Folksonomies are new Web 2.0 fun tools - great for categorizing documents and resources in a collaborative way on your web site!
A Folksonomy is.....
How do they Work?
There are several different ways that folksonomies can serve a website. One common way is to organize a tag cloud of all the major links to your
site - similar to a sitemap. Another way is to set up the folksonomy to reflect documents and files shared by site visitors or members, linking to the
particular documents indicated by the word or phrase in the emerging tag cloud. Another use that is becoming quite popular is to reflect the contents
of a cluster of text, or even a set of data. This has all kinds of promise for feedback and even qualitative research analysis.
Just as the uses for a folksonomy vary, so do the way they appear. Some folksonomy tag clouds are very plain - they are barely discernable to regular
texts except for a variance in text size or colour. Others are quite attractive looking, especially if organized with a graphic background for aesthetics quality. The way folksonomies are processed into tag clouds also varies - web designers can use tag cloud software or online tag cloud generators. Or, they can hand code their tag cloud in php or java to create a customized folksonomy tag cloud.
Folksonomies as Doorways
Tag Clouds are not only a great byproduct of folksonomy classification. They can also serve as a 'gateway' or 'doorway' into a section of your web site. Some people even use them as a sitemap alternative (each word or phrase in the tag cloud is then a link). There are various ways to make these doorway tag clouds, where each word or phrase links to a particular page in your site. Probably, the easiest way to accomplish this is to use an online tag cloud generator that allows links to be included.
Tag Cloud Generator at http://www.tagcloud-generator.com/, created by German designers, Cesaria Design Projects is one of the easiest of these to use. The generator will spider the page you indicate (great for using with your sitemap) or you can manually type in the words/phrases and urls that you want to see in your cloud. You can also customize the colours, fonts, size, and alignment of your cloud's words. Here's an example of a simple cloud created in this generator.
With a little creativity, you can organize this cloud in an aesthetic way, to match your site. Two examples are visible below - notice how each word clicks through to a major part of the site. To get an idea on how to customize the styles to fit these graphics, check out the source code for the two clouds below.
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Folksonomies as Social Organizer
Folksonomies are different than the classic taxonomy used to organize hierarchies of information. A folksonomy is set up to be user-governed, organized by the tags assigned to content by the user. It is these tags that shape the words and phrases evident in a tag cloud. The capabilities of folksonomies really stand the test, when applied to social media types of data. A classic example, is Flickr's method of organizing images uploaded and tagged by users from around the world. Sites like Flickr allow tag clouds to be used to indicate top tags for searches and collaboration. A common method used by web site owners and bloggers, is to install a cloud tag widget right onto their site to present a visual organization of blog entries or site documents. For some excellent examples, check out Smashing Magazine's article, Tag Clouds Gallery: Examples And Good Practices.Folksonomies as Analyzers
Finally, another excellent way that folksonomies can serve web designers and site owners, is to organize key words, phrases, and themes in a text document or a set of data. As mentioned previously, this could be a very promising practice in the analysis of qualitative research data, in helping the researcher to see the main themes in their data.
An example of using tag clouds to highlight text documents, is the tag cloud formed by words in President Obama's recent inauguration speech, available on Flickr.
Another example is a tag cloud generated to highlight and showcase main themes in an rss fed site, such as a blog. An example is this tag cloud created from my own PhD research blog.
This latter tag cloud was created using the online tag cloud generator at Wordle Tag Cloud Generator. This generator will let you make a cloud text from text that you copy and paste right into the form field on the site, or from an rss fed blog or other site.
I mounted mine in a cloud styled graphic. If you would like a cloud graphic to use for your tag cloud, you can download the zip file below with several renditions of a cloud background in a few different sizes.
Free Cloud Graphic Backgrounds for your Tag Clouds
