Enterprise Tagging November 1, 2008

No this is not a “how to” on using spray paint creatively on the interior surfaces of the corporate hallways.  Just as in a highly functional blogging system (like this WordPress system for example) we see the capability to associate tags with individual content items (posts).  A “tag space” can assist a readers understanding of the material prior to actually reading the material in detail.

Tag spaces are typically associated with blogs and wikis but their application is not limited to those two digital publishing systems.  In a simple blog (like this personal blog for example), there is a “local” tag space that provides a prospective reader with a set of “keyword markers” that the author intentionally wrote down to highlight key points or concepts within the page of material.

As individual authors tag their personal content, we have the ability to aggregate tags across the collections of multiple authors.  That could for example be a tag space for the entire “corporate blog space” as an example.  That tag space is different from the intentional tagging done by the individual author.  It represents pointers into the collective dialog, and when tag features such as color and font size and arrangement are used, we can start to visualize a collective corporate conversation (even though it is in shorthand words and phrases).

The next order of tagging is the intentional tagging that takes place when an author or reader makes an explicit choice to tag outside the information service being read.  Examples here in the public space would include del.icio.us, and digg just to name two.  At a corporate level, having an enterprise tag space that sits above the local tag spaces of the individual services of wiki, blog, etc. can be adopted.  The tags that make it into that tag space are a more intentional promotion of internal concepts contained within the written material whether offered by the original author or by a reader of the content.