Thing 7 -- Tagging & Social Bookmarking

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flicker and Technorati to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging. This week, as we explore tagging, we will also take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us/).

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks. Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social networking aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as sharing another users filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

Watch this video Information R/evolution from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Kansas State University and the students participating in his Digital Ethnography group. "This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively."

Watch the Common Craft Video Social Bookmarking in Plain English:

Take a look around Del.icio.us using the MediaClerks account that was created for the Media Clerks Forum and this class.

Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the course of the Learning 2.0 program.

Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?

Discovery Activities:

• Create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list. Add some booksmarks and try tagging them for easy indexing -- add an explanation to your entry so you will know what the site is about. Explore some of the tools available for Del.icio.us -- try adding a network badge to your blog.

• Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. What kind of potential do you think this tool has? How could you use this in your own personal productivity? Could this be used in the library?

• Remember to keep commenting on your classmates blogs, pick up ideas, and share ideas.

If you want more:

Check out thise other social bookmarking sites:

• StumbleUpon.com - Lets you “channel surf” the Internet and review sites; it learns what you like and recommends more of the same.
• Ma.gnolia.com - Discuss all the saved bookmarks in groups, see what the Featured Linker is all about, join discussions in the Hot Group.
• Furl.net - Not only can you do the standard bookmarking and sharing, you can save archived versions of a webpage and even export all your saved pages to a ZIP file.
• Digg.com - Synonymous with social bookmarking: you Digg a story, others Digg it, the more popular it gets the better chance it has of hitting the first page.