Benefits and Shortcomings of Folksonomies

There seems to be a never-ending quest for knowledge in this century. Fortunately, data is obtained effortlessly with the advent of the Internet. The Internet has become such a factor in everyday life; it is hard to remember how anyone managed the day-to-day task without this tool. The creation of search engines has opened up a whole world of information to those who seek knowledge.

Most people would argue that social media has a negative effect on our society, but Josh Rose, "a chief creative officer at Webster Shandwick," believes otherwise. (173) Josh Rose's essay, How Social Media is Having a Positive Impact on Our Culture, was featured on the online source Mashable.com on February 23, 2011. Rose uses his speech to argue the reasons why social media is beneficial, mainly focusing on how it connects us together; however, Rose doesn't give much credibility or opposition. Instead, he states points from his own personal experience and beliefs with lack of fluidity.

Social networking sites (referred to more broadly as social media) are a collection of websites and applications that enable users to swap ideas, post updates and comments, and participate in activities and events while sharing their interests with other users. From general chit-chat to propagating breaking news, scheduling a date to following election results, gentle humor to serious research, social networking sites are used for a variety of reasons by various user communities. Nowadays, nearly every person who has access to a computer and Internet indulges in some kind of social networking on a daily basis. The introduction of social media has changed the entire dynamics of our lifestyles: the ways we live, work, and maintain our friendships. Despite its numerous advantages, social media does yield some negative effects. However, the benefits of social media greatly outweigh its negative effects.

18) Social bookmarking makes it difficult to search for and share information by allowing users to save their bookmarks to Web pages on a public Web site and tag these bookmarks with keywords.

RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.

Ultimately, I think this is the direction the semantic web will take – better database indexing, greater understanding of synonymous terms/phrases by search engines, and personalized recommendations based on user trends.

Social media has grown into one of the most useful digital marketing tools for business owners and corporations and is designed to feed us information at a fast-moving speed. There are many advantages to this development as well as disadvantages. Information is easily obtainable, instant and causes credibility issues. It is important to know and understand all the benefits and disadvantages before using social media because it can alter how a person may use it.

I will compare, in this paper, the use of search engines, social media, and blogging. I will use examples to show the potential of each approach.

In “Sharing Social Context: Is Community with the Posthuman Possible? by David Meeler and Eric Hall, the authors discuss how posthumans are observed and portrayed in major motion pictures. First, the authors discuss how in several motion pictured films, there is not any acceptance between the posthumans and the regular humans; instead, there is an “us’ versus “them” mentality between the two groups (Meeler and Hall 205). Next, Meeler and Hall discuss that although there is an “us” versus “them” mentality, the roles of which group is the most powerful or dominant can be switched interchangeably such as in Equilibrium or X-men. In addition, the authors discuss that in several posthuman films, the issue with humanity leads the audience questioning

As society has progressed into the twenty-first century it is evident that humanity is becoming strongly reliant on technology, especially the internet in which people now use instantaneously on a daily basis, from diagnosing diseases to finding answers, information and gossip within moments of it occurring. Wikipedia is “a free, collaborative, multilingual internet encyclopedia. Wikipedia evolves without the supervision of a pre-selected expert

I'm writing to introduce the Social Foundry, a not-for-profit social enterprise established in the Macedon Ranges. The goal of the Social Foundry is to assist young men whose opportunities have been limited and who struggle to bridge the intimidating gap between unemployment and meaningful employment due to a lack of work and life skills.

In this reading the authors explain how Wikipedia is a user driven knowledge application, where people discuss and collaborate their knowledge and work on a specific topic. The writing explains how Wikipedia is very open and simplistic, the user can easily update a page without any prior technical or programming knowledge. Both from the client’s perspective and server side, the user only needs a conventional browser to access the pages. The authors continue by explaining the impacts of collaborative research on the Wikipedia pages. As different people upload their knowledge and edit the pages the writing style and structure changes throughout, ‘the text as a unit has the traces of all authors’. Additionally, the way in which authors interact with one another on the Wiki pages allows for an area of action, which makes an interactive happening of knowledge construction possible.

Spiteri L. F. (2007). The Structure and Form of Folksonomy Tags: The Road to the Public Library Catalog. Information Technology & Libraries, 26(3), 13-25.

Social media is a collection of user-driven, web-based technologies including blogs, social networks and video-sharing platforms. Together, these media have revolutionized the way we communicate and share information. Because of its relative newness, and its vast and continually evolving nature, social media presents as a complicated and multi-faceted issue. Social media sites are infinitely diverse, ranging from wikipedia, the online crowd- sourced encyclopedia, to digg, the social bookmarking site that allows users to “like” or tag websites as well as sort through other users’ tags. The

One of the facets of living within civilized society is that there are certain norms and social conventions that people must follow. Frequently, there is a large effort on the part of government, financial, and social institutions to keep people doing most of the same thing as others going to work, driving cars, buying homes, etc. Despite the fact that people engage in these efforts individually, the simple fact that they are all attempting to do the same thing, in much the same way, is indicative of the fact that they are engaged in collective behavior. THESIS: Those who are able to overcome collective behavior and allow for their individuality to determine their own outcomes exemplify the best of human nature.