Tags are something that started to make up for what happened when we got so dependent on Search. With search we kept finding things that are non-specific or out of context. We tried to avoid that by adding tags.
We don’t often think of them as something that also needs to be managed, until it’s too late.
You can keep using tags, of course. But here are ten things about tags that won’t be happening to you in eXie. Where these potentialissues with tags get to be really hard to handle is when there are several of them happening at the same time:
Tag simply repeats item names that other items were given
Same tag means too many different things to different people
Different tags are too similar
Same tag means different things in different categories
Same tag may mean different things with different content
Tag is too specific and gets forgotten from infrequent use
Too many tags simply repeat category labels
Some tags describe actual content, but others don’t and only describe related thoughts
Tags that are still there work even when obsolete
Simply too many tags
One way to unravel tag confusion is to start moving your content into frames. As an example of of how you have thought about things, tags do give you a head start on picking subjects, themes and topics for your eXie frames in a transitional way (not abruptly) — bringing a new level of consistent organization to your items. For example, a good tag is typically a candidate as a topic, where a good category is a candidate as a theme. It’s a good approach by which to get started.
The great thing about having a fully mature Read/Write web is the number of different ways that we can share the content we have crafted. But this can also be too much of a good thing.
Where Stuff Is, and Why
It’s not unusual for some item of interest to show up in various guises, at any of the following locations. We took a shot at lining them up, noting what key difference one place might offer versus another. No apologies for obvious omissions, here… We’re just making a point: there are reasons why people do things so many ways. (Feel free to change the chart…)
Even more to the point, all of these options are so easy to use that a LOT of them get used, especially by anyone who has a frequent desire to get an audience for the content they have.
As a result, even though each event of content placement may be well-justified at the time, it is fairly easy to wind up with content scattered widely, outside of any overall plan.
What about your own files?
Do most people have that problem? No. The majority of the time, what we see above turns into someone collectingother people’s content, while people who are distributing it are fairly unconcerned about where it is.
But if you are a producer of crafted content, you care. You put effort into protecting the quality, relevance and best use of it.
And if you’re saving content, then you’re collecting it. Your collection is, essentially, the full set of locations you actually used to store the full set of items that you decided to save.
The problem occurs as those items wind up in locations that do not help us to keep track of them.
We “lose track” in several ways:
Forgetting whether we have a piece of content appropriate for current use
Revising and Re-purposing content at risk to earlier suitable uses
Duplicating content under different names at different places
These issues all make it more difficult to know that the right content item can be easily found whenever it is next needed.
What makes matters worse, folders also tend to go through these same risky changes.
Whether most of your content is on a cloud drive or is spread about across the web, you may recognize the challenge we all have in common when it comes to the usefulness of our collections.
The way out of the vicious cycle is to tackle disorganization up front. And the best time to do that is when using the content will be rewarding.
Our idea is that we should make organization easy enough to make content usage rewarding.
Using eXie to catalog important content makes sense because there is a purpose to be served when the content gets re-used. Being able to identify the nature of the content’s importance makes it both more likely and more logical that the content will be visibly relevant to each case of use. Every frame or template in eXie is assigned to a Use Case, and optionally to additional contextual information as well. Some use cases are already offered by eXie, and an eXie user can create new ones as needed.
What Are USE CASES?
A Use Case generally indicates HOW the framed content is intended to be useful.
The content in the chosen frame may either be used for a particular purpose, or used as a particular type of instrument.
Examples of Used For will be things like this:
Examples of Used As will be things like this:
Training
Guidance
Marketing
Planning
Coaching
Designing
Auditing
Research
Knowledge base
Curriculum
Portfolio
Agenda
Catalog
Specification
Project Plan
Evidence
In eXie, the difference between one Use Case and another is typified in the labels of the columns and rows of an eXie frame. People who have great familiarity about a case of usage can provide their expertise in deciding what labels are strong ways for everyone to think about the related content.
In that way, Use Cases help us to define Templates and to keep content collections strongly linked to what actually makes them most valuable – their active usage.
A related idea in eXie is Context. In eXie we want to identify WHERE and WHY the content is being used. So, we offer a separate Context descriptor to allow you to include that with your frame.
A Use Case associates with contexts like these:
Examples of contexts will be things like this:
Certain events or timing
Specific roles or groups
Certain types of activity or processes
Season, meeting, product, publication or exhibition
Teacher or Owner or Customer
Education or Sports or Strategy or Customer Support
Summary – There can be a frame of content for which things like the following are true:
the Use Case is Training, and the Context is Students
the Use Case is Knowledge base, and the Context is Support
the Use Case is Designing, and the Context is a Product
Recently we looked at a case where the work of one author was spread across numerous subjects and content sites over a long period of time.
