Quote:
Originally Posted by ryangoldman
If contexts are just a means of logically grouping items for efficiency, then tagging would provide that with more flexibility than contexts.
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The flaw in this reasoning is the assumption that flexibility is always preferable. There are big advantages to settling on a controlled vocabulary. In the
Oxford Guide to Library Research, Thomas Mann explains the advantage of controlled subject headings for library cataloguing. Many of the same advantages accrue to categorizing other things. I can think of a lot of tags I might apply to my actions, but being forced to choose from a restricted set of contexts--or, if necessary, to explicitly define a new one--makes it much easier for me to retrieve my actions later than if I could give them arbitrary tags.
If you don't buy my brief sketch, read the first couple chapters of Mann's book and then come back and argue if you think he's wrong.