Folksonomy

Definition

Folksonomy (term coined by Thomas Vander Wal in 2004, aggregated from "folk" and "taxonomy") is the process of having users use content tags to categorize or annotate digital content. It allows users to classify websites, pictures, documents and other forms of data in an organic, self-determined way (as opposed to a taxonomic classification specified by the content provider). [1]

Folksonomy is also known as social tagging, collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing and social bookmarking [2].

Derived from "folk" and "taxonomy," folksonomy is a common feature of most social media and Web 2.0 platforms. It creates a common and shared vocabulary of related terms or keywords with each unique type of content. Adding such data results in improved content visibility, classification and searchability. Folksonomy may be broad or narrow. Broad folksonomy provides a wealth of related content data and tags, whereas narrow folksonomy information is limited[3]

The social tagging systems are dependent on a community doing the tagging, in contrast to the traditional taxonomies [4].

Tagging

Folksonomy primarily occurs through tagging, or adding metadata information to content. This data may be in the form of any of the following: Location/URL/content shortcut/Category/type/class/Author/owner

Examples of folksonomies

Twitter hashtags, Libraries' online catalogs, Instagram photo sharing