Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

I'm in San Francisco for a TTI Vanguard conference. I'm doing the first presentation, and if you look at this list of Vanguard "digerati" in the room (not to mention the other 150 attendees) you'll see why I'm a tad nervous. So, of course, I spent three wee hours this morning rewriting the presentation I'd rewritten on the plane, that I'd rewritten...

I'm talking about taxonomies and tagging, and at the moment I'm planning on ending with three conclusions about the potential significance of tagging:

1. Rather than knowledge ending where the miscellaneous begins, now it's beginning with the miscellaneous. (In your face, Aristotle!)

2. In the continuing battle between the forces of neatness and messiness, tagging advances the cause of messiness. (I think that's a good thing, but you're talking to a guy who last night was given the employees discount at a food stand at the airport because the cashier just assumed I worked there.)

3. We are owning not just our information but the organization of information. This is part of the project of re-meaning the world - make meaning ours - in which we've been engaged for decades.