Today i'm looking at folksonomy. Ineed, the word does seem to connote something reminiscent of that thing we use to hold dear in America, but which has since seem to become a figment of our imaginations. This, however, is far from what a folksonomy is.

A conjuction of the words 'folk' and 'taxonomy,' a folksonomy is a term used to describe classification and categorization on the web. Most users familiar with sites like Digg, Reddit and others would immediately be able to relate with this concept. The rise of social bookmarking as a way to disseminate the incomprehensible amount of the data on the web has become exponentially popular. There is really no better way to have the internet take some shape and become something of relevance. Anyone who has spent some time on search engines can empathize with the frustation that can occur when you're looking for something specific and the search engine brings up web pages that have no relevance, but because the word appears is among the first ten web pages you see.

A site like Digg allows users to rate how much they like a website, and subsequently it can become popular if enough users agree on it's relative value. This reminds me alot of a concept I learned in one of my first communication classes about the semantic trianle. In a nutshell, a word is assigned to an object, it is agreed upon by the majority, and it comes to symbolize that object: arbitrary, abstract, and ambiguous are the terms we used to describe a word. The same applies to what makes a page on digg popular; the majority agree that a web page has value--arbitrary, the web pages' relevance to the digg community is difficult to discern--abstract, what makes it popular is the fact that people find meaning in it differently--ambiguous.

This, i'm sure, even qualifies as an abstract interpretation of what a folksonomy is. There may be a more appropriate theory that explains the mechanics of social bookmarking, but I thought I would just introduce this concept to our ongoing discussion.

Feel free to bookmark it if you like!

So what is this all about?

Recently, I've awaken to the advent of social networking sites. I haven't decided if i was just being stubborn to change or just simply naive to the fact that Myspace, Facebook, and others we're completely transforming the way we interact with the Internet. For me, it started with signing up for a Digg account. I had began to see the impact that social bookmarking was having because every page i visited had a button following the end of the article giving the user an option to share (i.e.; Blog, Digg, publish, etc.) I decided that I had two options: remain indifferent to the evolving world around me, pretending that it was all a fad the same way text messaging had been with cell phones; or i could jump on board and find out what was the driving force behind people choosing to immerse themselves in this world of social networks, information sharing, and Web 2.0. I will keep a running update of all the discoveries I make so that if you're like me (an infant to all of this), then you will be able to benefit from the knowledge that emerges.

The other part of it for me is that I'm a communication researcher. I find myself so fascinated by the way humans send and receive messages that I plan on completing doctoral studies on the phenomena (so of course, this will make for some great research). So in addition to deconstructing just what makes Myspace and Facebook so effective, I will also be looking at the communication theory that explains it. All you social researchers should have some fun with this too!