Preoccupations

The continuing idea of distributed classification through self-interest … (posted from 43 Things)

I have 23 items tagged 'tags_&_taxonomies' at del.icio.us. Of these, I find Jon Udell's and Clay Shirky's posts, and Peter Merholz's two posts, the ones to which I return most often, with a special mention for Gene Smith whose post ends, 'the idea of socially constructed classification schemes (with no input from an information architect) is interesting. Maybe one of these services [Furl, Flickr, del.icio.us] will manage to build a social thesaurus'.

Adam Mathes' paper of last month pulls much of this together.

Some highlights from elsewhere:

This flexibility, and the movement between subjective (keyword-like) and collective (category-like) taxonomy is what makes tags such an interesting development … It is also (and I'm struggling to find a better way to put this, and failing) quite deep. Categorisation is a political mess. The only way to keep my semantic regimen functional is to make damn sure you put things in the right sack. I will make you do it by writing inflexible software structures that force you to do it, or if, for example, we're out of the software bubble, and talking about good old fashioned categories such as 'good' and 'bad', I'll construct a social/economic/ideological system that reinforces certain aesthetic norms that mean you'll have to use my categories or my system will make your life unpleasant and painful. Saul Albert

… the most important job of the new generation of librarians is to build into information objects sufficient metadata that any organization can create its own taxonomy. Taxonomies are tools, so there's no such thing as the One Right Taxonomy, just as can-openers aren't more right than asphalt spreaders. By building in sufficient metadata — no easy task — diverse groups now and forever can build taxonomies that suit their needs. It means giving up the dream of Universal Reason. But we woke from that dream a long time ago. David Weinberger

I think the lack of hierarchy, synonym control and semantic precision are precisely why it works. Free typing loose associations is just a lot easier than making a decision about the degree of match to a pre-defined category (especially hierarchical ones). It's like 90% of the value of a "proper" taxonomy but 10 times simpler. (Of course, I don't know if there is a lesson there for the everyday work of IAs - different kind of problem.) Stewart Butterfield

(See more progress on 43 Things, "rationalise my tags"...)

Thoughts about "rationalising tags" … (posted from 43 Things)

Right now, I'm less concerned about my own tags than I am about how different users' tags "talk" to one another. I am wary of honing mine too much because I've never found any system of classification to catch adequately the "granularity of things" — and sooner or later the process breaks down precisely because the granularity of things asserts itself (an act of mercy) and refuses to fit the schema.

In fact, when I'm trying to find something, some piece of information, an idea, etc, part of the process of remembering why the thing or idea or article mattered to me in the first place lies in retracing the sometimes obscure path I took to tag it as I did. So: del.icio.us — cityofsound's piece about the book on London that I just snucked away there, is it best tagged with 'London' or 'urban', or as a 'review' (which it isn't, in the formal sense that I had in mind when I first coined this tag, yet it does review it)? And to tag it with another already-in-place option, 'cultural history', means in my rattlebag of tags that it ends up in the same tagged category as academic historical works — which is "wrong", but in fact highly suggestive, making me wonder what are the fundamental differences between an academic work about London in the '50s and Dan Hill's reaction in 2005 to Colin MacInnes' novel, published in the 50s, about London … in the 50s. (And now I come to think about it, why didn't I tag it 'literature'? What was I thinking about when I read cityofsound's posting? Why, London, in the 50s. But could I teach this book, as a novel? And there I go, touching up the tagging — 'literature', 'novel' — because that is how I'm now looking at the book.)

Before I owned a computer, or ever dreamed of that day, I once photocopied and filed an article on European witchcraft. I was working on Macbeth and the scholarly paper was germane. Some weeks later, I went to find it and the afternoon developed into one of those two hour stretches of time when you're hunting high and low, looking in my case in files dedicated to Shakespeare, files on Macbeth, files to do with the class I was teaching it to. No luck. Only after all that time had passed did I stumble upon a new file I had created, labelled … 'Witchcraft'. I had been very systematic, and it hadn't helped me. Now, in the digital era, it's no trouble at all to tag an item several times over — 'Shakespeare', 'witchcraft', 'Macbeth', 'European witch craze' … Association+digitilisation is a wonderful thing and today I could find that paper pretty quickly. If MacInnes' book wasn't tagged by me with 'novel', then let's try 'London' … or 'urban' or '50s' or …  I don't need to try to be scrupulously systematic, though clearly I shouldn't aim to trip myself up and eccentrically tag things about London with 'Singapore'.

For all these reasons, and many more, I like the "amateurishness" of the tagging found on Flickr, del.icio.us and now (to come) Audioscrobbler. The problem is then finding the "same" thing through someone else's tags … Flickr's tag-suggestions engine (find all photos tagged 'London' and as of now you also get: related — 'england', 'tube', 'architecture'; + see also, 'art', 'night', 'thames', 'uk', 'graffiti', 'bridge', 'tate', 'underground', 'sign', 'train', 'building') seems particularly well-written and productive/creative.

Now, if we had Taggle, with a Flickr-like algorithmic engine to it …

(See more progress on 43 Things, "rationalise my tags"...)

PS: cityofsound's post was tagged (with a revisit/revision) as, 'books' 'reviews' 'London' 'cultural_history' 'literature'

Cook more … (posted from 43 Things)

A walnut and wild mushroom soup: not such a success. Somehow, the walnuts didn't come through (I'll re-heat the remainder for tonight, adding some walnut oil — this may do the trick). The mushrooms were only as wild as our local Waitrose (UK supermarket) could produce, so not very.

But, the main course was a winner, albeit something that is tried and tested in our house. I'm not a vegetarian, but my wife is. A nut loaf is something I'm usualy happy to leave to her to … enjoy. However, Joyce Molyneux's great book, The Carved Angel, contains a recipe for one (see page 122) that's very good. This is how she introduces it:

There's nut loaf and there's nut loaf. It can be, and all too often is, leaden and worthy. This is the other kind, light and delicious with a herb or vegetable filling at its heart.

To finish, left over from Christmas we had two ices: Rosemary Sorbet and (the half-off-puttingly entitled) Rice Ice Cream with Rum-Soaked Fruits — both from Liddell and Weir's, Ices: The Definitive Guide. Both are highly recommended.

So, that was that for New Year's Day evening, and one son now gets ready to go back to university, the other to start his gap year. Left to the two of us, we won't be eating like this every evening …

(See more progress on 43 Things, "Cook more"...)

Cook more … (posted from 43 Things)

Tonight, a mushroom risotto. A couple of years ago I read Pot on the Fire by John Thorne, and there (pp 68f) is the best guide to cooking a risotto I have ever come across. His recipe uses portobello mushrooms and he cites Jack Czarnecki who, in A Cook’s Book of Mushrooms, says ‘portobellos are the only (supermarket mushrooms) that possess the size and succulence of the larger wild mushrooms, such as porcini’.

It was John Thorne who taught me to let the rice cook a little before adding any stock: ‘sauté the rice until its coating of starch has turned clear and the rice itself releases a toasty aroma’.

(See more progress on 43 Things, "Cook more"...)

Become a much, much better digital photographer

It would be great to pool ideas and know-how. I know far too little about digital photography and am not even sure I'm using the best format of file for shooting.

One resource I have found is this Flickr group (newsfeed here). Another (in the making) is 43 Things: see more progress on "become a much, much better digital photographer"...

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I am doing 43 Things.