Abstract

It is necessary, due to changes in the information environment, to investigate problems in existing information retrieval systems. Ontologies and social tagging, which are a relatively new means of information organization, enable exploratory discovery of information. These two connect a thought of a user with the thoughts of numerous other people on the Internet. With these connection chains through the interactions, users are foraging information actively and exploratively. Thus, the purpose of this study is, through qualitative research methods, to identify numerous discovery facilitators provided by ontologies and social tagging, and to create an exploratory discovery model based on them. The results show that there are three uppermost categories in which 5, 4 and 4 subcategories are enumerated respectively. The first category, 'Browsing and Monitoring,' has 5 sub categories: Noticing the Needs, Being Aware, Perceiving, Stopping, and Examining a Resource. The second category, Actively Participating, has 4 categories: Constructing Meaning, Social Bookmarking and Tagging, Sharing on Social Networking, Specifying the Original Needs. The third category, Actively Extends Thinking, also has 4 categories: Social Learning, Emerging Fortuitous Discovery, Creative Thinking, Enhancing Problem Solving Abilities. This model could contribute to the design of information systems, which enhance the ability of exploratory discovery.