Comments on: Ceci n’est pas une tag http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/ musings about electronic culture Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:02:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: seb http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3496 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:40:56 +0000 http://electronicmuseum.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3496 Mike, Jennifer,

I ran some tests on our PHM data set . . .

[ Mike edit: pesky long urls breaking my site! Try this: http://tinyurl.com/2clldc ]

We get a different result – mainly I think as a result of the different ‘type’ of collection and documentation style.

Next up I’ll blog the latest search data.

Seb

]]> By: Mike http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3493 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:25:50 +0000 http://electronicmuseum.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3493 jt – interesting point: “if we agree that people search on what they tag..” – my assumption would be this is the case. It obviously also depends on the familiarity with which the user comes to the web. For instance, I know (as uber-geek) how to search Google most effectively – not necessarily the harder stuff like url removal – but most effective use of keywords to get the results I am looking for. My mum probably wouldn’t, or wouldn’t persist in the way that I would. This in itself is an interesting usability problem.

Once you get out of Google and into the weirder backwaters of museum / site-specific search engines, the paradigm shifts again. Which is why I almost always use Google toolbar to “search within site” rather than rely on a (probably rubbish) internal search engine: not only do I know it’ll work but the usage is familiar, too.

I’m tangenting :-)

It’ll be very interesting to see how this develops. It touches on so many things from usability to access to authority. I think it’s readily apparent (and hopefully widely recognised) that it’s badly broken, so any work done is going to help…

]]> By: Juha van 't Zelfde http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3467 Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:51:55 +0000 http://electronicmuseum.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3467 Very interesting post Mike. Thanks.

Juha

]]> By: jtrant http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3431 Sat, 13 Oct 2007 19:05:25 +0000 http://electronicmuseum.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/ceci-nest-pas-une-tag/#comment-3431 hey mike –

the 75% new tags number is consistent with the pre-tests done at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the beta version of the steve tager (reported in detail elsewhere (see http://www.archimuse.com/research/steve.html)

what we’re revealing is a significant semantic gap between the language of tagging and the language of museum documentation. my gut is that it’s reflective of the fact that art documentation is created by and for art specialists, not the general public. remembering my time in grad school, the LAST thing you talk about is the work itself!

if we agree that people search on what they tag, then yes, there’s a problem with access.

we’re testing that theory with search log studies (comparing tags to what people look for to see if they fill a gap). now that doesn’t tell us if searching is limited by what people hope they might find… but that’s a different question. i couldn’t believe the dearth of hard data about searching museum sites when i did the prototype study with Guggenheim log data.

seb’s work at the powerhouse is pointing us to ways that we can make tags and taxonomy work together in the museum space; we’re hoping we can add to that with what we learn at steve.museum.

/jt

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