Folksonomy and Crowdsourcing
Thomas Vander Wal coined the term Folksonomy in 2004 to describe the practice of individuals tagging information and objects, for themselves, on the web and within a shared and open, social environment. Folksonomy as a concept and the practice of free tagging, is now commonplace. Users discover and sift through tweets, images, and videos alike using their relationships to the tags. They determine the meaning and value of the objects by assigning them tags, which can be literal, ironic, definitional, humorous, conceptual, etc.
This act of tagging creates an database structure for information, not dissimilar to what Manovich suggests when discussing the database narrative. The difference is that this tagging is organic and self-directed by the users. They define, and re-define, the meanings of the database objects, creating new relationships and trajectories through the narrative, binding the syntagmatic and paradigmatic levels of meaning in yet another structure. And, it is in this self-directed database interaction where participants can find entry into possible structures of engagement for interactive, crowdsourced narratives. Tags help participants find likeminded work, creating a global matrix, a global eye.
The 18 Days in Egypt website creates interactive documentary streams through enabling users to incorporate material from across the web, such as, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr by allowing users to search by tags. Gigi Ibrahim’s stream, “January 25: The starting of...”, is an example of what is possible through using tag based searches to integrate crowdsourced material. The global eye or multiple perspectives within the stream resonates emotionally to viewers by providing multiple points of view encapsulated in the varying pictures, footage and tweets. The tagging database provides the structure, the means, and the multi-sourced footage makes it emotional. The dialectic creates the deeper immersion and bridges the gap between the horizontal and vertical semiotic framework within interactive work.
This act of tagging creates an database structure for information, not dissimilar to what Manovich suggests when discussing the database narrative. The difference is that this tagging is organic and self-directed by the users. They define, and re-define, the meanings of the database objects, creating new relationships and trajectories through the narrative, binding the syntagmatic and paradigmatic levels of meaning in yet another structure. And, it is in this self-directed database interaction where participants can find entry into possible structures of engagement for interactive, crowdsourced narratives. Tags help participants find likeminded work, creating a global matrix, a global eye.
The 18 Days in Egypt website creates interactive documentary streams through enabling users to incorporate material from across the web, such as, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr by allowing users to search by tags. Gigi Ibrahim’s stream, “January 25: The starting of...”, is an example of what is possible through using tag based searches to integrate crowdsourced material. The global eye or multiple perspectives within the stream resonates emotionally to viewers by providing multiple points of view encapsulated in the varying pictures, footage and tweets. The tagging database provides the structure, the means, and the multi-sourced footage makes it emotional. The dialectic creates the deeper immersion and bridges the gap between the horizontal and vertical semiotic framework within interactive work.
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