[iDC] Strategic usage of folksonomies: a case study

[Simon Biggs]

Hi Eugenio

This is a brilliant essay. Thanks for posting it. It is clearly written and
exposes with detailed data the semiotic evolution of a folksonomy in
process. Have you thought of how this might relate to other discourses, such
as Ortiz¹s concept of transculturation or Garcia¹s pluriliteracy? There are
also clear links to the notion of transliteracy as well. I think I remember
us discussing some of these issues when we were in India?

I have a recent paper that addresses some of this at
http://hosted.simonbiggs.easynet.co.uk/texts/trans.htm

As for accepted papers disappearing out of sight ­ I cannot say I have
experienced that. I have seen accepted papers take a couple of years to get
in print though. Some journals have long lead times. I don¹t know how the
editors manage to ensure timeliness of the research published. I guess this
is part of the reason academia moves so glacially. Here¹s to self-publishing
on the internet then!

Regards

Simon


On 8/1/09 11:00, "Eugenio Tisselli" <cubo23 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> I am writing to IDC to share with you an article that I wrote 18 months ago,
> about a specific case of strategic usage of folksonomies. The article is the
> result of a research I did immediately after a group of Flickr users protested
> against new restrictions for accessing content marked as "unsafe"; a
> restriction that was aimed exclusively at the German users of the photo site.
> I found it remarkable that a significant number of protestors used a specific
> tag ("thinkflickrthink") to make their voices heard. So, by using the Flickr
> API, I collected all the relevant data and found interesting things. Here is
> the abstract of my article, called "thinkflickrthink: a case study on
> strategic tagging":
> 
> The growth both in quantity and diversity of on-line communities across the
> World Wide Web, along with a number of new technologies that enhance both
> social interaction and content management, have bred an array of increasingly
> participatory practices. Users are engaged in bustling environments in which
> they can express themselves and interact with other users, creating and
> fostering all sorts of relationships, while uploading and sharing multimedia
> contents. Such environments turn into vital territories for many of their
> users, who can become extremely sensitive and protective of what they believe
> to be their rights. Thus even a small, unfavorable change in the structure of
> the site or in its usage policies can trigger discontent and active
> opposition. Actions performed by the site administrators, such as the deletion
> of content or the suspension of user accounts, can be perceived as abusive by
> the community and trigger outrage. In such situations, many
>  uncoordinated forms of spontaneous protest and defense can emerge from the
> network of users. The creativity and effectiveness of these initiatives can
> vary greatly, with protests ranging from discussions on forums and blogs, to
> site-blocking boycotts. This research analyzes one particular protest strategy
> recently adopted by a number of users of Flickr, a popular image-sharing site:
> the use of anti-censorship tags to make the protest visible within the site
> itself.
> 
> So, why am I sharing this article only now, after so many months? Well,
> there's actually a story. On october 2007, I submitted the article to a
> well-known scientific magazine, and after a couple of months I got a reply
> from them, saying it had been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication.
> However, I waited and waited, and the article never appeared. I tried to
> contact the magazine several times, but I never got any further replies from
> them. Has this happened to you? It was a bit frustrating for me, so now I
> decided that I should just make the article available online on my website,
> and announce it to all that may be interested in reading it. And here it is:
> 
> http://motorhueso.net/text/thinkflickrthink_pdf.pdf
> 
> I sincerely hope you will find it interesting and useful, and please get back
> to me if you have any comments. Your feedback will be very welcome!
> 
> Best wishes,
> Eugenio.
> 
> Eugenio Tisselli Vélez
> cubo23 at yahoo.com
> http://www.motorhueso.net
> http://www.zexe.net
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>       ¡Felices Fiestas! Enviale una tarjeta electronica gratis a tu familia y
> amigos y deseales felices fiestas. http://yahoomorado.com/tarjetas/
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Simon Biggs
Research Professor
edinburgh college of art
s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk/circle/

simon at littlepig.org.uk
www.littlepig.org.uk
AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk


Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201


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