Folksonomies and Music Classification: Sourcing Controlled Vocabularies from the Crowd

摘要

My dissertation research aimed to explore the differences between the tagging behaviours of users and the classification schemes of experts in order to surmise whether or not traditional systems were best representing the facets users primarily focus on and how folksonomies might provide an alternative. This was achieved through a mixed methodology: a literature review to establish a context of folksonomies in response to traditional music classification, the construction of a thesaurus using tags from the Internet service Last.fm, and the comparison of this with a selection of classification schemes using content analysis. The findings suggest a value in applying control and structure to folksonomy to develop new tools while illustrating the importance of the subjectivity and chaos that comes with the crowd.