Munk, Timme Bisgaard Munk and Mørk, Kristian. Folksonomy,
The Power Law & the Significance of the Least
Effort. Knowledge Organization, 34(1), 16-33. 41 references.
ABSTRACT: The essence of folksonomies is user-created
descriptive metadata as opposed to the traditional senderdetermined
descriptive metadata in taxonomies and faceted
classification. We briefly introduce the beginning and principles
of folksonomy and discuss the categorizing concept
of folksonomies on the basis of the computer program
del.icio.us. The selection of the metadata tagged is not
accidental, rather tagging follows a pattern that proves to
be the pattern for the classic power law, which, in many
complex systems is seen to unfold as an imitation-dynamic
that creates an asymmetry, where a few descriptive
metadata are often reproduced and the majority seldom
reproduced. In del.icio.us, it is the very broad and basic
subject headings that are often reproduced and achieve
power in the system-which in cognitive psychology is
called cognitive basic categories-while the small, more
specific subject headings are seldom reproduced. The law
of power's underlying imitation-dynamic in del.icio.us is
explained from the perspective of different theoretical
paradigms, i.e. network, economy and cognition. The
theorectical and speculative conclusion is that the law of
power and asymmetry is biased by a cognitive economizing
through a simplification principle in the users construction
of descriptive metadata. Free tagging in folksonomies is
comparable to empirical experiments in free categorization.
Users often choose broad basic categories, because
that requires the least cognitive effort. The consequences
are that folksonomy is not necessarily a better, more
realistic and cheaper method of creating metadata than that
which can be generated through taxonomies, faceted
classification or search algorithms. Folksonomy as a selforganizing
system likely cannot create better and cheaper
descriptive metadata.
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