A Folksonomy is a categorization system in which end users categorize content or entities with the use of tags or similar classification methods. Folksonomies differ from taxonomies through the fact that taxonomies are arranged in a hierarchical fashion and are commonly designed with some organizational process. Folksonomies may be added to without consultation of a hierarchy of informational organization. This makes folksonomies more flexible for covering new, trending, or rapidly changing topics. Additionally, this makes folksonomies less structured and thus creates challenges for many organizations seeking to effectively utilize folksonomically organized information.
Graphs and specifically knowledge graphs have specific advantages for incorporating the organic and shifting structure of folksonomic data. First through the fact that a wide and shifting range of entries or fact types can be tracked for various entities. Secondly, Diffbot’s Knowledge Graph™ provides the ability to fuse data from many different sources allowing for the integration of folksonomic data with more standardized data sources.