Akademik

n.

A common vocabulary with which Web users categorize the data they find online, particularly one created in collaboration with classification experts to ensure relevance and consistency. [Blend of collaborative and vocabulary]

People have a tendency to affect tagging-based search negatively in two primary ways: by not using enough or relevant tags; and by tagging the same links using vastly different tag words. For example, a link about "horses" may be tagged with "equine," "saddles," "mares," "foals," etc. In fact, it should be tagged as simply "horses". To overcome these problems, PreFound.com crawls the web sites that users are indicating they would like to share, automatically adds tags based on site content, and then runs the site through a process much like a "reverse thesaurus" which reduces large numbers of synonyms into single "collabulary" words.

—"Tackling the Tag-Based Search Dilemma, PreFound.com Social Search Engine Introduces Automatic Tagging," Business Wire, September 18, 2006

COLLABULARY n. A collaborative vocabulary for tagging Web content. Like the folksonomies used on social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, collabularies are generated by a community. But unlike folksonomies, they're automatically vetted for consistency, extracting the wisdom of crowds from the cacophony.

—Jonathon Keats, "Jargon Watch," Wired, January 1, 2007

I found this a few days ago and realized that it embodied the difference between how I understand tag folksonomies and how others (with whom I've argued) may see them. That is, I see the role of the social group — the wisdom of the crowd — as essential to the success of our folksonomic efforts. As it turns out, somebody's come up with a word that emphasizes that (uncoordinated) collaboration: collabulary.

—Casey Bisson, "Collabulary," MaisonBisson, March 8, 2006