Folksonomy

From GSLISWiki

A folksonomy -- derived from "folk taxonomy" -- is an organizational system of simple metadata developed organically by users of information systems, as opposed to a scheme using a controlled vocabulary or classification scheme developed by professionals.

The two most prominent examples are Delicious - a bookmark manager - and Flickr - a photo manager. Users add "tags" to their bookmarks or photographs, and these are the fundamental organizational component. Tags are usually one or two word subject indicators, although in some cases the are used for other purposes.

Adam Mathes is interested in Folksonomies, and recently wrote a paper on them for 590CMC.