28-04-2014

Join by Tagging

Our community is active in many places and as the internet has become quite social, you can reap the benefits of what we do on social sites without actually knowing us. Or, conversely, you can find us if using the right tags.

in this article:

  • what's tagging?
  • what tags to use?
  • where to tag - everywhere!

What's tagging?

Tagging is like putting a label on something in real life, grouping things so you can file and later find back what you've stored.

A new way of social tagging was introduced by Twitter, who added hashtags (tags preceded by the #-sign). The hash-tag allows to include a tag in a message while making clear that the tag is not part of the message. 

The benefit of (social) tagging is that all items with the sam tags can be listed, resulting in focused lists or conversations about (more or less) the same topic. Where previously in fora you had to dig through the forum's structure to post your message, now your message can pop up anytime somebody is searching for your tag and thus has the same interest. 

What tags to use?

RuralWeb is about ICT, development and ICT4D. We therefore propose the following tagging conventions:

about us:

  • RuralWeb - for anything connected to our community and work.
  • Rweb - Shorthand for RuralWeb, especially useful on twitter and other places with a limit on post length, or for the lazy

Already in use, but good to use in the Rural Web context:

 

  • ICT4D - shorthand for ICT for Development, a general term used for years internationally. Using this tag will connect you to people interested in, or working in ICT4D.
  • DIY -  Do It Yourself - Very general term, already used by millions outside our community. Put it on everything that explains how to do something yourself.
  • tutorial - for tutorials
  • e-learning - very general term to apply to anything that has to do with e-learning or that offers online learning resources.
  • ICT - Information & Communication Technology - extremely general term which will be used by many people around the world. Therefore best used in combination with another tag (like Rweb or ICTB).
  • community - for social networks and communities
  • funding - for anything that can help you find money for your business or project

 

Specific for Rural Web

 

  • ICTB - shorthand for ICT-basics, for content relevant to new ICT-users, for a.o. conversations, articles, tutorials for users with basic-ict-skills.
  • ICTA - shorthand for ICT-advanced, for content for very advanced ICT-users like persons working in the IT sector, web developers, software developers etc. for conversations, articles and tutorials.
  • DevR - Development Resources - for appropriate information & technology for people from developing countries and less fortunate environments. (like the tippy-tapp)

 

(please tell us if you want more tags listed here)

Where to tag - everywhere!

Tagging has become quite universal on the internet, so you can try our tags everywhere. Who knows, a community member might be present, or some other person interested in the same topic!

Find us at | example tag search