What is Folksonomy

Folksonomies are user-generated taxonomies of all kinds of Web content. Users are allowed to index Web content with tags generated by themselves. Learn more in: Using Computer Mediated Communication as a Tool to Facilitate Intercultural Collaboration of Global Virtual Teams

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. Learn more in: OSIRIS: Ontology-Based System for Semantic Information Retrieval and Indexation Dedicated to Community and Open Web Spaces

Folksonomies are collections of collectively created and managed metadata about digital content by a process called collaborative Tagging based on (Golder & Huberman, 2005), and (Golder & Huberman, 2006). Learn more in: Web 2.0 Concepts, Social Software and Business Models

A user-generated system of classifying and organising online content into different categories by the use of metadata created collaboratively by individuals using social networking platforms. It is opposed to taxonomy which uses well defined classification schemes and categories. Whereas folksonomy is informal and voluntary, taxonomy is formal and comprehensively structured. Learn more in: Social Bookmarking in Digital Libraries: Intellectual Property Rights Implications

Folksonomy is a neologism, a word constructed by mimicing another word: “taxonomy”. A taxonomy is a hierarchical data structure whose purpose is to classify elements of a given domain: nature, science, knowledge, and so forth. Folksonomy indicates a trend of recent times, becoming almost a philosophy, that contrasts formal classification methods, because the definition and organization of the elements is based on the judgment and the concourse of generic “people” (folk), usually gathered in communities, and not of “authorities”. Learn more in: From Knowledge to Personal Knowledge Management

The taxonomy decided by common people, as the results of free tagging of information and objects for one’s retrieval. Learn more in: Web 2.0 Technologies as Cognitive Tools of the New Media Age

A collection of tags (terms) to describe objects of a domain; these are created by a community and not as taxonomies, which are created by experts of a domain. Learn more in: A Security Framework for E-Marketplace Participation

A fusion of the words folks and taxonomy. It is a practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize all kinds of Web resources. Learn more in: Social Tagging: Properties and Applications

A combination of folk and taxonomy. Learn more in: Digital Knowledge Management Artifacts and the Growing Digital Divide: A New Research Agenda

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Collaboration from different users to apply labels, usually online such as in a forum. Learn more in: Multi-Label Classification

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A system of classifying and organizing online content into different categories through metadata or electronic tagging created by users. Learn more in: Metaliteracy and Multiple Literacies

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It is a collaboratively generated taxonomic structure of Web pages, media like hyperlinks, images and movies using open-ended labels called tags. Folksonomies make information increasingly easy to search, discover and navigate over time. The descriptive content of such a tagging process is considered better than automatic tagging because of the “collective wisdom” and better context handling capabilities of humans as compared to computing algorithms. Learn more in: A Study of Friendship Networks and Blogosphere

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Folksonomies can be described as an ad hoc information management structure that acquires its entire structure through the context created by descriptive contributions from an interested community. A folksonomy is a user-created taxonomy used to categorize information. Folksonomies rely on single word tags assigned by users to create context and establish the value of information. Learn more in: Critical Success Factors in the Development of Folksonomy-Based Knowledge Management Tools

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An indexing method open for users to apply freely chosen index terms. The term “folksonomy” was introduced in 2004 by Thomas Vander Wal as a combination of “folk” and “taxonomy.” Learn more in: Folksonomy: The Collaborative Knowledge Organization System

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A set of terms generated by the collective action of an online community where users tag information or objects using their own terms or the terms recommended by others. Learn more in: Knowledge Dissemination in Portals

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Also known as collaborative tagging and social classification, folksonomies make it possible to categorize and annotate content using tags (keywords) and to provide the capabilities to associate tags with individuals. Learn more in: The Hybrid Course: Facilitating Learning through Social Interaction Technologies

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Related to the term ‘taxonomy’, this describes the way in which participants in a Web 2.0 space have assigned tags or labels to content. These tags identify the prevalent themes, topics or areas of interest for individuals in that particular environment. Aggregating these tags creates a folksonomy. Visitors to the site can then search ‘by tag’ and see all the objects labelled by that specific tag. Learn more in: Learning for the Future: Emerging Technologies and Social Participation

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A collection of user-created tags. Learn more in: Collaborative Tagging for Collective Intelligence

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Addresses learners or users’ willingness to rely on expert opinions of other users due to the belief that such opinions offer guidance. Learn more in: Social Issues and Web 2.0: A Closer Look at Culture in E-Learning

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A neologism that indicates the contribution from people (folks) in the definition of meaning and in the classification of information on the Web. It is contrasted to a-priori taxonomies complied by experts (for example in the library field). Learn more in: Social Networking and Personal Learning Environment

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A user-generated categorizing system or taxonomy facilitated by applying popular or commonly referred to tags or labeling terms. Learn more in: Pedagogical Practice for Learning with Social Software

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A practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags for the purpose of annotating and categorizing content. The term folksonomy is a fusion of two words: folk and taxonomy. Folksonomies became popular with the introduction of web-based social software applications, for example, social bookmarking and photograph annotating. Learn more in: Representing and Sharing Tagging Data Using the Social Semantic Cloud of Tags

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is an collaborative annotation process performed by the users. Users read internet content and associated metadata chosen from a controlled vocabulary or free chosen terms. This metadata is used for retrieval purposes and mainly created by the producers and the consumers of the information Learn more in: KC-PLM: Knowledge Collaborative Product Lifecycle Management

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An index produced in a bottom-up manner by adding user-generated tags to webpages of interest through a service such as del.icio.us. The resulting list of tags is known as a folksonomy and may be displayed in the form of a tag cloud , in which more prominent tags are shown in larger and darker type. Learn more in: Communicative Networking and Linguistic Mashups on Web 2.0

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In the context of the Web 2.0 discussion, a folksonomy (sometimes also known as a ‘tag cloud’) is a user-generated taxonomy made up of key terms that describe online content. By assigning these freestyle keywords or so-called ‘tags’, the semantics of various information resources can be described in a more flexible, decentralised, collaborative and participatory way than fixed categories allow for. The term has been coined by Thomas Vander Wal. Learn more in: Social Navigation and Local Folksonomies: Technical and Design Considerations for a Mobile Information System

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A word combining “folk” and “taxonomy,” meaning the “people’s classification management”. Refers to the collaborative but unsophisticated way in which information is being categorized on the Web. Instead of using a centralized form of classification, users are encouraged to assign freely chosen keywords (called tags) to pieces of information or data, a process known as tagging. Learn more in: Analysis and Evaluation of the Connector Website

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The description of information by the people who use it and the consequent challenge to the power structure of those who have historically labelled it. Learn more in: The Qualities and Potential of Social Media

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A web 2.0 social networking application enabling the categorization of information and generation of metadata to construct a non-linear indexing system based on freely chosen keywords. Learn more in: Activating the Networked Object for a Complex World

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Folksonomy is the result of personal free tagging of information and objects (i.e. anything with a URL) for one's own retrieval. The tagging is done in a social environment (usually shared and open to others). Folksonomy is created from the act of tagging by the person consuming the information. ( Vander Wal, 2007 ) Learn more in: Web 2.0—Social Bookmarking: An Overview of Folksonomies

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a user generated classification system using their ‘own’ lexical approach and set of practices. Importantly, the more users participate, the easier it is to reach a critical mass and encourage potential new users to share. From this perspective, information is provided from a richer variety of sources based on current social experiences of the users allowing previously unknown or restricted alternatives or substitutes on a global scale to emerge. Learn more in: Singapore's Online Retail Deviants: Analyzing the Rise of Blogshops' Power

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