Glacial Erratics

I went to IdeaDay last night to listen to MattMay and AlexWilliams talk about podcasting. I've not become a podcasting fan, perhaps because I don't use my ipod (headphone issues) or perhaps because I'm too nervous to go around with environmental noises blocked out, but none of that matters because I was primarily there to meet the BlueFlavor guys, see who else goes to these things and participate in Sabrina's forays into the Seattle social network of folks what do things like what she do.    (PX9)

The presentation was interesting but a little disjointed. Matt and Alex clearly know their stuff and could have talked for ages but I think they needed an agenda. An initial query to the audience of what they wanted to hear about threw things in the direction of how to make money podcasting. I think they should have started with a gentle introduction. It may have been a review for many of the people there, but would have established some baseline understanding and SharedLanguage.    (PXA)

The most relevant discussion was a tangent in response to a "how do I find stuff, it's hard to index audio" question from the audience. Matt mentioned discovering community and making use of affinity groups to find stuff.    (PXB)

This made some things related to tagging click. I've harped for a long time about the importance of SharedLanguage in collaboration and used naming as an ax to grind against the insidious evil of FreeLinks. Tags, WikiWords, nicknames are all ways of establishing affinity: If you have developed the SharedLanguage to understand the name, it's like having an invitation to a group. If you have affinity for the name, you may have affinity for the group using it; it's time to seek that invitation.    (PXC)

All these things--tags, nicknames, WikiWords--are markers for conceptual categories. They are _not_ labels for classes.    (PXD)

(An aside into my defintions of class and category may be necessary:    (PXE)

• a class is a defined grouping of entities in which the members fulfill the definition of the class and can be listed.  T    (PXF)
• a category is a cognitive label applied to a non-enumerable grouping of entities wherein membership is determined by typicality amongst the members and not some overarching definition.  T    (PXG)

)    (PXH)

Markers assume a measure of doubt, treasure it and get value out of connotation and suggestion. In other words, affinity.    (PXI)

Affinity based systems assume a measure of tolerance for the happy accident of discovery: "This isn't exactly what I was looking for, but, damn, it's cool!" It's not about information retrieval, but discovery and enhancement.    (PXJ)