Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder: Folksonomy
The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself. It differs from sites such as Wikipedia because it includes opinions, forecasts, and detractions in addition to just facts.
We, in the information technology profession, really do enjoy our buzzwords. I have to admit that great pleasure does indeed come from being the coiner of a new term in the information age.
I am frequently amazed at how local pockets of usage develop so fast in information based organizations. If your job involves interacting with different organizations within the same field, as mine does, you appreciate exactly what I mean. I always smile when I hear the same new or unique buzzwords thrown around inside one group who acts as if the entire profession is actively using the term as jargon.
Today, as an example, I heard the word Folksonomy about a dozen times after having only read it before online. After having never heard it in the wild, it was suddenly all around me. I am not sure if it is coming back into vogue or simply got “stuck on a deserted island” within this one place that I visited. Anyhow…
Here is what Wikipedia says it means:
A folksonomy is a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content; this practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging.
Some other links that I recommend associated with the term are:
- Wired Magazine – Order Out of Chaos
- New York Times – Folksonomy
- Adam Mathes – Folksonomies – Cooperative Classification and Communication Through Shared Metadata
- Thomas Vander Wal – Folksonomy Coinage and Definition
- folksonomy.org – A website dedicted to the term’s study.
- Kosmar.de – The huge cloud lens bubble map web2.0 . This is the home of the image shown above.
My personal rule for IT buzzwords is that when I hear it 5 times in different places or ten times in one venue, it is time to put it on my watch list. Folksonomy, not exactly a new term, has now met that criteria again.
Does your team use this term regularly? Do you think that it will last? Please share your thoughts on this emerging paradigm.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for August 26, 2009.
Image Credit: kosmar.de
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