Show Me Experiments and Realistic Outcomes for Tagging/RSS

My colleague Joitske points out my spelling error in my Tagvocates post -- I spelled it "tagovate."  It also made me realize that it should be tag because of sloppiness.  That aside, Joistke goes on to reflect on the usefulness of tagging and rss feeds for her work with communities of practices (and by extension - nonprofit organizations.)

She describes the value in terms of avoiding information overload for busy professionals.

"Transferring more to RSS feeds (and this can be topical feeds from joint unique delicious tags tagged by colleagues too) will shift the feeling of having to read to reading when you are ready, interested and available. Much more interest driven, user-centric. Leaving professionals to do their work and not mix it with potentially distracting mails. This is a huge shift RSS/tagging can bring into the workspace."

While those who want to use tagging for social change may view that result as missing the point,  Joitske asks:

Going back to tagging for social change: that's a whole different topic: I haven't seen how tagging could really work for social change other than bringing the right information together in faster ways ...

which then helps the organizations do the work that creates the change ... which is exactly the point that several commenters to an earlier post made here and here.

Joitske's other observation about tagging is also important: "The other observation I can make so far on our tag experiments is that it doesn't foster any exchange/conversation, unless you combine it with reading your co-tagger blogs..."     And, I wonder what we are loosing bypassing the conversation and jumping into action - but hopefully the N-TEN Affinity Group which has an group email component may facilitate some conversation (as well as some old fashion phone calls) that might lead to a "Show Me" or Action Learning experiment as a first step.

Now, on the topic of experiments that teach - I have to applaud Cityzen Jane's concept of "Show Me" examples.  She says, "For my non-web, non-technical managers who needed to see something more
than my enthusiasm for technology. It's a given that the geek in the corner office, me - would get excited about web 2.0 for instance, but why should my managers? Concrete examples were needed."  Here's a great example of one of her prove its ..

Comments

[joitske]

Hi Beth, I like the way you use my quotes and embed it in your own thinking! Did you see the picture on flickr? Can I post it on my blog?