Improving the navigability of tagging systems with hierarchically constructed resource lists and tag trails

Abstract

Recent research has shown that the navigability of tagging systems leaves much to be desired. In general, it was observed that tagging systems are not navigable if the resource lists of the tagging system are limited to a certain factor k. Hence, in this paper a novel resource list generation approach is introduced that addresses this issue. The proposed approach is based on a hierarchical network model. The paper shows through a number of experiments based on a tagging dataset from a large online encyclopedia system called Austria-Forum, that the new algorithm is able to create tag network structures that are navigable in an efficient manner. Contrary to previous work, the method featured in this paper is completely generic, i.e. the introduced resource list generation approach could be used to improve the navigability of any tagging system. This work is relevant for researchers interested in navigability of emergent hypertext structures and for engineers seeking to improve the navigability of tagging systems.