Thing 17 Social bookmarking, tagging, folksonomy

This week's task is on social bookmarking (particularly with Del.icio.us). Read articles about Del.icio.us, look at the library's Del.icio.us account, and write about what we think about it (it is just a convenient bookmarking tool? useful for research). Details at this link:


http://vbpl2point0.blogspot.com/2007/12/thing-17-learn-about-tagging-and.html


I like Del.icio.us and find it useful for work and for personal uses. It's a huge step up from an internet browser's bookmarks/favorites or a list saved on your email/other file. Like the old ways, you have a way of keeping track of favorite websites. Improvement over the old ways: Favorites can now be reached anywhere with internet access (same as if you'd bookmarked on your browser or in email)---you're no longer tied to a local computer in regards to a browser's bookmarks. Another extremely useful feature is the use of tagging where you use keywords to describe the website however you want. The tags group the sites, and it's easy to see the different groups you have. Now, Del.icio.us takes this all up a notch with the social aspect---you can see how many have tagged the items, who they are, the tags they use, and even see other sites they have tagged. This allows you to easily find more sites, especially if you find someone else has similar tastes.

It can be useful for work. I do computer classes at my location, and, for some of my classes, I give them websites as additional resources. I print them out, but having all the websites in one place and just giving them one simple link would simplify things a lot (especially on these websites with looonnnggg addresses)!! Maybe the next time we offer classes, we can offer this, too. I have already started this and like the results so far. Another useful thing for work would be to bookmark sites the staff can use. Another coworker and I are (still, I think?) in charge of compiling a list of websites and sorting them into categories---the original idea was to have them put on our network drive. I have a 23 page of suggested websites to look through, see what the site offers, categorize them, and currently we're putting the links in a Word document broken up into categories. Del.icio.us could simplify this so much, and the tagging would organize it a lot better than the list in Word (and the sites would be available outside of the library and it's network drive).

This tool would be useful for personal use, too. I bookmark sites on my browser and in lists on my email. This would tidy it up, especially since my bookmarks list is getting long and listed by when I added the site (no order). It is definitely a convenient bookmarking tool, and it would be useful for research as well. You can keep track of sites you find without having to write them down or copy the link to a list.