Thing #20 - Find and Describe a Folksonomy

Many web 2.0 sites (e.g. Del.icio.us, LibraryThing, Flickr) provide the means for a folksonomy to develop, i.e. they allows site users to "tag" objects collaboratively thereby developing a shared descriptive vocabulary for those objects. As an example, here is a link to the results of applying a folksonomy to describing our library's website (as developed by the users of del.icio.us):
Tag Cloud for Halifax Public Libraries' Website

Some other interesting sites related to the concept of folksonomy:

• An interview with Thomas Vander Wal (the person who coined the term folksonomy) on the "Talking with Talis" podcast.


• The Danbury Public Library, which through their collaboration with LibraryThing provides tag clouds for the items in their catalogue.

In spite of the oft' quoted disadvantages of folksonomies when compared to carefully constructed taxonomies and controlled vocabularies (i.e. the lack of consistency, the use of synonyms, etc.) I suspect that in the rapidly changeable world of electronic information the rate at which strict taxonomies can be updated and adapted will increasingly be their downfall.