Folksonomies: Classification for the People, By the People
Folksonomy is yet another cyber creation loosely defined with great depth and application purposes within our daily lives. For college students perhaps the greatest use of folksonomies accompany the obsessive routine checks of Facebook. Most information added to a Facebook profile will categorize you according to our socially created tags and/or groups.
For my blog I will be providing commentary on Communal Categorization: The Folksonomy by David Sturtz and including a picture from Flickr tagged North Dakota.
I believe Communal Categorization: The Folksonomy is a “must read three times” article in order to gain understanding and clarity to the topic of folksonomy. It is complex how the folksonomy becomes a cyclical process where we the people create our own classification, only to be converged with the classification of others, only to be broken down further to using the most useful applications. So my question becomes are the people always in control of the folksonomies they create?
If I create a folksonomy I instantly become part of a group or community. The article discusses there are social, political, and economical implications to belonging to these created folksonomies. I personally and professionally would appreciate belonging to less folksonomies to avoid being improperly classified.
While reviewing the article the following questions came to mind:
Are folksonomies really the most efficient and effective way of classifications? Was this just a community focused application created to provide people with the most resources and power? Essentially are we simply the communities we create or belong to? Will internet communities continue to flatten or will there be a need for a revised hierarchical classification system?
I found the discussion regarding the Google bomb the most interesting discussion point. I am in marketing so the fact that companies use folksonomies as a catalyst for free advertising is not only creative but holds ethical implications. My question to the class is whether you think the “Google bomb” as described under the heading Google, page 3, of the article is an ethical approach to advertising?
In conclusion I believe the folksonomy is yet another term that supports that the internet is becoming more flat. Folksonomies place us in the same communities as people world-wide crossing all barriers and being created and controlled by the people.
In the January 22, 2007 edition of Time magazine Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of Internet Society, stated the following:
“Open standards and collaboration, rather than top-down or centralized governance, have ensured that the Internet’s development remains in the hands of those who know most what they need.” (Amour, 2007)
I believe that this article holds true that the internet will continue to use resources such as folksonomies to maintain this flatness and furthered development.
The following picture was taken from my Flickr amberrose.mpls account.
To capture the New Year I accompanied my family to vacation in California. We took a three hour Hollywood tour where one of our stops include the Hollywood Sign. Did you know that each letter making up the sign is five stories high? It is also home to many deaths and suicides as during the 60's and 70's struggling actors and actresses used this as their mourning grounds. Today it is highly secured and looked over by the Hollywood police. If you walk on the hillside leading up to the Hollywood Sign you will be nicely escorted away by a helicopter visit.
Another interesting tid bit from Hollywood. . .
They have valet at their post office!