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From: "Paul Jinks" on 28 Jul 2008 08:18 Hi I'm working on a project where we're building a collection of videos in Flash and the idea has been mooted that it would improve usability if we were to allow users to tag videos they've seen a la last.fm, flickr youtube etc. It's still very early days and I'm quite interested in putting something together quickly to see if it's really the way we want to go (also because it might be useful for other projects). Does anyone know of any good resources on building a tagging system? The video for now will be held on a normal LAMP machine as will everything else. TIA Paul
From: "Richard Heyes" on 28 Jul 2008 09:04 > I'm working on a project where we're building a collection of videos in > Flash and the idea has been mooted that it would improve usability if we > were to allow users to tag videos they've seen a la last.fm, flickr > youtube etc. If you're thinking of trying re-invent a UI - my advice would be don't. Your visitors are more likely to know and understand their own PCs UI as opposed to one that you invent. Any UI you come up with is not going to be as easily used no matter how good it is. -- Richard Heyes http://www.phpguru.org
From: "Paul Jinks" on 28 Jul 2008 09:48 On Mon, July 28, 2008 2:04 pm, Richard Heyes wrote: >> I'm working on a project where we're building a collection of videos in >> Flash and the idea has been mooted that it would improve usability if we >> were to allow users to tag videos they've seen a la last.fm, flickr >> youtube etc. > > If you're thinking of trying re-invent a UI - my advice would be > don't. Your visitors are more likely to know and understand their own > PCs UI as opposed to one that you invent. Any UI you come up with is > not going to be as easily used no matter how good it is. > > -- > Richard Heyes > http://www.phpguru.org > Hi Richard I think my first post was ambiguous. What we're thinking of is to build a site on which people can view videos with the option to add metadata to a video after viewing it. We think that the content we have will be of wide interest to a lot of people and the best way to index it is for users to 'tag' it themselves, since it's hard for us to anticipate the uses that people may have for the content. Last.fm allows users to tag bands and songs for example; here's the tag page for Joy Division: http://www.last.fm/music/Joy+Division/+tags The idea being that if you're interested in post-punk, for example, you can click on that tag and be taken to the pages of similarly genred bands. So it encourages use of the content and serendipitous connections (maybe). I'm not convinced that this is the way to go, but I'd like to pilot the idea and am looking for signposts for where to start. Paul Ps. I was wrong about youtube, by the way, it doesn't look like they do tagging.
From: Jason Norwood-Young on 28 Jul 2008 10:37 On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 14:48 +0100, Paul Jinks wrote: > I think my first post was ambiguous. What we're thinking of is to build a > site on which people can view videos with the option to add metadata to a > video after viewing it. > > We think that the content we have will be of wide interest to a lot of > people and the best way to index it is for users to 'tag' it themselves, > since it's hard for us to anticipate the uses that people may have for the > content. How do you plan to have users enter the info? Through the Flash player, through some kinda Ajax form, through a form in a frame or just a static form? Also, would the tags be predefined by you (eg. genres like the ID3 tag genres) or would people be able to add their own tags? The way I'd do it would be to let the users enter the info through an Ajax form below the video, with suggestions popping up as they type. Then save it in a separate table (I assume all your vids are in their own table) with a link table between the vids table and the tags table (M2M relationship). This means that if the tag is already in there and linked to one vid, you don't replicate it for a second vid. It's also very easy to do lookups of similar items. I'd also add a weighting to the tags in the links table, maybe with the more people that add a specific tag, the more weight that tag gets. Also check out http://www.music-map.com/ as an example of showing similar music - you might even be able to plug into this data.
From: Paul Jinks on 28 Jul 2008 18:57
Jason Norwood-Young wrote: > On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 14:48 +0100, Paul Jinks wrote: > >> I think my first post was ambiguous. What we're thinking of is to build a >> site on which people can view videos with the option to add metadata to a >> video after viewing it. >> >> We think that the content we have will be of wide interest to a lot of >> people and the best way to index it is for users to 'tag' it themselves, >> since it's hard for us to anticipate the uses that people may have for the >> content. >> > > How do you plan to have users enter the info? Through the Flash player, > through some kinda Ajax form, through a form in a frame or just a static > form? > > Also, would the tags be predefined by you (eg. genres like the ID3 tag > genres) or would people be able to add their own tags? > > The way I'd do it would be to let the users enter the info through an > Ajax form below the video, with suggestions popping up as they type. > Then save it in a separate table (I assume all your vids are in their > own table) with a link table between the vids table and the tags table > (M2M relationship). This means that if the tag is already in there and > linked to one vid, you don't replicate it for a second vid. It's also > very easy to do lookups of similar items. I'd also add a weighting to > the tags in the links table, maybe with the more people that add a > specific tag, the more weight that tag gets. > > Also check out http://www.music-map.com/ as an example of showing > similar music - you might even be able to plug into this data. > > Hi Jason Hmm, food for thought. music-map is brilliant, though not what I'm looking for graphically at the moment (was surprised to find Cesaria Evora in close proximity to The Cardigans but I digress). What you describe is pretty much what I'm chasing, thanks and helps me down the road, particularly with thinking about the database set up. They 'only' problem is, my php/mysql skills are some way behind my javascript/actionscript knowhow (I'm pretty much a noob here); what I could use now is a how-to tutorial to give me some code to work off, either online or in a book. If it ain't there, I can build from scratch but it's going to mean a lot of calls for help! =) Many thanks Paul |