How can a nonprofit benefit from online tagging?

Posted by wcook

on 19 May 2006 4:20 PM

The tagging phenomenon has taken off. If you organization tags, what tag do you use and why? How did you choose this tag? Do you have any advice for other organizations who are new to tagging?

If you would like to learn more about tagging, TechSoup's article Thirteen Tips for Effective Tagging will help you get started.

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senior editor, TechSoup

Posted by webb

on 23 May 2006 8:25 PM

Sonny Cloward of CERF has a nice blog post on how he's using del.icio.us in his organization: Bootstrap-a-licio.us.

So, I gotta say: I'm not sure of the value of an organization having a tag.

If you want to control what goes onto your web page (like Sonny's example) it's easy enough to make the relevant del.icio.us links be attached to a user or a combination of users (you can even add tags in there so it's only a certain tag from a certain user). That helps you to get over the issue of editorial control.

But part of the point of del.icio.us, for my money, is the social aspect. The findability and serendipity attached to tagging. That is benefitted by applying a tag that speaks to an issue rather than an organization.

-webb

Marnie Webb co-CEO TechSoup Global Ext 337 (weblog)

Posted by Amit_Asaravala

on 26 May 2006 11:58 AM

I think if you use "organization" loosely to refer to any group of people with a common interest, then I could see why an organization-specific tag might have value.

After all, the NetSquared community use the Net2 tag when bookmarking items in del.icio.us.

Along the same lines, if a nonprofit wanted to provide its staff members with a quick and easy way to add bookmarks to its intranet, it could have all the staff members use a specific tag whenever they bookmark something of relevance to the organization.

Now, of course, you can do this without having to create a specific, single account for the orgnization. Every staff member would still have their own accounts -- they would just use their organization's tag whenever appropriate. (Which is what I think you're advocating, right Marnie?)

--Amit

Amit Asaravala Manager of Editorial & Content Strategy TechSoup

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