Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with folksonomy

Searching using tags and search folders in Outlook web access

ajp — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:00:11 -0800

How best to use search folders with categories to search through Gmail-style tags, in Outlook? For various reasons, I'm attempting to implement some form of "tagging" using Outlook 2003.

There are plenty of guides on the web for people who've tried to do this. They all involve creating categories as the tags, and search folders to find them. This I have done, and so far, so good.

However.

Let's say I have a "projects" tag (category), and then multiple separate tags per project. So I may want a search folder to contain all emails for "Projects AND ProjectOne". Unfortunately, search folders do "Projects OR ProjectOne", thus returning any emails tagged with Projects, ProjectOne, ProjectTwo, ProjectThree etc. Not so good. I need a separate folder for each of ProjectOne, ProjectTwo, etc.

I could get around this by disposing of the "Project" tag, but I'd prefer to keep it.

There is a way around this in the desktop client, using views. Here's the recipe: select the search folder, then select from the menu: View | Arrange by | Custom... In the dialog, select "Filter", then select the "More choices" tab, then click the "Categories" tab. Select multiple categories, click OK, then select the SQL tab. Select the checkmark so you can edit it, then change any ORs to ANDs.

Hey presto! Fixed. The search folder for "Project AND ProjectOne" now contains only those emails, and none from the other projects.

However (again).

This doesn't appear to work in web access. The search folders are visible, no problem. But the view settings are gone. The folder reverts to ORing not ANDing the tags.

So the question is: can I get "tag1 AND tag2" (not "tag1 OR tag2") working in search folders, in web access as well as in the desktop client?

A few pre-emptive notes:

Yes, I really want to do this.
Yes, it has to work in web access too.
No, I can't install any fancy software like taglocity. It has to be a "native" Outlook solution. I'm running windows XP and I'm not interested in the Windows desktop search thingy.

Muchos gracias for any suggestions. If I work it out, I'll post the answer here.

Finding a physical folksonomy for flimsy files

ajp — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 05:38:02 -0800

Is there a way of tagging paper? Is there a way of applying "folksonomy" (yuck, awful word) to physical paper? In other words, is there some robust method of labeling papers within a sheaf of printed material (such as a book or set of college notes) in a way analogous to "tagging"?

Specifically, I have a large set of printed and hand-written notes from college classes. They are all categorised appropriately, e.g. "human anatomy", "human physiology", "human pathology" and so on. However this has the same drawback as "folders" with email systems: one file can only exist in one folder, unless the whole file is duplicated. I'd like to be able to tag files and individual pages. Specific tags might include "hip" and "muscle", thus allowing me to rapidly locate anything to do with the muscles of the hip.

I'd like to find a tried-and-trusted method, although if anyone's got an idea about how to implement a system, feel free to post here (maybe we'll take it to chat if it gets convoluted). But I would prefer pointers to well-defined systems.

One question: am I actually looking for an indexing system? I would prefer a quick, robust, visually-oriented system that requires little maintenance.

I'm using docs.google.com to create and edit documents, and to tag them. So far so good. But I'd like something that I can apply to a physical bundle of papers.

I've searched MF and the web, but it's a tricky one to track down. "Physical tagging" and "physical folksonomy" yields lots of RFID and geotagging stuff, not what I'm after. Standard apology applies to anyone shrewd enough to find previous threads.

Walk me through getting a del.icio.us clone running locally on my Mac?

WCityMike — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:46:51 -0800

I would like to build and host a del.icio.us clone on my Mac (Intel iMac running Tiger). It need not be accessible outside of my machine, although if you can advise me how to do that while still keeping my machine secure, that would be a very nice plus. I am able to build simple command-line apps in Unix and puzzle some stuff out, but I am very much not a l33t hax00r. Can anyone walk me through the process very simple step by very simple step? I have tried various options since unsuccessfully asking this question of Ask MeFi, and have still grown certain that the extremely simple interface of del.icio.us is what I'm looking to work with for to-dos. When they're done, zap them. The tagging can let me sort through my ideas on any one of a hundred different levels by throwing tons of tags at a to-do (work shoppinglist imac web priority1 quickie). The hyperlinking is useful because so many of my to-dos have a hyperlink attached to them. And the bookmarklets will be very swift, given that they'll be interoperating with a local del.icio.us and no web server. It's very much what I'm desiring to do.

The problem is that I do have a minor bit of technical knowledge, but not the full amount. I can go to the command line and do "./configure, make, make install." But if it throws off errors, the best I can do is Google the error to see what other people did to solve it. I can install stuff that it needs to have to depend on. I know what tar and gz are. I understand that MySQL has to do with databases. But a lot of this stuff is gonna be like "Guh?!" to me.

I know that del.icio.us now has a "keep this private" bookmark. But this would interfere with my use of del.icio.us as a linklog system for my website. I also know that there are to-do sites that include tagging and Smart Lists. However, they don't seem as swift to me, and their interfaces seem to include a lot more steps than I'd like, even with the bookmarklets they use.

I know of at least one open-source del.icio.us clone. However, trying to install it without customized help led to a bellyflop and the aforementioned "guh?!?!?!?!".

Can anyone help me out here? Keep in mind that Lifehacker and 43 Folders and other sites read Ask MeFi, so you could end up being a superstar to a lot more people than just me. ;-)

Adding tagging to my php CMS

yeahyeahyeahwhoo — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:51:49 -0800

Whats the best way to setup and implement a tagging/folksonomy system into a php content management system from scratch? I use a custom php based content management system at my work and i'm wondering what what the best way to set up a tagging/folksonomy type system like the ones you see here and delisous, etc. i'm building it into my system by hand, but i'd really like some advice on where to start, such as table structure, useful functions, etc.

