OntologyOverrated

A good new ClayShirky essay, consolidating a lot of ideas he (and others) have been floating recently.

• against TopDown, hierarchical classification schemes (not very good for things like the web, and we don't need them)

• for BottomUp, situated, personal, self-interested, tagging

The essay is here : http://shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html

and intro on ManyToMany : http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2005/05/16/ontologyisoverratedsocialadvantagesintagging.php

audio : http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail470.html

Read with lots of things here :

• TechnoratiTags

• FolkSonomies

• KnowledgeIsNotATree

• TypingNotCategorizing (which is my early intuitive grasp at something similar. "tagging" is a better term than "typing" which I was using ...

• ConcretePageNames

• TypesOfHierarchy

See also :

• Other essays by ClayShirky

• MarketThinking

• AddressableThings (it's the UID which makes all this possible)