Design Talk in a Community of Innovators

Abstract

This technical report describes an exploratory analysis of a community of innovators who indirectly contributed to the design of del.icio.us, a system for social tagging. Participants in this community, which is mediated primarily by an e-mail listserv and guided by a de-facto moderator, envision and reflect upon systems for social tagging. The analysis of a sample of messages shows that participants evoke patterns of conversation that promote reflection and creativity. This finding, in turn, leads to opportunities for enhancing social creativity and the management of design knowledge in computer mediated spaces.