I appreciate any help, this has been a difficult thing to google for.

Handling to-dos with a tagging-based web app?

WCityMike — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:12:27 -0800

I'm looking for a web-based to-do application with a few very specific features, but, essentially, one that's almost a del.icio.us clone and is very much centralized not on categories, but on tags. I was hoofing my way around my Backpack account and realized that I had not gone through the majority of things in there. Basically, it was a hassle to find things and to read; 37 Signals makes nice things in some ways, but they've applied tagging to pages, not tasks, and there's a host of other imperfections and problems which make me realize I very much want to migrate, the gist of which is that it obviously just isn't effectively working for me if it's a pain in the ass to go through.

What I'd ideally like is something that's almost identical to the delicious interface, where I could use a bookmarklet to add a task. The nice things about tags is you can then proceed to set up your own system -- i.e., anything with a 'p5' category might be important, or I could tag "grocery" for grocery shopping, and then like delicious, you could join tags (i.e. http://del.icio.us/tags/tag1+tag2) to get more customized reports, i.e., http://hypotheticaltodolist.com/WCityMike/grocery+downtown or http://hypotheticaltodolist.com/WCityMike/grocery+nearhome.

There's not much use in public sharing of this data, so privacy would be nice. It would also be good to be able to encode HTML inside an entry, i.e., "Check out this website and this website tonight." But the absence of either of those is not a killer.

Remember the Milk is close to what I'd like, especially with its Smart Lists and tagging and search language, but even it is slightly more complex than I'd like in terms of data entry -- and I find the checkbox NOT representing a complete horribly counterintuitive. That having been said, I'm thinking I may migrate to a combination of a private Furl account for todo-related URLs and a Remember the Milk account ... but ideally, it'd be even nicer to go a different route with this and have them together in this dream app of mine.

I should say that the primary reason I'm looking for this in a web app is I'd like to be able to be able to access the data from Mac and Windows platforms at home and work, respectively, and perhaps even on a cell phone -- and web apps traditionally have that portability.

Are the terms ontology, taxonomy, and folksonomy interchangeable?

nramsey — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:39:51 -0800

Are the terms ontology, taxonomy, and folksonomy interchangeable? I started a new job and had a first meeting on Friday with some other departments. My position is as a writer, but I have to work with the Web people and have input into the "architecture" if you will. That being said, are the terms ontology, taxonomy, and folksonomy interchangeable? I know they talk about the same realm of stuff, but I didn't think they were the same thing. The terms were used in regards to a redesign and restructuring of a huge site.

Using facets and tags together for navigation

expialidocious — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:55:59 -0800

Do you know any good examples of sites that use both facets and tags for navigation? I've seen plenty that use categories and facets - lots of shopping sites have several levels of categories (hierarchy) and then go to facets. And other sites - AskMe included - combine one level of categories with tags. But combining facets and tags seems to be rarer. I looked at facetious, but was put off when I browsed to Place: SF and saw that over half the links were about science fiction. But maybe that's just a problem with this one implementation?

This is for an intranet where findability is key and ease of adding/tagging content is only slightly less key.

cataloging your books online.

mecran01 — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 07:21:08 -0800

In this metatalk thread I was trying to find a link to a media cataloging web app. What I am trying to do is take a text file of about 1,000 books, delimited by comma, and import it into one of these online social folksonomified library catalogs. Do you know of a free, friendly library web app that allows for importing of text files (I don't have the ISBN numbers, so that rules out LibraryThing) I also don't mind installing a php app, as long as it uses flat text files (it's for a friend who doesn't want to play with mysql)

Tagging Feelings ...

grrarrgh00 — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:38:19 -0800

FolksonomyFilter: I'm looking for well-executed uses of tagging beyond the beaten path (flickr, del.icio.us, etc). I have several questions about user behavior when it comes to tagging schemes, and would love some pointers to places to go. One big question: Are there any examples of tagging where the fundamental incentive for doing it is to improve a shared pool of information (as opposed to a personal pool)? Technorati is the most extreme example of the personal pool: only you tag your blog posts. Flickr and del.icio.us have a collective element, but it's still about cataloguing your photos and your links. 43things is the best example I can think of showing the shared info pool (it's still your goals, but almost the entire point is that you're sharing them).

Second big question: Is there a tagging scheme that accounts for changes in the pool of information? Let's say, for example, you create a site where people can tag all the coffee shops in town. The "freewifi" tag grows particularly popular. But one of the coffee shops tagged with "freewifi" stops offering the service. Is there any way for a tagging scheme to allow users to account for that?

Third big question: What are some resources for learning more about tagging and how to do it right?

Do you tag stuff in the most individual way possible, or do you let tags overlap?

Nikolai — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:49:56 -0800

Tags. They're used everywhere on the Web now to categorize stuff, but not everything has a unique name. Do you tag stuff in the most individual way possible, or do you let tags overlap? For instance, if I post a picture of my computer screen and one of my house, do I tag them both "windows"? Or do I tag one "Microsoft Windows" and the other "house windows"? Is someone named "Chris Smith" stuck with being conglomerated with other people with the same name, or should I ask Chris Smith what his middle name is and add it to the tag? It's easy for New York City to get the tag "NYC", but should photos of Springfield, Illinois be "Springfield", "Springfield, IL", or "Springfield, Illinois"?