Whether or not we remember, we've all seen those scientific charts showing taxonomies, or other representations. Taxonomies are classifications of things in a hierarchical structure. But they are very structured and items within the scheme have specific relationships. The most commonly known taxonomy is the Linnaean: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
While this gives us specific information about things, unless you're a scientist, you probably won't know all the tags given to narrow down what you're looking for. But folksonomies are created by everyday people. Lets say you upload a photo of a girl and her dog at the park. You tag it with common everyday words that everyone can understand, girl, child, dog, park, etc... That image can now be found by millions of people just by them searching for the same words. Maybe they are looking for a picture of a dog, or a park. Because you labeled all the possibilities, they can now find exactly what they were looking for.
So by having the common folk labeling the content rather than the scientists or other professionals, the material is accessible to so many more people.
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Another point to consider is that how things are arranged/classified also colors our knowledge and understanding of them. So, one might argue, that with folksonomy, what "knowledge" is important or relevant actually is determined by those using the information, rather than a small, select group of individuals.
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