Totallly aside from the photo, I've just had an interesting chat about metadata with a mate and now it occurrs to me that there is some *potentially* interesting contextual data to this pic.

Bear with me... :-)

My dad actually took the picture and asked me to post it on Moblog. He just thought it was funny and wanted to get it online to show people.

Then everyone comments on it - which I'm really chuffed about - but also make a whole new connection to it, that is meaningful to this group (which Joe's fiance's nickname is Shoes), and serendipitously it is also Joe's stag night before he goes off to marry her!

So, all in all, the picture became more than just a funny picture, it also happened to link to a specific moment. Like a twist of fate in the system. Tagging would actually allow me to capture that moment in a different way- in a way similar to how i might remember that picture - not necessarily by how I would describe it's content but by how i might describe it's relevance.

It's purpose sort of evolved to potentially more than just a funny picture, but an event online that signalled to a group of people, "Joe and Shoes are getting married!"

It's something I'd probably remember anyway, as the image "spoke to" a deeper context, but now I could also tag the picture to associate that personal association. I could also tag it so that others could remember it, or use the same tags as somebody else to help compile a communal gallery of associated images. In this case it might be images for Joe, for Joe from me, for Shoes from me, for Joe and Shoes, for Joe's stag night, or simply a mark of the occasion.

Tagging is also an action until itself so it's not like i'd have to record the metadata actually true to it's original intention for posting. In hindsight the purpose of the image has grown and a matrix of intentions to recall it have expanded from it, so now I could remeber it as such and share that connection with others.

So, in that sense, what's ultimately important is my intentions when I tag it. What's more, I can make up new intentions just by adding a new tag.

In a sense the tag allows me to compile multiple stories of what happened immediately surrounding that image. I could associate words with my dad's story, my story, Joe's story, and even Moblog's story. It's like tags allow me to signature experiences from posting something to the internet.

Maybe I need that... given I'm plugged in all day. (My Metadiary)

Nonetheless, this all still proves to me that you could do some incredible things with tags. A communal awareness for tagging could mean one could essentially search their own or others interepretations of web pages, construct narratives of online events and create historical significace. They'll call it 'tagged browsing'. Just search "Eureka"!