<s>
Folksonomy	B-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
classification	O
system	O
in	O
which	O
end	O
users	O
apply	O
public	O
tags	B-General_Concept
to	O
online	O
items	O
,	O
typically	O
to	O
make	O
those	O
items	O
easier	O
for	O
themselves	O
or	O
others	O
to	O
find	O
later	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Over	O
time	O
,	O
this	O
can	O
give	O
rise	O
to	O
a	O
classification	O
system	O
based	O
on	O
those	O
tags	B-General_Concept
and	O
how	O
often	O
they	O
are	O
applied	O
or	O
searched	O
for	O
,	O
in	O
contrast	O
to	O
a	O
taxonomic	O
classification	O
designed	O
by	O
the	O
owners	O
of	O
the	O
content	O
and	O
specified	O
when	O
it	O
is	O
published	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
practice	O
is	O
also	O
known	O
as	O
collaborative	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
,	O
social	B-General_Concept
classification	I-General_Concept
,	O
social	B-General_Concept
indexing	I-General_Concept
,	O
and	O
social	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomy	B-General_Concept
was	O
originally	O
"	O
the	O
result	O
of	O
personal	O
free	O
tagging	O
of	O
information	O
 [ ... ] 	O
for	O
one	O
's	O
own	O
retrieval	O
"	O
,	O
but	O
online	O
sharing	O
and	O
interaction	O
expanded	O
it	O
into	O
collaborative	O
forms	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Social	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
is	O
the	O
application	O
of	O
tags	B-General_Concept
in	O
an	O
open	O
online	O
environment	O
where	O
the	O
tags	B-General_Concept
of	O
other	O
users	O
are	O
available	O
to	O
others	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Collaborative	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
(	O
also	O
known	O
as	O
group	O
tagging	O
)	O
is	O
tagging	O
performed	O
by	O
a	O
group	O
of	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
type	O
of	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
is	O
commonly	O
used	O
in	O
cooperative	O
and	O
collaborative	O
projects	O
such	O
as	O
research	O
,	O
content	B-Protocol
repositories	I-Protocol
,	O
and	O
social	B-General_Concept
bookmarking	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomies	B-General_Concept
became	O
popular	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
social	O
software	O
applications	O
such	O
as	O
social	B-General_Concept
bookmarking	I-General_Concept
and	O
photograph	O
annotation	O
that	O
enable	O
users	O
to	O
collectively	O
classify	O
and	O
find	O
information	O
via	O
shared	O
tags	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
websites	O
include	O
tag	B-Application
clouds	I-Application
as	O
a	O
way	O
to	O
visualize	O
tags	B-General_Concept
in	O
a	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomies	B-General_Concept
can	O
be	O
used	O
for	O
K	O
–	O
12	O
education	O
,	O
business	O
,	O
and	O
higher	O
education	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
More	O
specifically	O
,	O
folksonomies	B-General_Concept
may	O
be	O
implemented	O
for	O
social	B-General_Concept
bookmarking	I-General_Concept
,	O
teacher	O
resource	O
repositories	O
,	O
e-learning	O
systems	O
,	O
collaborative	O
learning	O
,	O
collaborative	O
research	O
,	O
professional	O
development	O
and	O
teaching	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Wikipedia	O
is	O
also	O
a	O
prime	O
example	O
of	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomies	B-General_Concept
are	O
a	O
trade-off	O
between	O
traditional	O
centralized	O
classification	O
and	O
no	O
classification	O
at	O
all	O
,	O
and	O
have	O
several	O
advantages	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
several	O
disadvantages	O
with	O
the	O
use	O
of	O
tags	B-General_Concept
and	O
folksonomies	B-General_Concept
as	O
well	O
,	O
and	O
some	O
of	O
the	O
advantages	O
(	O
see	O
above	O
)	O
can	O
lead	O
to	O
problems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
the	O
simplicity	O
in	O
tagging	O
can	O
result	O
in	O
poorly	O
applied	O
tags	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Further	O
