So, if self-tagging creates folksonomies, which are by and for the people...who benefits from it?

I love the tagosphere. I adore the communities I become part of with crazy new memes. I love the connections made when I become part of another meme. We are building new ways to organize ourselves, our information and our communities online through tagging. It's beautiful.

Lately, I've heard alot of push back from the people building the tools for and getting involved in tagging communities on auto-tagging.

So, people (including us) have been talking about introducing auto-tagging. Yeah, that means that a computer will tag your photos (and someday, files) for you.

Sacreligious? Well, let's see...

POINT #1 - Bringing it to the Masses

[I know, I know...small is the new big. I shouldn't be talking in 'mass' anymore...but here I need to.]

Mention tagging to some of my friends back in Canada and they think "You're it!". Mention it to a kid in the Bronx and he would point to the graffiti on his school. Mention it to your mom and she may think it's what retailers do to merchandise.

I would, too, if I wasn't in the heart of it all.

I wonder how many files and photos are really being tagged versus how many files and photos continue to float out there? I'm sure that the numbers would reflect a very different story from my own information. I like tagging my photos. I take special time to upload my shots and tag them so that those I know will be looking for them, find them.

Tagging shouldn't be a closed, exclusive thing if we want it to really impact the world with it.

POINT #2 - Because There'll be More Love to Go Around

I don't know about you, though, but getting access to my mom's photos, my best friend's photos and those people who were at that conference I went to in NY city's photos I may or may not be in would be super interesting to me.

Problem is, I may never see them because many of these people don't see the benefit of putting these photos online. Or maybe they do. Maybe all of their photos are online, but hers are over on Ophoto, and his are on Picasa, and theirs are somewhere on Shutterfly and mine are on Flickr....ack! It would take a whole pile of work and time for me to find those photos.

Then they are forgotten. Point. Click. Kiss that memory goodbye.

Then auto-tagging comes along and really simple photo search..Wouldn't it be amazing to have access to all of the photos of all of your contacts over the years - yesterday and today?

It would be my dream to open up my aggregator and see all of the photos I appear in show up. Those embarrassing ones from the Web 2.0 party last night. Those photos so-and-so promised to email me last year but never did. Those photos that my mom sent me on a CD, but got lost in my mess of recordable CDs in my last move.

I can get the embarrassing Web 2.0 photos because every person I've met since I arrived in SF has a Flickr profile and loves to tag. No problem. Hell, they even tag MY photos, which is a BIG deal because I tend to forget names.

But what about Carol in Toronto (hi Miss C!)? What about Terry in Calgary? What about Charles in Chicago? What about Adriano in Italy? I would guess that a smaller percentage of people they know actually care, or even know about tagging. But I would assume that many of them take digital photos and have a desire to share them.

Auto-tagging is folksonomies tagging (thanks Eran, you are right: the computer-aided part strikes the 'folks' part of folksonomies) for the rest of us. It adds to the overall tagged photo pool. It educates people on the benefits and future of tagging. It opens up more of the world to that exercise we know and love.

POINT #3 - Tagging the Mundane

Why can't the two (self tagging and auto-tagging) run in tandem?

That's a good question, Tara. ;)

I would never want to release all control of my folksonomies to a machine. Never. I enjoy playing the geeky tagging games with my new friends. I enjoy starting new memes and meeting new people as they catch on. I love being able to tag certain photos with characteristics only I could appreciate because someday, that tag, as much as that photo, will bring memories flooding back to me.

But, hell, if a machine could drop in the basic tags, bring it on!

Then, I'd have alot more time to screw around with the fun part of tagging. ;)

.......

So, I'd like to open up this tagging vs. auto-tagging to a debate (because I've had many offline) so that people can email me or comment here so that it can be continued at Tag Camp (perhaps) as well.