So sleepy . . .

I've just spent the majority of my day finding and reading new resources for my paper on folksonomy for my cataloging course. Folksonomy is a really interesting new way people are creating social circles while increasing findability of items on the inter- or intranet. A quick breakdown of what folksonomy is--do you use the Favorites list on Internet Explorer? How about the bookmarks tool on Firefox? When you do that, you're effectively tagging something--that is, applying terms to it to increase future findability. Tagging is the process of keeping found things found.

In its now-popular form, tagging is where you apply a word or a series of words to a piece of data, say a web site, so you can find it again--or other people can find it by searching those terms. There are services on the web that have communities based around tagging data--users at del.icio.us tag web sites, YouTube contributors tag videos, Flickr tags pictures. As I mentioned, not only is this being used on the internet, but also on the intranet--that is, a network closed to outsiders, used by businesses or government agencies.

Now there are two "languages" that can be used to tag--formal and folk. Formal tagging language is known as ontology or taxonomy. It is a hierarchical system of divisions and subdivisions used to categorize and, ultimately, catalog. An example of this is the term mammal. A human is a mammal, but mammal is not a type of human--that is because of a hierarchical system of knowledge. It has its origins in ancient philosophy and, needless to say, very entrenched. Folksonomy, which is a term created by Thomas Vander Wal, is a mashup of the words folk and taxonomy. It is a term that describes a language of cataloging that arises from the individual or a group of individuals. Folksonomy does not have a hierarchical system--I won't get into this, because it's a whole other discussion (but you can find a really cool and interesting discussion of it here). What terms come to mind if you are going to catalog this web site? You put them in and, voila, you have employed folksonomy. Now you or other people can find this site by searching the same terms. And don't even get me started about the social groups that have grown up around this thing . . . you thought World of Warcraft was bad? Let's get together a group of people who tag web sites about designer shoes and see which you think is more interesting . . . .

I hope that helps you guys understand what I've been working on. It has so many implications--imagine how excited businesses were when they realized they could look in on how people view the internet. And it's just begun, so there's so many more things it can do. Oh yeah, and it's really tearing some librarians up. How do you think you'd feel if there were people out there saying the ordinary man on the street is now able to do your professional job?

If anyone's interested, I think I might post a link to the paper I'm writing on the subject. Yes, your excitement about it is almost palpable!