Vander Wal's Model of Attraction

Folksonomy is a term coined by Thomas Vander Wal in 2004. Vander Wal worked with the world wide web, and focused mainly on social media and how it can be put to professional use. The term "Model of Attraction" metaphorically depicts how internet users are interconnected through tagging. By searching a simple keyword, we enter what Vander Wal (2001) describes as a "magnetic field" of information . The vast amount of information available online can be quite overwhelming. It's a huge relief to type in a keyword, and find tons of information about a certain topic, whether I'm doing research for a school assignment or a personal cause!

For example, one of Twitter's upgrades over the years has been the implementation of a search bar. I can simply type in "vegetarian recipes" and suddenly I have access to public Twitter accounts focused on providing vegetarian recipes. I'm also shown a feed of the most popular and recent tweets which mention the words "vegetarian" and "recipes" throughout the 140 characters. The concept of tagging brings people and their information together over the internet. I'm instantly connected with a community of vegetarians - people who are like-minded and have values which are similar to mine!

Figure 1. Vander Wal's technical description of folksonomy

Vander Wal, T. (2007). Dual Folksonomy Triad [image], Retrieved March 5 2012, from http://www.preoccupations.org/2007/10/thomas-vander-w.html

The fact that folksonomy was coined so recently goes to show how the world wide web truly has grown in the past decade! Although the word "tag cloud" doesn't sound very professional, this online form of classification has helped businesses thrive on a global basis. When we used Delicious and Wordle in class, I loved learning how to summarize our class blogs, job advertisements, and even online articles into a mass array of words. The concept of using folksonomies is a bold and effective alternative to traditional categorization - it prevents wasted time, which everyone has experienced countless times while surfing the web (I know it's not only me!). The creation of folksonomies over the internet has linked together almost every form of social media, which will allow us to use various techniques in the professional world. On the left hand side of my blog, I've embedded a Delicious tag cloud and a Twitter feed - one example of how multiple forms of social media are interconnected.

Folksonomies will benefit our generation in the future, especially because Generation Y has been so influenced by technology - honestly, I can't even imagine what life would be like without Facebook now. Many focus on the negative aspects of Facebook, such as how it has become so addicting. However, Corvida's blog post on ReadWriteWeb's online technology blog highlights some of the positive effects that social media has had on our generation. Technology has been ingrained into our lifestyles, and the rate of information flow doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon! As described in Shanelle Mullin's post in Spark Boutik's social marketing blog, Generation Y have essentially become chameleons. We rapidly adapt to changes in social media and technology, to the point where social media advertising techniques must be well thought out in order to catch our attention. Danielle Lu's blog post caught my eye, as she described her first experience with Pecha Kucha in our ALES204 lab earlier this semester. Pecha Kucha is another ideal marketing tool for grabbing the attention of an audience - except this audience just so happens to be in person, not over the web!

Here's an interesting video which describes how tagging has influenced marketing strategies:



Storyworldwide (2011). The Future of Advertising [informational video], Retrieved March 5 2012, from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NyXzir2yKg

References

Vander Wal, T. (2001, March). Model of Attraction (or Information Magnetism). Retrieved March 5 2012, from http://vanderwal.net/essays/moa1.html