,	O
while	O
controlled	O
vocabularies	O
are	O
exclusionary	O
by	O
nature	O
,	O
tags	B-General_Concept
are	O
often	O
ambiguous	O
and	O
overly	O
personalized	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Users	O
apply	O
tags	B-General_Concept
to	O
documents	O
in	O
many	O
different	O
ways	O
and	O
tagging	O
systems	O
also	O
often	O
lack	O
mechanisms	O
for	O
handling	O
synonyms	B-Application
,	O
acronyms	O
and	O
homonyms	O
,	O
and	O
they	O
also	O
often	O
lack	O
mechanisms	O
for	O
handling	O
spelling	O
variations	O
such	O
as	O
misspellings	O
,	O
singular/plural	O
form	O
,	O
conjugated	O
and	O
compound	O
words	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
tagging	O
systems	O
do	O
not	O
support	O
tags	B-General_Concept
consisting	O
of	O
multiple	O
words	O
,	O
resulting	O
in	O
tags	B-General_Concept
like	O
"	O
viewfrommywindow	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Sometimes	O
users	O
choose	O
specialized	O
tags	B-General_Concept
or	O
tags	B-General_Concept
without	O
meaning	O
to	O
others	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
emerges	O
when	O
users	O
tag	B-General_Concept
content	O
or	O
information	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
web	O
pages	O
,	O
photos	O
,	O
videos	O
,	O
podcasts	O
,	O
tweets	O
,	O
scientific	O
papers	O
and	O
others	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
elaborate	O
the	O
concept	O
:	O
the	O
term	O
"	O
tagging	O
"	O
refers	O
to	O
a	O
"	O
voluntary	O
activity	O
of	O
users	O
who	O
are	O
annotating	O
resources	O
with	O
term-so-called	O
'	O
tags	B-General_Concept
 '	O
–	O
freely	O
chosen	O
from	O
an	O
unbounded	O
and	O
uncontrolled	O
vocabulary	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Others	O
explain	O
tags	B-General_Concept
as	O
an	O
unstructured	O
textual	O
label	O
or	O
keywords	O
,	O
and	O
that	O
they	O
appear	O
as	O
a	O
simple	O
form	O
of	O
metadata	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomies	B-General_Concept
consist	O
of	O
three	O
basic	O
entities	O
:	O
users	O
,	O
tags	B-General_Concept
,	O
and	O
resources	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Users	O
create	O
tags	B-General_Concept
to	O
mark	O
resources	O
such	O
as	O
:	O
web	O
pages	O
,	O
photos	O
,	O
videos	O
,	O
and	O
podcasts	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
These	O
tags	B-General_Concept
are	O
used	O
to	O
manage	O
,	O
categorize	O
and	O
summarize	O
online	O
content	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
collaborative	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
system	O
also	O
uses	O
these	O
tags	B-General_Concept
as	O
a	O
way	O
to	O
index	O
information	O
,	O
facilitate	O
searches	O
and	O
navigate	O
resources	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomy	B-General_Concept
also	O
includes	O
a	O
set	O
of	O
URLs	O
that	O
are	O
used	O
to	O
identify	O
resources	O
that	O
have	O
been	O
referred	O
to	O
by	O
users	O
of	O
different	O
websites	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
These	O
systems	O
also	O
include	O
category	O
schemes	O
that	O
have	O
the	O
ability	O
to	O
organize	O
tags	B-General_Concept
at	O
different	O
levels	O
of	O
granularity	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Vander	O
Wal	O
identifies	O
two	O
types	O
of	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
:	O
broad	O
and	O
narrow	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
broad	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
arises	O
when	O
multiple	O
users	O
can	O
apply	O
the	O
same	O
tag	B-General_Concept
to	O
an	O
item	O
,	O
providing	O
information	O
about	O
which	O
tags	B-General_Concept
are	O
the	O
most	O
popular	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
narrow	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
occurs	O
when	O
users	O
,	O
typically	O
fewer	O
in	O
number	O
and	O
often	O
including	O
the	O
item	O
's	O
creator	O
,	O
tag	B-General_Concept
an	O
item	O
with	O
tags	B-General_Concept
that	O
can	O
