Chapter 4

1) Labels or tags allow people to find the information/photo/blog, etc., that you are posting on the Web. However, words used as labels or tags can have different meanings in different circumstances.  Providing more than one label or tag to describe the same information makes accessing your item easier for people searching by tags.

2) A hierarchal organizational structure puts items on different levels, much like in a filing system of folders which contain individual documents. To find a piece of information in a hierarchal structure, you have to start with the folder on the highest level and move down to the actual folder that contains the piece of information you seek. If you want to store that information in more than one folder, you must copy that information into another folder. This can result in multiple copies of the same document or information on your hard drive and can lead to different versions of the same document in different folders depending on what changes you might make to one of the documents in one of the folders while leaving the others unchanged.

In a non-hierarchal structure, labels or tags are used to organize information. One piece of information can have multiple tags, but none of the tags takes precedence over any of the others. The keywords (or labels/tags) that someone uses to search for information will influence whether and what information which you have tagged will turn up. Multiple copies of the same information need not be saved in multiple folders because there are multiple ways for your information to be found by you or others if you have used multiple labels or tags.

3) Flickr is a Web site that hosts photo sharing. People are using it for social media by storing their photos in one place (on Flickr) and then using a link or embedding code to put photos of their choice on social networking Web sites of their choice. This eliminates the need to upload photos to multiple sites, saving much time. People also use Flickr to help market businesses by posting photos on Flickr and providing a link to their business in the description of the photo; the linked photo is usually relevant to the business in which the person linking the photo is promoting.

4) Now that I know that you can link photos from Flickr to other social networking sites, I believe I will use it. The time-saving feature of it is very appealing as I have been discouraged about uploading photos at all since the process can be very time-consuming. I also hope to discover other uses for Flickr as I explore it more fully.

5) The guest lecturer effectively drove home the point about the importance of linking your information to all of your various social networking sites in order to get more hits on any or all of your sites. I also learned about the statistics sites as she went more in-depth with information about how to obtain useful statistics regarding the who/what/where of hits and people's current interests. These pieces of information can be used to keep your Web content relevant and fresh by helping you to generate ideas to write about that are of interest to your target market or audience. The multiple uses for these tools continues to astound me!