Seth Earley gave a presentation on taxonomy governance; he’s obviously a Very Important Taxonomist, and made sure that we knew it by having his flunky deliver his Starbucks Cafe Americano to him during the presentation instead of just grabbing a coffee from the service provided by the conference right outside the room. Yes, I’m cranky, I just flew 5 hours to get here and don’t have a lot of patience for a prima donna who wastes my time during the presentation talking about how he needs his 4 shots of espresso. Grrr.
Earley appears to be an anti-folksonomist: he believes that tags should be part of a controlled vocabulary, and that folksonomies are really only appropriate for identifying candidate terms, that is, terms recommended for admission to the change management process that would promote a tag into the formal taxonomy. The implication is that users aren’t qualified to define new tags/terms, but that it requires a “tagging expert”. Presumably like him.
I like Seth. He is a great champion for taxonomy development. His phone/powerpoint sessions are great value for their cost. He is an excellent self promoter,understanding that he needs to get out of the IA community unlike many other library nerds.
It’s funny though one of the first time I remember seeing him he was yelling at my tiny friend because she mistakenly cut the drink line at a reception. 🙂
So I think Seth is loud; knowledgeable and articulate but loud.