Sharing Rhymes With Caring

When I first got Internet access at the young, impressionable age of thirteen, I was beyond excited to be finally included in the loop that was America Online. My cool screen name and profile. And then there was the homepage! But now, I've cooled down to practically arctic with it, feeling a little more comfortable with my blog and firmly establishing the notion that AOL Tech Support indeed embodies Satan. But one thing that I really love about AOL is the Favorite Places list. Mine is chock full of interesting little websites that I forget the address for and ones that I visit everytime I'm online. Now, hardly anyone is into the AOL hype (although those Julia Roberts voiceover ads are quite good). But the Favorite Places list has gotten an upgrade, in the form the folksonomy. What was personal to us, is now public on various sharing sites. Before I kind of interpret what I think its definition is, I feel that Favorite Places was Jessica Simpson when she first come out onto the scene. Cool, but only interesting to some. Now, with sharing being the norm, Jessica Simpson is EVERYWHERE and riding the popularity wave until it crashes onto the shore.


In my own words, and my words are open to interpretation, I feel that a folksonomy is a collection of a world of things that can be categorized and organized in a way that we can all use it. It then becomes a full collaboration of photos or links that people can share with their fellow Web cruiser. Again I say, open to interpretation. But I feel that the ideal word here is share because that is what we really are doing. On the Internet, we are just an alias of who we are in reality. In virtual reality though, people can get into our core and look at the pics or even muscial creations we post in these forums. We might not know these people in real life, but we trust them in our Internet life. We want them to get to know us better, as do them. And so, if you want to look at my Flickr page and check out the photo of my dog, Lucy, be my guest. But don't think you feel the need to have to send me e-chain letters that promise bad luck if I don't forward them.


As for organizations, I think that they are of use to them as they are with us ordinary folk. The Web sharing of links and pictures could benefit an organization because they offer a wider spectrum than talking face to face or simple researching can provide. I equate it to a chain reaction. One person says that they need to find out more about charities. They go online and can check out tags that link to articles about charities, websites that are home to charities, and even forums for people who have benefited from these charities. Everybody wins. A great research session was conducted and the voices of people that they never met helped them with that research. It is almost a revolution from the original ideas of chat rooms. We got to talk to someone from the United Kingdom in a chat room. But now, the same Englishman posted his pics from Charles and Camilla's wedding for all of us Web geeks to see. Howard Rheingold says in the to-the-point titled article Steal this bookmark!, "You meet people who find things that you find interesting and useful..." As in the case of organizations, they all connect to one another because they are in the same boat after all. Each contain useful information that the other needs. They might be in competition most of the time, but late at night, one employee is checking out the links posted by the enemy, who wants to share his Internet treasure. And that is teamwork.


And now for something completely different... Check out the boldness in Meghan's post Putting the "Folk" Back in "Folksonomy" She dares to step up to the plate (quick baseball reference) and argue with William Gibson about his thinking the Internet is a waste of time. Read as she proves him wrong! Crave more about the mysterious folksonomy? Chris's post Folksonomy: A Way To Organize Information states what I think is ultimately true about the folksonomy. It's easy and it's beneficial, even a child can use it. After all, a child knows how to share.