You are Time’s person of the year. That is, if you contribute content to the web through one of the many quite new and hugely popular folksonomy sites like Wikipedia, YouTube and MySpace.

According to Wikipedia, a folksonomy is “an Internet-based information retrieval methodology consisting of collaboratively generated, open-ended labels that categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs, and Web links”.

Folksonomy is a young word, created only four years ago to differentiate a new, collaborative way of labeling from the old school taxonomy, where the authors of the labeling system are often the main users, and sometimes originators, of the content to which the labels are applied.

Folksonomy sites are quickly, very quickly changing the face of the Web and the way we think about sharing and retrieving information. Time Magazine writes:

The new Web is a very different thing. It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it’s really a revolution.

And speaking of revolutions, Chiang Kai-Shek, Deng Xiaoping and Ayatollah Khomeini were all Time’s Person of the year once. Hitler and Stalin had the honor too. The title goes to people who are important, especially to the news media — important doesn’t necessarily beneficial.

And what do you know: “The new Web” already has its critics. One of the most eloquent and interesting is Jaron Lanier who writes about what he calls Digital Maoism or the hazards of the new online collectivism. Lanier argues that

“the new online collectivism that is nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and force. This is different from representative democracy, or meritocracy.”

He goes on to point out that very similar ideas have had disastrous consequences when they have been wielded by proponents of the extreme Right or the extreme Left in the not so distant past.

Lanier’s essay is interesting as an analysis of principles. And if Wikipedia was likely to be elected president, I would share his worries. As it is, the most important aspect of “the new Web” is its that it consists of participatory media. More than anything, it is a way for regular people to share parts of their lives online and to contribute to the media that shape their existence.

Time’s cover story on You

More Time stories on this year’s Person of the year:

• Citizens of the New Digital Democracy. Meet 15 citizens—including a French rapper, a relentless reviewer and a real life lonely girl—of the new digital democracy
• The YouTube Gurus. How a couple of regular guys built a company that changed the way we see ourselves.
• Enough About You. We’ve made the media more democratic, but at what cost to our democracy?

Wikipedia’s article on Person of the year.