Wichowski
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2447/2175

a First Monday article on the creation and evolution of folksonomies

Folksonomies have emerged as a means to create order in a rapidly expanding information environment whose existing means to organize content have been strained. This paper examines folksonomies from an evolutionary perspective, viewing the changing conditions of the information environment as having given rise to organization adaptations in order to ensure information “survival” — remaining findable. This essay traces historical information organization mechanisms, the conditions that gave rise to folksonomies, and the scholarly response, review, and recommendations for the future of folksonomies.

First Monday, 4 may 2009, Alexis Wichowski

Wichowski

"Common Tag is an open tagging format developed to make content more connected, discoverable and engaging. Unlike free-text tags, Common Tags are references to unique, well-defined concepts, complete with metadata and their own URLs. With Common Tag, site owners can more easily create topic hubs, cross-promote their content, and enrich their pages with free data, images and widgets."

"Thousands of different Lego exist, yet when your seven-year-old asks for “a clippy bit,” you know exactly what to hand him. Giles Turnbull surveys a caucus of children." Giles brings utter joy again. (via infovore)

"This language of Lego isn’t just something our family has invented; every Lego-building family must have its own vocabulary. And the words they use (mostly invented by the children, not the adults) are likely to be different every time. But how different? And what sort of words? Hence, a survey. I asked fellow parents to donate their children for a few minutes, and name a selection of Lego pieces culled from the Lego parts store."

Cute.

The various names that kids call lego pieces. Roland Barthes would smile. s/z

The project aims to help make content as discoverable and connected as could reasonably be assumed. The creators also hope to make content more engaging. When a web app can determine what a piece of content is actually about, the UX improves exponentially. The website gives the example of a developer creating an app that uses an article about the most recent Star Trek movie and lets users purchase tickets on the same page. The site reads, "Since both the publisher and ticket service use Common Tag, the application is able to easily make the connection without having to guess at what the content of the two services is about." Tags are expressed using RDFa, a standard format for defining data in HTML.

Reading: Common Tag Brings Standards to Metadata http://bit.ly/rhshF [from http://twitter.com/sandroalberti/statuses/2157913493]