each	O
be	O
applied	O
only	O
once	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
While	O
both	O
broad	O
and	O
narrow	O
folksonomies	B-General_Concept
enable	O
the	O
searchability	O
of	O
content	O
by	O
adding	O
an	O
associated	O
word	O
or	O
phrase	O
to	O
an	O
object	O
,	O
a	O
broad	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
allows	O
for	O
sorting	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
popularity	O
of	O
each	O
tag	B-General_Concept
,	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
the	O
tracking	O
of	O
emerging	O
trends	O
in	O
tag	B-General_Concept
usage	O
and	O
developing	O
vocabularies	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
example	O
of	O
a	O
broad	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
is	O
del.icio.us,	O
a	O
website	O
where	O
users	O
can	O
tag	B-General_Concept
any	O
online	O
resource	O
they	O
find	O
relevant	O
with	O
their	O
own	O
personal	O
tags	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
photo-sharing	O
website	O
Flickr	B-Algorithm
is	O
an	O
oft-cited	O
example	O
of	O
a	O
narrow	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
establishes	O
categories	O
(	O
each	O
tag	B-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
category	O
)	O
without	O
stipulating	O
or	O
necessarily	O
deriving	O
a	O
hierarchical	O
structure	O
of	O
parent-child	O
relations	O
among	O
different	O
tags	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
(	O
Work	O
has	O
been	O
done	O
on	O
techniques	O
for	O
deriving	O
at	O
least	O
loose	O
hierarchies	O
from	O
clusters	O
of	O
tags	B-General_Concept
.	O
)	O
</s>
<s>
Supporters	O
of	O
folksonomies	B-General_Concept
claim	O
that	O
they	O
are	O
often	O
preferable	O
to	O
taxonomies	O
because	O
folksonomies	B-General_Concept
democratize	O
the	O
way	O
information	O
is	O
organized	O
,	O
they	O
are	O
more	O
useful	O
to	O
users	O
because	O
they	O
reflect	O
current	O
ways	O
of	O
thinking	O
about	O
domains	O
,	O
and	O
they	O
express	O
more	O
information	O
about	O
domains	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Critics	O
claim	O
that	O
folksonomies	B-General_Concept
are	O
messy	O
and	O
thus	O
harder	O
to	O
use	O
,	O
and	O
can	O
reflect	O
transient	O
trends	O
that	O
may	O
misrepresent	O
what	O
is	O
known	O
about	O
a	O
field	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
While	O
this	O
was	O
believed	O
to	O
require	O
commonly	O
agreed	O
on	O
sets	O
of	O
content	O
describing	O
tags	B-General_Concept
(	O
much	O
like	O
keywords	O
of	O
a	O
journal	O
article	O
)	O
,	O
some	O
research	O
has	O
found	O
that	O
in	O
large	O
folksonomies	B-General_Concept
common	O
structures	O
also	O
emerge	O
on	O
the	O
level	O
of	O
categorizations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Accordingly	O
,	O
it	O
is	O
possible	O
to	O
devise	O
mathematical	O
models	B-Architecture
of	I-Architecture
collaborative	I-Architecture
tagging	I-Architecture
that	O
allow	O
for	O
translating	O
from	O
personal	O
tag	B-General_Concept
vocabularies	O
(	O
personomies	O
)	O
to	O
the	O
vocabulary	O
shared	O
by	O
most	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomy	B-General_Concept
is	O
unrelated	O
to	O
folk	O
taxonomy	O
,	O
a	O
cultural	O
practice	O
that	O
has	O
been	O
widely	O
documented	O
in	O
anthropological	O
and	O
folkloristic	O
work	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
study	O
of	O
the	O
structuring	O
or	O
classification	O
of	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
is	O
termed	O
folksontology	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
branch	O
of	O
ontology	O
deals	O
with	O
the	O
intersection	O
between	O
highly	O
structured	O
taxonomies	O
or	O
hierarchies	O
and	O
loosely	O
structured	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
,	O
asking	O
what	O
best	O
features	O
can	O
be	O
taken	O
by	O
both	O
for	O
a	O
system	O
of	O
classification	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomy	B-General_Concept
allows	O
large	O
disparate	O
groups	O
of	O
users	O
