by Caroline McDonald, Laura Soito, & Maggie Willis LIS 688-MetadataSpring 2011 

Introduction

Some definitions:  Folksonomy -- a classification system derived from an emerging thesaurus of user supplied tags. Tags --short, personally memorable keywords 

Overview

• Comparison to more traditional controlled vocabularies 

 •  Social aspects of folksonomy • Examples of folksonomies in use

Comparison to Controlled Vocabulary

Folksonomy    User supplied

Ambiguous

Free-formUses redundant language and abbreviations  Quick to adopt new terms

Controlled Vocabulary

Professionally supplied

ConsistentStructuredAvoids abbreviations, synonyms & homographs

Slow to adopt new terms

Social Aspects

o folksonomies are collaborative

o produces a collective intelligence 

o creates a community of users that are responsible for the quality and maintenance of the information

o encourages participation by allowing users to have greater control

o makes users feel like they have a vested interest in the information that is being collected

ApplicationsExamples of Folksonomies in action

Delicioushttp://delicious.com

Tagging of web resources

Flickrwww.flickr.com

Image tagging

ApplicationsExamples of Folksonomies in action

Technoratihttp://technorati.com

Blog tagging

Amazonwww.amazon.com

Commercial tagging

ApplicationsExamples of Folksonomies in action

Penntagshttp://tags.library.upenn.edu/

Social Bookmarking

Steve: The Museum Social Tagging Projecthttp://tagger.steve.museum/

Museum collection tagging

LibraryThing  A website devoted to books and readers

• allows users to personalize content and add data to records o create personal virtual librarieso connect with other users (the "world's largest bookclub")o assign both subject and personal tags for books

1.2 millions users and over 6 million books cataloged

Conclusions

• Folksonomies are a new option for classification. •  They can be combined with traditional methods of

classification for a viable option in the future of web based information indexing