Flickr and democratic indexing: dialogic approaches to indexing
P Rafferty, R Hidderley - Aslib proceedings, 2007 - emerald.com
P Rafferty, R Hidderley
Aslib proceedings, 2007•emerald.comPurpose–The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: to examine three models of subject indexing
(ie expert‐led indexing, author‐generated indexing, and user‐orientated indexing); and to
compare and contrast two user‐orientated indexing approaches (ie the theoretically‐based
Democratic Indexing project, and Flickr, a working system for describing photographs).
Design/methodology/approach–The approach to examining Flickr and Democratic Indexing
is evaluative. The limitations of Flickr are described and examples are provided. The …
(ie expert‐led indexing, author‐generated indexing, and user‐orientated indexing); and to
compare and contrast two user‐orientated indexing approaches (ie the theoretically‐based
Democratic Indexing project, and Flickr, a working system for describing photographs).
Design/methodology/approach–The approach to examining Flickr and Democratic Indexing
is evaluative. The limitations of Flickr are described and examples are provided. The …
Purpose
–
The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: to examine three models of subject indexing (i.e. expert‐led indexing, author‐generated indexing, and user‐orientated indexing); and to compare and contrast two user‐orientated indexing approaches (i.e. the theoretically‐based Democratic Indexing project, and Flickr, a working system for describing photographs).
Design/methodology/approach
–
The approach to examining Flickr and Democratic Indexing is evaluative. The limitations of Flickr are described and examples are provided. The Democratic Indexing approach, which the authors believe offers a method of marshalling a “free” user‐indexed archive to provide useful retrieval functions, is described.
Findings
–
The examination of both Flickr and the Democratic Indexing approach suggests that, despite Shirky's claim of philosophical paradigm shifting for social tagging, there is a residing doubt amongst information professionals that self‐organising systems can work without there being some element of control and some form of “representative authority”.
Originality/value
–
This paper contributes to the literature of user‐based indexing and social tagging.
Emerald Insight