Folksonomies and tagging

When I asked Where's the fight-back from formal classificationists?, Matt pointed me to some very interesting websites, including two at LibraryThing. These projects are great, but they're about bridging the gap between formal classification and folksonomies, rather than shoring up the somewhat dilapidated current state of formal classification.

What I had in mind was a program such as this:

Imagine a theoretical classification scheme, which is still widely used in libraries and would like to be widely used on the Internet. The guiding hands decide that if they are to survive on the Internet they must adapt, to this end they:

These days articles about tagging often repeat an image of Monk-like librarians freaking out about the rise of folksonomic classification.  One imagines uniformed order-obsessed Gruppen-Kataloguers peering out of a fortress window and muttering about the rabble in the courtyard below.  "Zey need our help," one chuckles, leeringly, fondling a weapon.

As satisfyingly as that may reinforce the stereotypes of some commentators, I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Witness a couple of recent blog entries that take an analytical look the tagging phenom and come up with good news:

Though I don't think it uses the word "folksonomy" anywhere, this article in eSchool News contains -- if you can wade through the gee-whiz style -- a couple of neat ideas for application of tagging tools in the classroom. The examples are provided by K-12 educators but could easily be adapted to any instructional context.

Not sure when this started, but I just noticed that Amazon.com has added support for tagging content.  I haven't had a chance to explore it deeply, but it certainly seems noteworthy.  My intitial glance at it seemed to suggest that it might be something less than full on support for folksonomies, but like I said, I haven't had a chance to explore it fully yet.

Here's Amazon's info about the service:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/tagging/what-is-this.html

Danah Boyd has an interesting blog entry comparing and contrasting recent experiences with Google and the ALA.  It is an entertaining and interesting read.  Highly recommended.
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2005/10/04/somwhere_inbetw.html

Just discovered (via Academic Commons): You're It! A blog on tagging.

This pro-tagging manifesto caught my attention. It takes a line that is, at first view, not entirely dissimilar to the "wisdom of crowds" argument currently circulating in ICT / KM circles.

This particular post is one energetic volley in an ongoing debate. Definitely worth a read: