PUBLIC MARKS from bcpbcp with tag folksonomy

1. Introduction A folksonomy is a type of distributed classification system. It is usually created by a group of individuals, typically the resource users. Users add tags to online items, such as images, videos, bookmarks and text. These tags are then shared and sometimes refined. A general review of social bookmarking tools, one popular use area of folksonomies, was given in the April edition of D-Lib [1]. In the article the authors elaborate on the approach taken by social classification systems and the motivators behind tagging. They write, "...tags are just one kind of metadata and are not a replacement for formal classification systems such as Dublin Core, MODS, etc.... Rather, they are a supplemental means to organise information and order search results."

"I’ve been thinking a lot about categorization, tagging and bookmarks. Everyone seems to have an opinion on why and how social bookmarking will change the browsing experience, and how services like Joshua Schachter’s Del.icio.us have an impact on categorization and taxonomies. There are a lot of projects around this topic, and this post is a dissertation of possibilities."

With the introduction of new social software applications such as blogs, wikis, newsfeeds, social networks, and bookmarking tools (the subject of this paper), the claim that Shelley Powers makes in a Burningbird blog entry [1] seems apposite: "This is the user's web now, which means it's my web and I can make the rules." Reinvention is revolution – it brings us always back to beginnings.

At the start, let me confess that I struggled with this topic. From my first encounter with tagging (on systems such as del.icio.us

TagCloud is an automated Folksonomy tool. Essentially, TagCloud searches any number of RSS feeds you specify, extracts keywords from the content and lists them according to prevalence within the RSS feeds. Clicking on the tag's link will display a list of all the article abstracts associated with that keyword.

Ning is a free online service (or, as we like to call it, a Playground) for building and using social applications.Social apps are web applications that enable anyone to match, transact, and communicate with other people.