Folksonomies

So What is this Folksonomy Thing?

Ok, so onto the Geeky subjects. For the last couple of years, I've become quite a fan of folksonomies. And yes, it is quite a cumbersome mouthful of syllables. (It's a portmanteau word derived from 'folk' and 'taxonomy' - meaning a system of categorising things by what people really call them.)

It's the idea behind 'tagging' as used on Flickr and Del.icio.us (and yes, I like the old spelling of del.icio.us) And ok, you can call it tagging if you want, but I like using long words just so long as I know what they mean.

So, a spade is a spade right? Yeah. You might call it a shovel, I guess. But you're probably out on your own if you want to call it a manual excavation device. The point is, it makes things easier to find, especially if you combine a couple of tags together.

Of course, such tagging systems do have some weaknesses: firstly of course, it demands that ordinary human beings put in the data. But people don't all share the same global terminology, let alone the same language. Even differences in spelling can cause some minor problems. But overall, the idea works pretty well... It makes it possible to find pictures on Flickr of (say) rusty red tractors - or whatever it is you're looking for.

So I've used Flickr, and then I got used to a similar system on Del.icio.us for social bookmarking (in which you can also see how many other people have tagged a particular page, and even what tags they used.) - with the added advantage that you can get to the same set of bookmarks whether you're at home or in the office, or wherever.

But then, I got to thinking that it'd be pretty cool to be able to tag music too. And I even found a site that lets you add tags to music: Last.fm It's quite likely you've seen it, maybe you use it too. And it does work. I really like the site. I like the recommendations. I also like the streaming - although I don't use that much. I like the social-networking side of it. I *really* like the way you can 'scrobble' all the music you play and it will build charts of what you like.

BUT...



I think I'm alone in my use of tagging. Everyone else seems to tag music simply as 'Rock', 'Seen Live', 'Happy' and other similar stuff. Which is why I've had to start a personal crusade to tag everything I listen to "properly". (Well, what qualifies as 'properly' for me.) So, as well as genre, I tend to tag music by decade, musical-instruments used (one of the most important things to my way of thinking), perhaps time-signature or even country of origin or language.

After all, how else can I find that Hungarian Bluegrass Elvis-cover featuring Hurdy-Gurdy, Banjo and Tambourine?

The remaining problem, even with my solitary crusade, is that if I should try searching for music using such tags - all I find is stuff that I've tagged myself!

My crusade is possibly as nerdy as musical trainspotting.
But Im not downhearted. It's a labour of love.