peterme.com

Might be useful to have a link to the essay you're commenting on.

http://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html

Peter, I think you are a little off on your guesses this time. Folksonomy is not a perfect term, but you have the etymology dead wrong. Must be travel or holiday mindset or something as most anthropologist are great etymologist, which is why I enjoy their company.

Taxonomy is the broken into the "taxis" and "nomia" or "nomos" (depending on definition used) from Greek. Taxis is the arrangement or classification part of the term. Nomia is the method and nomos is management. I think you got the terms flipped when translating, which is understandable.

Hence, if you use the neologism folksonomy you have a regular people(s) method or management. This is what the word was intended to mean and what is etymologically correct.

Additionally, the practice of free tagging, also was including Google's Gmail, which is not a social practice but a private personal practice. Therefore, mob nor social would be accurate. This does make folksonomy slightly off, unless we are talking about the practice of regular folks in their approaches to categorizing or managing their tags.

Whoops! I linked to the essay now. That was an oversight.

With respect to "folksonomy" -- I don't give a fiddle for etymology. I care about definitions and use... and "taxonomy", which folksonomy is meant to evoke, is specific to classifications.

I didn't flip any terms -- I could care less about the etymology.

And, even so, according to your etymology, "folksonomy" means "folk management" or "folk method," which is meaningless -- management of what?

Your right to distinguish free tagging... But what the article was about, and what is of broader interest (I think) is the social metadata -- whatever we call it.

There's an easy and practical 1-letter solution: "tagonomy" or "tagsonomy." The coinage both evokes its formal and hierarchical cousin "taxonomy" while contrasting it with a more social practice -- collaborative tagging.

It improves on the existing neologism, "folksonomy," by actually describing the process of labeling and managing a piece of data with a tag.

I think your point about post-coordinate indexing is right on. I was playing with "distributed post-coordinate indexing" and "social post-coordinate indexing." Maybe we should tie two recent threads together and call it "massively multiplayer post-coordinate indexing." :)

Hi Peter and all,
Thanks for, as usual, providing a thought-provoking discussion.

I think that the term folksonomy is not appropriate for the reasons you mention but also because it reinforces a two-tier system. Because of the connotations of the term "folk" - there is an implication that the classifications/descriptions arrived at by formalists and the academic world are somehow better than those that emerge from the collective (the folk). It reminds me of the term "folk art" or "outsider art" which is used in the art world to enforce a similar two-tier system. Given the usefulness of many of the world's classification systems, which were arrived at out-of-need and in an informal manner, I don't think the two-tier implications are warranted.

I would suggest the terms "emergent" and/or "collective" (as in collective unconscious) be used.

collective

adj 1: done by or characteristic of individuals acting together; "a joint identity"; "the collective mind"; "the corporate good" [syn: corporate] 2: forming a whole or aggregate [ant: distributive]

Regarding "post-coordinate indexing", I think its a pretty complicated term for a very simple and intuitive concept!

Donna

Oops, forgot to leave my name, etc. That was me who posted the last message!

Donna

I wonder how marketing-speak is classified. Interesting concepts, kudos!

Adhoxomy :-)

Actually, "tagonomy" is great. Best one I've heard.

I'm not sure (despite being a plaque-carrying member) that the academic or intellectual really gets a say when the folks get involved in definitions. Consider television (half Latin, half Greek), which the ad-boyos came up with, and which in today's speak has become fogeyed by "tv" on one side of the pond and "telly" on the other. Did an etymologist get a say in that one? Can you nail down why "gay" went from "riotous" in the '40's to "homosexual" in the '70's, or get a meaningful etymology for "rock'n'roll"? I'd say folksonomy is a product of, precisely, a folksonomy.

I vote for tagonomy too!

:)

Folksy Taxonomy
or
Nominomy (Naming Method/Naming Management)

Is "gang taggers" already taken?

"concepts setting" or "human minimal summarization"

Free Tagging !

Tagonomy gets my vote too. Or possibly Tagosaurus, if it doesn't have teeth ...

'..."folk management" or "folk method," which is meaningless...'

"management by the people," "a method utilized by the people." meaningful.

I have just implemented a folksonomy, it is still pretty much in its infancy and potentially buggy, however if anyone wants to try it, it is at http://www.bigblogzoo.com.

I am also struggling for a name, I have sort of settled for Social Thesaurus.

You use the tree to navigate to one of the blogs or feeds and then you press 'animalise me', which brings you to the folksonomy.

If anyone has any comments I would be very interested to hear them:

http://www.syndicatescape.com/bigblogzoo/

With a background in Architecture and Town Planning, one cannot avoid the urban metaphor proposed by Adam Mathes, when he compares free tagging with desire lines. I was born in a planned city that had its pedestrian paths paved according to a plan. But on its enormous open grass fields, people decided to choose their paths, defining desired lines. Surprisingly, there are not so many paths that the grass does not grow at all. Very much on the contrary, people decide to follow other people's desired lines, or paths, in a way that the grass fields are kept as green as ever. This may seem poetic, but it shows that it is human to choose, but it is also human to choose what other ones had chosen before. Be it for establishing a pattern, be it for ease or convenience, or be it for not reinventing the wheel. Anyway, the way you call it is the less important thing. Why not folksonomy? Or, if this is a free space for suggestions: wishsonomy or desiresonomy...

With a background in Architecture and Town Planning, one cannot avoid the urban metaphor proposed by Adam Mathes, when he compares free tagging with desire lines. I was born in a planned city that had its pedestrian paths paved according to a plan. But on its enormous open grass fields, people decided to choose their paths, defining desired lines. Surprisingly, there are not so many paths that the grass does not grow at all. Very much on the contrary, people decide to follow other people's desired lines, or paths, in a way that the grass fields are kept as green as ever. This may seem poetic, but it shows that it is human to choose, but it is also human to choose what other ones had chosen before. Be it for establishing a pattern, be it for ease or convenience, or be it for not reinventing the wheel. Anyway, the way you call it is the less important thing. Why not folksonomy? Or, if this is a free space for suggestions: wishsonomy or desiresonomy...

With a background in Architecture and Town Planning, one cannot avoid the urban metaphor proposed by Adam Mathes, when he compares free tagging with desire lines. I was born in a planned city that had its pedestrian paths paved according to a plan. But on its enormous open grass fields, people decided to choose their paths, defining desired lines. Surprisingly, there are not so many paths that the grass does not grow at all. Very much on the contrary, people decide to follow other people's desired lines, or paths, in a way that the grass fields are kept as green as ever. This may seem poetic, but it shows that it is human to choose, but it is also human to choose what other ones had chosen before. Be it for establishing a pattern, be it for ease or convenience, or be it for not reinventing the wheel. Anyway, the way you call it is the less important thing. Why not folksonomy? Or, if this is a free space for suggestions: wishsonomy or desiresonomy...

mobdexing

Do you know where I might find that article? The link doesn't work anymore. Thanks.