Social Tagging.

The wisdom of the crowd, or just a big mess?
I don't like to think of myself as a order freak - and anyone who took a quick look at my desk would know that I am not one - but I find the looseness of the tagging in both Tecnorati and Del.icio.us disconcerting.
I'm not suggesting that we have to use LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) but I find myself wishing for more order within social tagging. Blog, Blogging, Blogs, Blogosphere - these are all labels commonly used for people to tag their blogs - and none of them mention what the blog is about! These tags are so general as to be almost useless. And then there are the subjective tags that really only have meaning to the person doing the tagging. This is fine if you are tagging for your own use, but if what you are trying to do is use 'social tags' then this subjectivity just makes your stuff really hard to find.
Having said that, and admitting that I do miss neatly stacked folders - I have to give credit where credit is due. I like the idea of publicly accessible bookmarks. I like the idea of doing a list of websites for each subject (hey wait - we already do that!)in an area - and I like the fact that each bookmark can have more than one tag - as many tags as you like - so as well as putting in the subjective and general tags you can put in tags that will actually lead someone doing a search in the area to the correct document.
I think Del.icio.us is a great way of sharing bookmarks within a group. The FEA faculty have set up their own account as a way of sharing bookmarks - but we have found that we need a 'gatekeeper'. A person that will make sure there is some consistency in the way things are tagged.
It is only by making good use of the tags that the account can be useful - otherwise it is just a long list of links. The list of links can be *very* long in Del.icio.us. and useful tags are necessary as the only way to quickly navigate the list.
I love having my bookmarks available regardless of what machine I am on.
I love being able to share links without having to spam people with emails - if people are interested they can go to the site and look up the links themselves. I am getting used to, and beginning to love, the tag clouds generated by social tagging. This is interesting within the library, but is also fascinating on a personal level - you certainly learn a lot about people, not just by WHAT they tag, but by HOW they tag it.
Searching for Blogs is very informative as well. I am constantly amazed at how much time and effort some people put in to their blogs - both personal and professional. I think a good quick way of searching for blogs, by certain people or on certain subjects, is critical as I find myself wondering if blogs and wikis are going to take over from mailing lists as the new quick way to distribute information.