There is an interesting discussion currently underway on two separate
blogs regarding controlled vocabularies versus 'folksonomies', which might
be of interest for those interested in the issue of metadata.

http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2005/01/07/folksonomies_controlled_vocabularies.php


and

http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000330.html

The term 'folksonomy' is described by another blogger as 'a neologism for
a practice of collaborative categorization using simple tags in a flat
namespace.'

The debate refers to the potential or actual costs of developing and
maintaining a controlled vocabulary and its useability particularly at the
'lower levels', versus the relative freedom of allowing people to create
their own 'folksonomy', and the potential for both to inform each other
and ultimately make for better metadata all around.

A quote from the second blog noted above sums it up:

"... it's exciting to consider how these two approaches might fit together
and function as a whole. Neither works especially well on its own:
controlled vocabularies often miss out on input from content authors and
become rigid, stale, and distant from the vernacular of users;
folksonomies will begin to break down for the reasons mentioned above.
Treating them as major parts of a single metadata ecology might expose a
useful symbiosis: encourage authors and users to generate folksonomies,
and use those terms as candidates for inclusion in richer, more current
controlled vocabularies that can evolve to best support findability."


Andrew Warland
Senior Consultant, Information Management
Converga Pty Ltd (www.converga.com.au), an operating division of
Outsource Australia Pty Ltd (www.outsourceaust.com.au)

Ph 0413 043 934

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