20. Jarvis Goes Deep with Clue Train Manifesto's Weinberger

Jarvis Goes Deep with Clue Train Manifesto's Weinberger (8:31) Jeff Jarvis & David Weinberger

Comments

[Eunjoo Kwon]

His explanation of using selling a notebook instead of saying laptop was very helpful.

[Pete Kistler]

I commonly run into tags when reading/writing blog posts (usually in the form of tag clouds), or browsing stock photo galleries where tags are descriptive key words that make it easier for you to find a photo depicting a particular concept or idea (like "happiness").

Tapping into the taxonomy of ordinary people is extremely powerful because it takes advantage of their wide diversity of thought. Let's use the example of searching for a stock photo.

One photography expert might see a picture of a blue sky and offer the tags: blue, sky, day, bright, warm, etc. Based on those tags, users searching for "blue sky" or "warm day" might find that photo. But what if I'm searching for a photo that depicts the concept of "inspiration?" If that photo were taggable by anybody on the web, then I would be able to draw on many more tags that are more descriptive based on different levels of thought.

For example, a poet might provide the tag "inspiration" for the blue sky photo, while a meteorologist might provide the tag, "Cumulonimbus" to identify the cloud type in the photo. The more diverse people who add tags, the easier it is to find that photo. Wikipedia was a pioneer in showing us the effectiveness of tapping into the wisdom of crowds, rather than just a few specific experts.