Tags, or other similar metadata, added to resources in a Personal Knowledge Management system are not content. They are best used to help you curate resources and can answer questions such as:
- What was written in July 2023? (add a date)
- Where are all the references to books? (add
#book) - What am I currently working on? (add
to-develop)
When used as markers for the content of a resource - exactly like keywords - an issue arises where one tag can mean multiple things. Is #philosophy a reference to a note that discusses a philosophy, or is it about philosophy itself.
In Tags or Links, Curtis McHale distinguished between tags, notes and tagnotes. The latter are a flavour of note that summarise broad topics. They are similar to Maps of Content in that they bring together information with more context than a single word. Curtis writes,
Tagnotes vs Notes
The difference between
#tagnotesandnotesis that notes are summaries of reading and research I’ve been doing while#tagnotesare the connection points between that research.Tagnotes vs tags
When it comes to
#tagsI use those to set the status of a piece of research in my vault. Something I want to summarize gets#tosummarize. If I want#toreadsomething then it gets that tag applied.I also use them to set the type of content. If I have a note on a specific person that note gets the
#peopletag. A note on an application like OmniFocus would get the#apptag. A note on a book gets the#booktag.
In my system, I do not tag notes with markers of what knowledge is within them. If I am tempted to tag with a concept, I’ll find a way to rewrite my text to use a link instead.