Web 2.0 and folksonomies in a library context

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 ElsevierLibraries have a societal purpose and this role has become increasingly important as new technologies enable organizations to support, enable and enhance the participation of users in assuming an active role in the creation and communication of information. Folksonomies, a Web 2.0 technology, represent such an example. Folksonomies result from individuals freely tagging resources available to them on a computer network. In a library environment folksonomies have the potential of overcoming certain limitations of traditional classification systems such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Typical limitations of this type of classification systems include, for example, the rigidity of the underlying taxonomical structures and the difficulty of introducing change in the categories. Folksonomies represent a supporting technology to existing classification systems helping to describe library resources more flexibly, dynamically and openly. As a review of the current literature shows, the adoption of folksonomies in libraries is novel and limited research has been carried out in the area. This paper presents research into the adoption of folksonomies for a University library. A Web 2.0 system was developed, based on the requirements collected from library stakeholders, and integrated with the existing library computer system. An evaluation of the work was carried out in the form of a survey in order to understand the possible reactions of users to folksonomies as well as the effects on their behavior. The broad conclusion of this work is that folksonomies seem to have a beneficial effect on users’ involvement as active library participants as well as encourage users to browse the catalogue in more depth

Language technologies and the evolution of the semantic web

The availability of huge amounts of semantic markup on the Web promises to enable a quantum leap in the level of support available to Web users for locating, aggregating, sharing, interpreting and customizing information. While we cannot claim that a large scale Semantic Web already exists, a number of applications have been produced, which generate and exploit semantic markup, to provide advanced search and querying functionalities, and to allow the visualization and management of heterogeneous, distributed data. While these tools provide evidence of the feasibility and tremendous potential value of the enterprise, they all suffer from major limitations, to do primarily with the limited degree of scale and heterogeneity of the semantic data they use. Nevertheless, we argue that we are at a key point in the brief history of the Semantic Web and that the very latest demonstrators already give us a glimpse of what future applications will look like. In this paper, we describe the already visible effects of these changes by analyzing the evolution of Semantic Web tools from smart databases towards applications that harness collective intelligence. We also point out that language technology plays an important role in making this evolution sustainable and we highlight the need for improved support, especially in the area of large-scale linguistic resources

The state of research on folksonomies in the field of Library and Information Science : a Systematic Literature Review

Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overview of all relevant peer-reviewed articles on folksonomies, social tagging and social bookmarking as knowledge organisation systems within the field of Library and Information Science by reviewing the current state of research on these systems of managing knowledge. Method – I use the systematic literature review method in order to systematically and transparently review and synthesise data extracted from 39 articles found through the discovery system LUBsearch in order to find out which, and to which degree different methods, theories and systems are represented, which subfields can be distinguished, how present research within these subfields is and which larger conclusions can be drawn from research conducted between 2003-2013 on folksonomies. Findings – There have been done many studies which are exploratory or reviewing literature discussions, and other frequently used methods which have been used are questionnaires or surveys, although often in conjunction with other methods. Furthermore, out of the 39 studies, 22 were quantitative, 15 were qualitative and 2 used mixed methods. I also found that there were an underwhelming number of theories being explicitly used, where merely 11 articles explicitly used theories, and only one theory was used twice. No key authors on the topic were identified, though Knowledge Organization, Information Processing & Management and Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology were recognised as key journals for research on folksonomies. There have been plenty of studies on how tags and folksonomies have effected other knowledge organisation systems, or how pre-existing have been used to create new systems. Other well represented subfields include studies on the quality or characteristics of tags or text, and studies aiming to improve folksonomies, search methods or tags. Value – I provide an overview on what has been researched and where the focus on said research has been during the last decade and present future research suggestions and identify possible dangers to be wary of which I argue will benefit folksonomies and knowledge organisation as a whole

The next generation of the web: an organisational perspective

The web has revolutionised information sharing, management, interoperability and knowledge discovery. The union of the two prominent web frameworks, Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web is often referred to as Web 3.0. This paper explores the basics behind the two paradigms, assesses their influence over organisational change and considers their effectiveness in supporting innovative solutions. It then outlines the challenges of combining the two web paradigms to form Web 3.0 and critically evaluates the impact that Web 3.0 will have on the social organisation. The research carried out follows action research principles and adopts an investigative and reviewing approach to the emerging trends and patterns that develop from the web's changing use, examining the underpinning enabling technologies that facilitate access, innovation and organisational change

Social tags and linked data for ontology development: a case study in the financial domain

We describe a domain ontology development approach that extracts domain terms from folksonomies and enrich them with data and vocabularies from the Linked Open Data cloud. As a result, we obtain lightweight domain ontologies that combine the emergent knowledge of social tagging systems with formal knowledge from Ontologies. In order to illustrate the feasibility of our approach, we have produced an ontology in the financial domain from tags available in Delicious, using DBpedia, OpenCyc and UMBEL as additional knowledge sources

Semantic technologies: from niche to the mainstream of Web 3? A comprehensive framework for web Information modelling and semantic annotation

Context: Web information technologies developed and applied in the last decade have considerably changed the way web applications operate and have revolutionised information management and knowledge discovery. Social technologies, user-generated classification schemes and formal semantics have a far-reaching sphere of influence. They promote collective intelligence, support interoperability, enhance sustainability and instigate innovation. Contribution: The research carried out and consequent publications follow the various paradigms of semantic technologies, assess each approach, evaluate its efficiency, identify the challenges involved and propose a comprehensive framework for web information modelling and semantic annotation, which is the thesis’ original contribution to knowledge. The proposed framework assists web information modelling, facilitates semantic annotation and information retrieval, enables system interoperability and enhances information quality. Implications: Semantic technologies coupled with social media and end-user involvement can instigate innovative influence with wide organisational implications that can benefit a considerable range of industries. The scalable and sustainable business models of social computing and the collective intelligence of organisational social media can be resourcefully paired with internal research and knowledge from interoperable information repositories, back-end databases and legacy systems. Semantified information assets can free human resources so that they can be used to better serve business development, support innovation and increase productivity

Information Systems for “Wicked Problems” – Proposing Research at the Intersection of Social Media and Collective Intelligence

The objective of this commentary is to propose some fruitful research direction built upon the reciprocal interplay of social media and collective intelligence. We focus on “wicked problems” — a class of what Introne et al. 2013 call “problems for which no single computational formulation of the problem is sufficient, for which different stakeholders do not even agree on what the problem really is, and for which there are no right or wrong answers, only answers that are better or worse from different points of view”. We argue that information systems research in particular can aid in designing appropriate systems due to benefits derived from the combined perspectives of both social media and collective intelligence. We document the relevance and timeliness of social media and collective intelligence for business and information systems engineering, pinpoint needed functionality of information systems for wicked problems, describe related research challenges, highlight prospective suitable methods to tackle those challenges, and review examples of initial results

A concept–relationship acquisition and inference approach for hierarchical taxonomy construction from tags

Author name used in this publication: W. M. WangAuthor name used in this publication: C. F. CheungAuthor name used in this publication: Adela S. M. Lau2009-2010 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe