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Exploring Naming Behavior in Personal Digital Image

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Exploring Naming Behavior in Personal Digital Image EXPLORING NAMING BEHAVIOR IN PERSONAL DIGITAL IMAGE COLLECTIONS: THE ICONOLOGY AND LANGUAGE GAMES OF PINTEREST Tami Sutcliffe BA, MLS, MA Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2014 APPROVED: Brian C. O’Connor, Major Professor Linda Schamber, Committee Member Shawne Miksa, Committee Member Suliman Hawamdeh, Chair of the Department of Library and Information Sciences Herman Totten, Dean of the College of Information Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Sutcliffe, Tami. Exploring Naming Behavior in Personal Digital Image Collections: The Iconology and Language Games of Pinterest. Doctor of Philosophy (Information Science), December 2014, 178 pp., 22 tables, 14 figures, references, 114 titles. As non-institutional digital image collections expand into social media, independent non-professional image curators are emerging, actively constructing alternative naming conventions to suit their needs in a social collecting environment. This project considers how independent user-curators are developing particular sense- making behaviors as they actively contribute names to large, unstructured social image collections. In order to capture and explore this evolving language adaptation, Pinterest names are analyzed using a matrix composed of Panofsky’s three strata of subject matter, Rosch’s levels of categorical abstraction, Shatford Layne’s image attributes and Wittgenstein’s language game constructions. Analyzing Pinterest image names illuminates previously unnoticed behaviors by independent user-curators as they create shared collections. Exploring the various language choices which user-curators select as they apply this new curating vocabulary helps identify underlying user needs not apparent in traditionally curated collections restricted to traditional naming conventions. Copyright 2014 by Tami Sutcliffe ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a large debt of gratitude to Dr. Brian O’Connor, who can be relied upon to always deliver one more interesting idea to delightfully complicate matters. I would also like to extend fond appreciation to both P. Tooley and K. Moses, consultants extraordinaire. And of course, deepest thanks to David Sutcliffe, for never giving up. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ..........................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 Translating Images into Words ................................................................................ 2 Collecting Material Memories ................................................................................... 2 The Login Grid ......................................................................................................... 8 Fine-Tuning the Home Feed .................................................................................... 9 Social Collecting: The Emergence of ‘User-Curators’ ............................................ 10 Expanding Collections by “Following” .................................................................... 13 Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................... 22 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................. 23 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................... 23 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 24 Definitions of Terms ............................................................................................... 24 Assumptions .......................................................................................................... 25 Limitations of the Study ......................................................................................... 26 Summary ............................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .............................................................. 28 Visual Categorization in Image Collection Indexing ............................................... 28 Social Tagging and Folksonomy ............................................................................ 34 iv “Big, Messy, Organic” Data Sets ............................................................................ 37 Visual Categorization and Inter-Indexer Consistency ............................................ 38 Automated Annotated Image Data ......................................................................... 39 Cognitive Economy and Perceived World Structure .............................................. 39 Triads of Visual Categories: Basic, Subordinate and Superordinate ..................... 40 Two Stage (Primary vs Secondary) Subject Matter Categories ............................. 42 Defining Image Attributes ...................................................................................... 43 Shatford Layne’s Image Attributes ......................................................................... 44 User Behavior in Image Naming ............................................................................ 47 Image Name Iconology: Tools for Assigning Meaning ........................................... 48 Iconclass ................................................................................................................ 49 Wittgenstein’s Rule-Guided Language-Game Analysis ......................................... 50 Observed Existing Non-User Attitudes Related to the Pinterest Site in General.... 52 CHAPTER 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS ................................................................. 63 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 63 Data Collection Approach ...................................................................................... 64 Data Collection Method ......................................................................................... 65 Methodological Issues ........................................................................................... 69 Scope and Limitations ........................................................................................... 69 Expected Results ................................................................................................... 70 Summary ............................................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS OF DATA, RESEARCH FINDINGS, AND DISCUSSION ...... 73 Alpha Data Collection ............................................................................................ 73 v Final Data Collection .............................................................................................. 75 Research Findings and Discussion ........................................................................ 76 Pin Name Distribution: Panofsky’s Strata of Subject Matter or Meaning ............... 77 Unexpected Findings Related To Re-Searching Pins ............................................ 88 CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ........................................................... 92 Summary of Findings ............................................................................................. 92 Implications of Research Findings ......................................................................... 95 Recommendations for Future Research ................................................................ 99 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 100 APPENDIX A ALPHA DATA SET ............................................................................... 104 APPENDIX B FINAL DATA SET ................................................................................ 107 APPENDIX C 2012 -2014 PINTEREST USER STATISTICS ...................................... 136 APPENDIX D PIN SELECTION ................................................................................. 140 APPENDIX E KAMATH’S BOARD COHERENCE ...................................................... 143 APPENDIX F ALL PIN NAMES: SECONDARY, PRIMARY, INTRINSIC .................... 145 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 170 vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Panofsky’s Three Strata of Subject Matter or Meaning ............................ 30 Table 2 Examples of Panofsky’s Three Strata ...................................................... 32 Table 3 Comparing Characteristics: Taxonomies, Folksonomies and Social Curation ................................................................................................... 36 Table 4 Rosch’s Basic Image Category ................................................................ 40 Table 5 Rosch’s Superordinate Image Category .................................................. 41 Table 6 Rosch’s Subordinate Image Category ..................................................... 41 Table 7 Shatford Layne Images Attributes
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