Guest post by Amihai Cohen
Tag:
n.
A label assigned to identify data in memory.
v.tr.
To label, identify, or recognize with or as if with a tag.
Way back, in 1970, Alvin Toffler coined the phrase "Information Overload" in his book Future Shock. Information overload is, according to Wikipedia:
... the state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic. This term is usually used in conjunction with various forms of computer-mediated communication such as e-mail. Large amounts of currently available information, a high rate of new information being added, contradictions in available information, ... and inefficient methods for comparing and processing different kinds of information can all contribute to this effect.
Are you overloaded?
We can try to deny it as much as we want, but we are in a state of information overload each and every day, caused by the abundance of information we have at the tips of our hands thanks to modern technology. Thankfully, the same modern technology also gives us tools to handle this overload in such a way we barely know it exists.Some of the methods, like searching, are well known and used. Take Google, for example. They're an advertising company, not a search company, because they make their money from ads. Those ads that are being served by Google are being tailored to the web page they are in, according to keywords placed in the ads by the advertiser and their match to the words on the page. But I'm overlooking the search action itself...
And what is search other than another form of tagging? Search is actually just a tagging method that uses the words in a web page to tag it, nothing more. The fact that there is an abundance of tags to look for in each and every page is quite good for some players on the modern technology field, but you might not remember, or even won't know the specific words used in this page or the other.
Give back to the community
That's where the online community comes into play. In recent years the amount of community driven sites is soaring, and with them the amount of information you need to process. Online communities are the perfect specimen for the use of tags. Sites like de.icio.us and Flickr which are some of the most popular community-based sites practically mandate the use of tags if you want to find something you're looking for. Once you provide easy tools for the community to take part in your site, expect a boom of new content coming from other people. They're not getting paid for it (at least most of them ), so why do they do it? Fame, Free time, Wanting to give back to the community, Altruism? Probably all of the above.The Content Makers
The fact is, you don't really need a lot of content or a lot of time to launch a new site these days. All you need is a good idea, some well-written software and a strong community to take these two and make them into a successful web site. Lets take Digg for example. The idea is as simple as it gets - a user submits a story, and other users who like the story 'digg' it. Since it's launched less than two years ago, Digg has quickly became the top news source for a lot of tech people around the world, often surpassing the traffic that's going into other popular sites like Slashdot .Why?
- It's much, much simpler.
- It contains all sort of mechanisms to control Trolls.
- Lets face it, Slashdot's design isn't (or wasn't) a winning one.
- The impact the community has on the stories is much larger, and more visible.
Sites like Digg, del.icio.us, Flickr and thousands of other that popped up in the last couple of years are the proof that the community matters. They prove that you have to take care of you users, to let them taste some of the power, to let them be their own masters. They don't want the site to decide which photo, site or news article is best, they want to decide it for themselves. And while they do it they inadvertently use those simple mechanisms, like tags, that empower not only themselves, but the community as well. It's a win-win situation.
