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Folksonomies in Crowdsourcing Platforms: Three Tensions Associated with the Development of Shared Language in Distributed Groups
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Date
2024
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European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies (EUSSET)
Abstract
Members of cooperative groups can work together more effectively if they develop a shared language, i.e., specialized terminology to describe their shared work and work situations. However, distributed groups face barriers to doing so. To better understand how shared language can emerge in and support the work of distributed groups, we review the literature on folksonomies (a kind of shared language) in crowdsourcing systems (one type of distributed work). The review highlights three tensions associated with the development of folksonomies in crowdsourcing. A first problem is who gets to decide on adopted terminology. Crowdsourcing projects need to decide how to allocate power and how that power is supported. Second, different users of the language may have different needs. In particular, there might be tension if people tagging objects are not the same as those using these tags to search for content. Finally, projects need to decide when in the process of language development they want to intervene to maintain a balance between a stable ontology and the ability of the project to accommodate ongoing changes. We illustrate these considerations by reviewing how they are handled in the story-sharing site Archive of Our Own, the citizen-science project GravitySpy and the photo-sharing site Flickr.