Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags

Clay Shirky's 2005 essay, from talks at O'Reilly ETech and IMCExpo, arguing that hierarchical classification is a habit of the shelf and that on the Web links and free tagging work better than expert ontologies; the best-known case for folksonomy.

Read the article ↗ shirky.com

Also at gwern.net

Part of the thread Ontology against folksonomy critiques

about

• Folksonomy concept 2004 [src]
• Ontology (information science) concept [src]

critiques

• Dewey Decimal Classification standard 1876 [src]
  Uses the Dewey Decimal treatment of religions to argue that hierarchical classification is shaped by the shelf.

authored by

• Clay Shirky person b. 1964 [src]