While it was easy to rely on search engines to try to find currently accessible copies of this work without date or place restrictions, there was the common problem of how frequently the items had begun to lose or change their connection to a currently relevant interest of the author’s audience.
We decided that the diversity and distribution of the content was actually hiding the author’s steady commitment to certain subjects. We started to find and group the items, link them visibly to a focus on the subjects, and publish a selective catalog of the available materials as curated portfolios for each subject.
Using eXie, we built the frame shown here, making it easy to see each major subject addressed in the overall collection of works. We dedicated a column to each subject. Then, to make it clear where the works were being sent and found, we specified those locations generically, in separate rows.
eXie Portfolio Template
The result was a master “frame of reference” to the distributed content, able to “map” both the online access points and the overall breadth of the collection.
Content gets solicited and presented in different locations for different reasons. With the frame, we regrouped the content based on its ideas instead of on those occasions. Then we assigned the online locations to the appropriate groups.
Capturing the locations of the content within the groups of ideas made it possible to see how it contributes conceptually to the strength of the author’s ideas. Additionally, it became easier to see whether the quality or style of the content is holding up well for broader or longer use when working with the idea..
In effect, the frame also reveals where new or improved content would be appropriate. This triggers a curatorial perspective that also transforms the collection into a source for selective portfolios.
Another of the possible follow-ups will be that content found in one location can, through comparisons, influence the content found in another location, to improve either of them or inspire additional new content. The frame shown here tracks seven potential portfolios (columns). Over time, targeting content to different locations becomes a more refined decision; meanwhile the consistency and sharpness of the ideas can develop selectively in the context of the portfolio.
A final observation to make is that the frame’s groupings, and a portfolio, can include multiple types of content media, which will demonstrate the content maker’s ability to address diverse presentation circumstances while retaining consistency in the ideas communicated.
If you are a content maker with a personal or work audience, being able to use your own collection effectively is both a relief and an advantage. When your content is important enough to have an audience, relevant content makes you a better provider for the audience.
The different systems that we already use help us make sure that we can get things made and initially distributed when and why we need to do so.
Meanwhile, search engines are great at gathering things together from collections, per some criteria. Items in many formats from many online locations are presented in a single group of “results”.
Exploiting what you already expect from search, eXie easily lets you do the following things:
Group many different items having the same importance and use, in a single location
Group together many instances of the same kind of item from many different locations
Place a single item in a variety of different groups where it is strongly relevant
But, eXie goes farther. It provides a simple way to keep them collected together for more tailored, repeated reference and use regardless of where they wind up online. And it shows the organized collection that way.
Curating the Content
eXie makes it simple for you to create groupings that show why the content is worthwhile.
Each grouping is based on an idea (subject) that is important to remember and use.
The way that the idea has importance is what the group’s items really have in common
That importance is the reason why they should stay in the collection.
That same importance is also the reason why people look for things.
With eXie, you arrange your collection of online content items without having to change their actual locations.
You “inventory” weblinks to your preferred known online locations of the content.
You catalog the inventory links based on ideas important to your audience, making the catalog itself a portfolio to be used by your audience.
Managing the portfolio means adding, updating or removing the links to content based on the content’s strength of relevance to the portfolio.
eXie makes those ideas highly visible, so that helpful decisions are easily made about handling the content
Handling your content in portfolio-fashion strengthens the awareness of why the content is important.
That awareness is the best justification for saving the content, and it is the best “search criteria” for your next and ongoing use of your best content.
Maximizing your eXie use
Sign in to eXie to see templates for many uses of eXie’s content cataloging frames.
Use an existing template or create new frames for yourself.
Each frame consists of labelled columns and rows that allow you to identify the “coordinates” defining a grouping of your content.
A column identifies a flavor or a subset of a subject; and a row identifies a way of thinking about it.
In a given frame, all items are relevant to a single subject matter; within the frame, content applies in a highly systematic way.
Because the frame advertises the way content is relevant, but the provider and the user of content have the same frame of mind about using the collection.
By cross referencing what you’re describing with how to think about it, the resulting eXie frame-of-reference systematically “maps out” coverage of a subject area.
Online content is linked to those crossing points, which makes finding relevant content like using a graph to pinpoint related information.
There is no limit to how many different frames of reference you can create; any item of online content can be referenced by a frame, if the item is relevant. And different frames provide differing ways of viewing the same content collection.
Sharing a frame with others allows them to see your collection the same way you do, with the same perspective. Your frame shows how content in the collection should be valuable, whether it already exists or not. Parties that you share with can be your audience, your reviewers, or your content production partners.
