xFolk: An XHTML Microformat for Folksonomy
Bud Gibson is proposing a new xFolk: An xhtml microformat for folksonomy that hopefully will create a standard that will let users share and export their tagged data more easily. The article is a very interesting read and makes use of existing technologies like XHTML and XMDP.
Bud’s work is inspired by panels at SXSW 2005 by Eric Meyer and Tantek Çelik that discussed emergent semantics and extending xhtml.
xFolk is an open xhtml microformat that allows users to publish their own folksonomy classifications for aggregation by the services they choose. As such, it starts to give back users control of their own data. A side benefit of xFolk is that users may designate explicit semantics for their folksonomy tags, providing a link to the more formal practices of information architects.
Jim, thanks for the note. The format is in the process of being revised. A number of people in the know pointed out overuse of certain aspects of the mark-up. The idea of just defining rel attribute values on the fly was a particular no-no, although Tantek Celik liked the use of the XMDP.
I’d really appreciate any contributions. You can follow the thread at:
http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/xfolk/index.html
There’s an interim update there now, and I think I will do a fuller one over the weekend.
Just a quick note: We developed an xFolk (psuedo)TagCloud Generator to make it easy for people to implement decentralized tagging, we wanted to add the pingerati ping JavaScript but felt it could be abused.
The xFolk TagCloud generator can be found at: http://relaxseo.com/Tag-Cloud.htm
Dave,
CE - PSEM - RELAX SEO Services