The Structure of Folksonomy

Folksonomy – a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. It is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging. It is a characteristic of Web 2.0 services that allows users to collectively classify and find information. One way to visualize tags in folksonomy is the use of tag clouds, which is I learned in my ISTB01 tutorial. (Source: Wikipedia)

In the article, Code is Law; it tells us that the governance of internet (cyberspace) comes in three forms: code, the content, or the social process. The code in cyberspace are like laws of the real world, they are software and hardware that make cyberspace what it is and also regulates it. They act as the backbone and are made to determine which people can access which digital objects. The content is the data packets – music, text, voice, images, etc. Lastly, the social process is the driving force behind the existing concepts in the cyber world.

Now which one of these governing tools determines the structure of a folksonomy? Well I think that the content of the tag is the main reason why people would choose to click and find out. The code is in the background and unseen by most people, although without it the folksonomy system wouldn’t be possible. The social process helps by popularizing the website, blog, etc. However, it is the content of the folksonomy that captures the attention of the audience. It leads them find other articles that relates to single content that they were looking for. Thus, I believe that the content is the most important part of the structure of a folksonomy.