Monday, June 25, 2007

Welcome to The Folks' Web

Hello, world! Welcome to my blog. I'm Julia Bauder, a student in the Library and Information Science Program at Wayne State University.

One of my interests in information science is the Semantic Web (and the organization and retrieval of online information in general). This blog is called The Folks' Web because I've been kicking around some ideas about how to harness folksonomies to run the Semantic Web. I'm sure that right about now you're thinking, "That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard." (Unless you're thinking, "Folksonomies? Semantic Web? What on earth are you talking about?") For a while I thought it was a dumb idea too. But I wrote a 25-page paper last semester that convinced an old-school cataloging professor not only that it could work, but that it would work better than the rigid ontologies that most Semantic Web people think should be used. So stick around and hear me out. Or stick around and argue with me. Whichever you prefer.

I'll be updating this blog regularly with more about my ideas and with links to other stuff that discusses related topics, starting soon.

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I have to give some credit for the existence of this blog to all of the great LITA folks at ALA Annual 2007 (especially Michael Habib) who have convinced me to get off my duff and get these ideas out there into the LIS world.

1 comment:

Michael C. Habib said...

Hi Julia,

It was nice meeting you. I am glad to see that you are taking the plunge into the world of blogging and look forward to learning more about your thoughts on Folksonomies.