We have upgraded to RollerWeblogger 3.1.

Among the new features are tag clouds.

Well-handled tag clouds are dynamic, hyperlinked text graphics which partly summarize and mirror the author's online thought.

They are in effect crude "mind maps."

Ours are actually created in three Java-driven and Velocity-scripted levels of analysis.

First, the blog author selects the tags to attach to each blog entry. These are entered in the Tags field in Roller's weblog entry editing form.

When the blog is posted, those tags are loaded into Roller database tables.

Second, we use Roller's Velocity macros and some custom Velocity scripts to sort and display the blog-by-blog clouds.

Custom scripts adjust the relative size and color of each to tag to reflect its frequency of use. We will soon deploy an option for displaying only tags which rise above a user-set frequency of use threshhold.

Third, Roller links each tag to every blog-entry to which it has been attached via the Tags field.

Clicking on a tag produces a blog-ordered list of the the tagged works.

If weblog authors use the new Summary (optional) fields on the weblog entry form, clicking on a tag generates a list of story summaries, with their links to the complete blogs. Otherwise, a ponderous list of complete blogs is generated.

Because writing a summary requires some thought, we recommend that authors use the summary fields. Well-considered summaries add a layer of useful meaning to an author's blogs.

All of this may lead you to wonder whether our blog authors should acquaint themselves with the theory and practice of the semantic Web.

If they're designers, analysts or programmers, perhaps. Even done very superficially, however, that process requires several days of intense effort.

Reading a summary article like from the journal of Language Learning & Technology requires more time than most of our clients' bloggers have to invest.

Instead, I recommend careful reliance on current knowledge.

They're creating a personal folksonomie and need not master Web Ontology Language, or even know what it is.

To create tag clouds that are tools rather than toys, they just have to tag for their own, thoughtfully considered use.

They must tag for the purpose of helping them organize and clarify their blogging concerns, immediately and in the future.

If they choose tags carefully, the result will be a useful annotation. As with everything else, how useful will vary. Useful, nonetheless.

Well-chosen tags can, IMHO, help all of us see where we have been in this open, online conversation with ourselves and perhaps a few others.

There certainly are better planning and organization tools that folksonomie-based tag clouds.

None thus far that I see, however, are so readily employed by busy blog users, and so readily supportable by available computational resources.