Folksonomies

Wichowski, A. (2009). Survival of the fittest tag: Folksonomies, findability, and the evolution of information organization. First Monday, 14(5).

In general, the idea of folksonomies makes a lot of sense in the social media world. In a digital environment where so much is created by the users themselves, it's logical to have taxonomies and organization structures that are created by the people these users trust -- not always experts they have never met. As Wichowski points out, information in this environment must remain not only organized but also findable. Again, folksonomies are a good choice of tool because they generally consist of words and terms that the users themselves are familiar with -- as opposed to more formal textbook terms. Because users are more likely to use these familiar terms and search with them, the use of the same terms in information organization makes the system more findable and user-friendly.