Activities like social bookmarking give users the oppor tunity to
express dif fering perspectives on information and resources
through informal organizational structures. This process allows
like-minded individuals to find one another and create new communities
of users that continue to influence the ongoing evolution of
folksonomies and common tags for resources. Using a folk
sonomy-based
tool for research lets you take advantage of the
insights of other users to find information related to the topic you
are researching, even in areas that aren’t obviously connected to
the primar y topic. If you are looking for information about sailing,
for example, you might find that other users saw a connection
between sailing and boat repair, taking you in new, potentially
valuable directions. These kinds of tools also encourage users
to keep coming back because the folksonomy and the collec
tions
of resources are constantly changing. It’s easy to imagine
assigning a value for individual resources, resulting in a ranking
system that functions as a collaborative filter.