Thinking Patterns of Users during Content Tagging in Social Media Sites

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Aravind Sesagiri Raamkumar

Pilot Study

AgendaResearch objectives

Significance of the research

Proposed methodology

Fieldwork

Initial findings

Non-Textual Tagging

Textual Tagging

Research Objectives Explore key themes that characterize the thought process of users during

content tagging in social media sites

To use qualitative research methods to validate the key findings of quantitative & other research studies on tagging behavior:-Tagging motivations vary across different tagging systems

Majority of users tend to be categorizers than describers

Tagging system enhancements (ex: Tag Recommenders) have a significant impact on user’s tagging behavior

(Strohmaier, 2009)

Categorizer or Describer?Public use or Personal use?Consistent or Inconsistent?

Formal vs. Informal?

a small but important note…

Tagging in FB with person and place names is not free-text tagging!

Significance of the ResearchSupposedly, first of its kind in qualitative research studies

Finding out new themes hitherto unattained by other research methodologies

Understanding the literacy level of users on the topic of content taggingSo as to emphasize the need for education

Providing an entry point for ontology extraction from folksonomies

Methodology

Build-up to

topic

selectio

n

•Researcher motivations – related to core research areas (Folksonomy and Ontologies)

•Brief idea of a potential topic

Literature

Review

•Survey of literature within discipline

•In this case, it was outside the discipline

Framin

g the topi

c

•Arriving at the research objectives of the topic in hand

Approac

h selectio

n

•Validating the applicability of different research approaches

•Selection of the appropriate approach - Mixed methods

Sampling and Questions

•Selecting sampling method - Convenience!

•Questions for the interview based on research objectives

•Selection of content for tagging exercise

For tagging exercise, certain resources (content) selected on the potential of evoking multiple interpretations

• Images and web pages used for the exercise can be got from this link

Tagging Exercise

Participant observation

Interview

Fieldwork Two pilot interviews within this pilot study

• To evaluate the appropriateness of interview questions• To evaluate the effectiveness of the tagging exercise• To determine the flow of activities

Interviews and tagging exercise conducted in natural settings

Semi-structured Interviews conducted in native language

Transcription process and analysis• Major issues and categories (themes) identified from each transcription

immediately after each interview – concurrent interviewing and analysis

Initial set of questions

Tagging exercise

2nd set of questions

Analyzing user assigned tags

Last set of questions

Initial Findings Main Themes

Users have a natural desire to describe non-textual content rather than textual content -> Hence can’t say users tend to be categorizers than describers in general, but…

Users’ tagging behavior consciously changes based on content type and not based on the system -> Tagging behavior change across systems is an implication!

Users' natural flow of thought is affected by tag enhancement features -> Perhaps, slight UI changes needed

Users’ (lack of ) understanding of the entire tagging lifecycle is clearly seen in their perception of the whole process -> Most users (at least Asians) are in need of education

Users think to add tags mainly for public usage and not for personal usage -> Goes with the expectations of tagging as an activity

Average of three to four tags added per resource - As per NORM

Tagging as an activity doesn’t seem to demand persuasion!

Issues & NotesUnsaturated potential themes Users’ tagging behavior is (in)dependant [of/on] personal life experiences Users’ tagging behavior changes from casual to formal in professional environments

Issues Observation is an inappropriate method for this topic Tagging is an activity that normally demands very less attention from users in real word settings

=>High probability of showcasing idealistic behavior during tagging exercise Lack of a representative sample Volume of content (ex: images) tagged, determines the validity of theme 1

Retort to theme 2 =>

High

HighLowVolume of images uploaded

Categorization behavior

Future Work A case study approach concentrating on a group of users (perhaps pilot users for a new

tagging based system) could be employed during the Requirements phase

Content analysis and questionnaires are the appropriate methods for analyzing large samples (n=1000+) along with a few personal interviews – Triangulation

Non-English social media sites could be brought into the purview

Thank You

Q & A