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	Discuss: Emerging Topics--the general FM discussion forum Topic: Discussion Capture

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DoctorMichael
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26 May 2006
Posts:3

26 May 2006 3:39 AM

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There is an evolving trend to capture and share discussion both formally as in a news or blog thread and informally as in the digitization of a discussion. Folksonomy (user defined tagging) is an evolutionary way of organizing information - but it lacks the hierarchy of traditional paradigms.
We are gathering massive amounts of information, knowledge, wisdom, and as been seen on the more popular Folksonomy WEB Sites (Flickr, ...) trends (which are being captured in 'Tagging Clouds') - - all of which is escaping the socio-economic models that so desperately need this input.
Tools to harvest and cross-reference these 'clouds' along with the appropriate Bayesian 'weighting' must evolve as quickly as the new socio-discussion areas are evolving.

EngFear

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05 May 2006
Posts:12

29 May 2006 9:52 AM

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Not sure if this is wholly relevant but IBM Research Lab's Natural Language Processing group are doing some fascinating work around analysing large amounts of unstructured text. I believe that they have done work with the US government & a large credit card company mining these public & semi-public discussions on the web.

DoctorMichael
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26 May 2006
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29 May 2006 3:20 PM

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It is relevant to a point - I thank you for the reference - I also have been following it - I do a great deal of data migration work and unstructured data is an area of serious concern. Manipulating peta-bytes of data to find key information is simple compared to this.

The problem is that the data has structure - but it is user defined structure (user defined tags) that have no frame of common reference - so where I might call a pet cat, you might call it feline, another kitten - see the problem - now I have been working on a synonym hierarchy - but what if the user used gato

A human can handle all the synonyms - but for a machine - well that answer is obvious. We are all aware of how greatly Blogs and Wiki(s) are affecting the very culture of the WEB – many consider them to be the foundation of future WEB information trends - WEB 2.0, if you like.
Folksonomy or user defined tags – are the new backbone of blogging / wiki information sharing – evolved for the human – not the machine.

Frymaster

Member Since:
23 Mar 2006
Posts:32

31 May 2006 2:47 AM

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Excuse my ignorance, but, who -- other than gi-normo organizations like the US gov, credit reporters, IBM and other not-entirely-humanitarian institutions -- needs to organize and condify everybody's conversations? Not humans, as you note.

My point is that these web 2.0 technologies aren't the only ones invented since web 1.0. They're just the ones that stuck. And they stuck because they delivered what the users (humans) wanted -- unfettered interaction.

I'm not condemning the endeavor, DM. In fact, I'm hoping for a shut-me-up answer to my question about who cares. I just feel like that sense of anarchy - of being beyond the reach of the institutions - is what attracted the user base. It's what got me. As somebody said to me the other day, "if TV hates it, I love it." (For reference, see this IBM study that lays out the particulars of Us vs. Them.)

Something tells me that fairly standardized languages, or at least dialects, will emerge to self-correct the issue of non-standard tags. A stronger ICANN, like a stronger UN, would be in everybody's best interest. Except those pesky institutions.

But there I go, sounding like a commie. I will retire.

Before I go, big ups to you, EngFear. I'm buyin' what you're sellin'.

And DM, do tell me that I'm wrong in thinking that this is just the institutions trying to get their bloody mitts on around 2.0 and muck it up for the rest of us.

DoctorMichael
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26 May 2006
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31 May 2006 4:25 AM

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Your points are well taken – but let me interject a couple more small items - There is one little group that might want to now what he 'buzz' is - what the BLOGgers are fixating on - the wonderful world of advertising (part of my client base) – why because the “leaders of the pack” need feed back – positive – negative – and at all ninety degree angles – As for the anarchy on the WEB – that is where the creativity is springing from – big companies and the governments are not the innovators – they are the imitators – or the procurers – As for the, fairly standardized languages, or at least dialects, will emerge to self-correct the issue of non-standard tags – by then – the truly creative ones – the leaders of these new electronic packs will have moved on – and the also want to have run – will be using the standard. As for sounding like a communist – I will and have defended your right to your opinion - no matter how much I disagree with you – because I am one of those ‘card carrying’ anarchists that thinks that by doing so I might learn something I don’t already know –

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