to	O
collaboratively	O
label	O
massive	O
,	O
dynamic	O
information	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Folksonomy	B-General_Concept
looks	O
to	O
categorize	O
tags	B-General_Concept
and	O
thus	O
create	O
browsable	O
spaces	O
of	O
information	O
that	O
are	O
easy	O
to	O
maintain	O
and	O
expand	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Social	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
for	O
knowledge	O
acquisition	O
is	O
the	O
specific	O
use	O
of	O
tagging	O
for	O
finding	O
and	O
re-finding	O
specific	O
content	O
for	O
an	O
individual	O
or	O
group	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Social	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
systems	O
differ	O
from	O
traditional	O
taxonomies	O
in	O
that	O
they	O
are	O
community-based	O
systems	O
lacking	O
the	O
traditional	O
hierarchy	O
of	O
taxonomies	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Rather	O
than	O
a	O
top-down	O
approach	O
,	O
social	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
relies	O
on	O
users	O
to	O
create	O
the	O
folksonomy	B-General_Concept
from	O
the	O
bottom	O
up	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Common	O
uses	O
of	O
social	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
for	O
knowledge	O
acquisition	O
include	O
personal	O
development	O
for	O
individual	O
use	O
and	O
collaborative	O
projects	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Social	B-General_Concept
tagging	I-General_Concept
is	O
used	O
for	O
knowledge	O
acquisition	O
in	O
secondary	O
,	O
post-secondary	O
,	O
and	O
graduate	O
education	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
personal	O
and	O
business	O
research	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Users	O
choose	O
individual	O
tags	B-General_Concept
for	O
stored	O
resources	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
These	O
tags	B-General_Concept
reflect	O
personal	O
associations	O
,	O
categories	O
,	O
and	O
concepts	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
tags	B-General_Concept
,	O
or	O
keywords	O
,	O
are	O
designated	O
by	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Consequently	O
,	O
tags	B-General_Concept
represent	O
a	O
user	O
's	O
associations	O
corresponding	O
to	O
the	O
resource	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tags	B-General_Concept
are	O
beneficial	O
for	O
a	O
couple	O
of	O
reasons	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
second	O
aspect	O
is	O
social	O
in	O
nature	O
,	O
that	O
is	O
to	O
say	O
that	O
users	O
may	O
search	O
for	O
new	O
resources	O
and	O
content	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
tags	B-General_Concept
of	O
other	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Even	O
the	O
act	O
of	O
browsing	O
through	O
common	O
tags	B-General_Concept
may	O
lead	O
to	O
further	O
resources	O
for	O
knowledge	O
acquisition	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tags	B-General_Concept
that	O
occur	O
more	O
frequently	O
with	O
specific	O
resources	O
are	O
said	O
to	O
be	O
more	O
strongly	O
connected	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Furthermore	O
,	O
tags	B-General_Concept
may	O
be	O
connected	O
to	O
each	O
other	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tag	B-Application
clouds	I-Application
are	O
often	O
utilized	O
to	O
visualize	O
connectivity	O
between	O
resources	O
and	O
tags	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Tags	B-General_Concept
show	O
interconnections	O
of	O
concepts	O
that	O
were	O
formerly	O
unknown	O
to	O
a	O
user	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Therefore	O
,	O
a	O
user	O
's	O
current	O
cognitive	O
constructs	O
may	O
be	O
modified	O
or	O
augmented	O
by	O
the	O
metadata	O
information	O
found	O
in	O
aggregated	O
social	O
tags	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
World	O
Wide	O
Web	O
Consortium	O
's	O
Annotea	O
project	O
with	O
user-generated	O
tags	B-General_Concept
in	O
2002	O
.	O
</s>
