What is a folksonomy?
Folksonomy is the practice and method of collaborative categorization using freely-chosen keywords or tags.
The term - generally attributed to Thomas Vander Wal - is a portmanteau, combining "folk" and "taxonomy". It specifically refers to the tagging systems created within web communities, particualrly social networking sites like Facebook and Flickr. The term literally means "people's classification management".
Folksonomic tagging is intended to make a body of information increasingly easy to search, discover, and navigate over time. A well-developed folksonomy is ideally accessible as a shared vocabulary that is both originated by, and familiar to, its primary users.
If they are explicitly represented - and they don't have to be - the visually weighted list or tag cloud is often the representation of choice.
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