Usage patterns of collaborative tagging systems

TLDR

Collaborative tagging is the process of many users adding keyword metadata to shared content, and it has become increasingly popular on web sites for bookmarking, photography, and other media. The study analyzes the structure and dynamic aspects of collaborative tagging systems. The authors present a dynamic model that predicts stable tagging patterns by linking them to imitation and shared knowledge. They found regularities in user activity, tag frequencies, tag types, bursts of popularity in bookmarking, and remarkable stability in tag proportions for a given URL.

Abstract

Collaborative tagging describes the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content. Recently, collaborative tagging has grown in popularity on the web, on sites that allow users to tag bookmarks, photographs and other content. In this paper we analyze the structure of collaborative tagging systems as well as their dynamic aspects. Specifically, we discovered regularities in user activity, tag frequencies, kinds of tags used, bursts of popularity in bookmarking and a remarkable stability in the relative proportions of tags within a given URL. We also present a dynamic model of collaborative tagging that predicts these stable patterns and relates them to imitation and shared knowledge.