Social Tagging
Building on the strengths of existing search engines to catalogue and quickly search resources placed on the Internet for sharing, social tagging provides a shared system for categorizing specific resources. The basic idea is that when people find useful resources on the internet, they can add information -- tags -- to provide cues how that particular resource is related to other resources. By adding such tags they also contribute the resource to the ‘virtual library’ in that now other individuals can search on these tags to find relevant information.
For each individual this is similar to the process of creating bookmarks or ‘favorites’ in a web browser, except that now these bookmarks (tags) will be maintained on a separate website that be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet and even by other users. Taken together, these tags also begin to create “virtual library” of resources like the ProVention library presented in the frame on the below left.
To start adding your own tags, you can add the URL for the webpage that you want to add to the
Del.icio.us website.
Instructions
For each of the categories ("Topics", "Resource Type", or "Coverage Area"), simply click on the "Edit Seclections" button to choose criteria on which to sort. You can either choose from among the existing checkboxes or add other cirteria in the "Other" textbox. When you finish one category, press the "Close" button and wither move to a different category, or press "Search/Refresh" to start your search.
Note: Currently the social tags are searched exactly on the tags that you select. For example, if you check both
Europe and
Africa, the search will look for resources that have been tagged with both of these labels not either one of these labels. To keep the most flexibility, only select the criteria for which you want a precise match.
To start adding your own tags, you can add the URL for the webpage that you want to add to the
Del.icio.us website.