has a bunch of good links.David WeinbergerMetadata without tears: Peter Merholz, AKA peterme, has an excellent article at Adaptive Path called Metadata for the Masses: But what if we could somehow... [Read More]

Tracked on October 22, 2004 04:21 AM

» More on tagging from Epistemographer
Interesting; on the heels of my post yesterday about filing vs. tagging comes Joi Ito, pointing toward a post by David Weinberger that seems to resonate: Peter Merholz, AKA peterme, has an excellent article at Adaptive Path called Metadata... [Read More]

Tracked on October 23, 2004 12:38 AM

» Metadatos para las Masas from Reality Bites
Traducción del artículo "Metadata for the Masses" publicado por Peter Merholz en Adaptative Path. [Read More]

Tracked on October 25, 2004 10:16 AM

Comments

It's actually Peter Merholz, not Mead.

Posted by: Liz | October 20, 2004 08:58 PM

Liz, of course it is. Thanks for the correction. Peter, sorry to be such a putz when it comes to names, facts, figures, reality...

Posted by: David Weinberger | October 20, 2004 10:22 PM

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