Re: Of tags and topics

[Raphael Slinckx <raphael slinckx net>]

On Sun, 2006-03-05 at 16:40 +1100, Peter Harvey wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've been doing some thinking (sorry!) about the way tags and topics are
> being explored in different ways in different systems (Nautilus,
> Epiphany, GThumb, Evolution Contacts, not to mention those online).
> 
> I'd like to see a GNOME-wide tag/topic system eventually, but we should
> get some definitions sorted out first. Please reply with any comments
> about these definitions. I've based then on what I would use tags/topics
> for *after* they've been associated with an object.
> 

Once the nomenclature is defined, you should probably start implementing
and/or merging all tagging interfaces (i'm thinking about leaftag's
nautilus UI, for example) into a consolidated libgnome-tag library,
providing easy Tagging widgets with simple APIs for developpers, that
would be immensely useful. As underlined on some leaftag blog comment,
maybe more than one ui is pertinent for different use cases. Nautilus UI
tag cloud is one way to display tags, epiphany with a list is another,
maybe there is some hidden reason why this is like that.

> 
> Note that, by what I've described, tags are user-independent and pretty
> haphazard. They're just properties of the object, which should be
> observable by all. Topics are things that are user-dependent, and rely
> on how the user's mind works when looking for something.
> 
> Now, do these definitions seem to fit everyone? I've left things like
> "keywords" undefined, and I've assumed that "categories" is the same as
> "topics", but feel free to argue. :)

I like the definitions above, they reflect pretty much what's currently
used. Maybe there should be a dictionnary of equivalent meanings
topics = categories | ...
tags = groups | ...

So when we talk we know what we are referring too..

Raf