SocialBookmarking
From LTCWiki
Note: this page concentrates on features of the [del.icio.us] social bookmarking site.
Contents |
What is it?
A way to store and organize web bookmarks (favorites) on the web. Having your bookmarks on the web means they are accessible from any computer with an internet connection and a browser.
A video that in 3 minutes presents the basics of the del.icio.us social bookmarking service. Common Craft video
Main features
- You can get to your bookmarks from anywhere, no matter whether you're at home, at work, in a library, or on a friend's computer.
- You can add notes to your bookmarks which can provide a summary or synopsis of the site, or why you found the site interesting or important.
- You can share your bookmarks publicly, so your friends, coworkers, and other people can view them for reference, amusement, collaboration, or anything else. (Note that you can also mark bookmarks on del.icio.us as private -- only viewable by you -- if you like.)
- You can find other people on del.icio.us who have interesting bookmarks and add their links to your own collection. You have access to the everyone else's public links, i.e links that they have determined to be important.
- You can see how many people have chosen to remember a link - one or a thousand - thereby getting feedback on its sense of importance in other people's minds.
- You can subscribe to other people's bookmarks - create a network - or you can subscribe to a tag.
- Adding a little downloadable widget to your browser makes the addition of bookmarks to your account easy.
Tags
Here's a another short video called Information R/Evolution that talks about how information is now being categorized:
Tags are one-word descriptors that you can assign to your bookmarks to help you organize and remember them. Tags are like keywords, but they're chosen by you, and they do not form a hierarchy. You can assign as many tags to a bookmark as you like and rename or delete the tags later. So, tagging can be a lot easier and more flexible than fitting your information into preconceived categories or folders.
There are also RSS feeds available for your bookmarks and tags, to which anyone can subscribe.
In addition to being a popular way of organizing resources, tags enable the formation of unexpected connections. Conferences often assign certain tags so attendees can connect with others of shared interest. For example, tags in flickr link to individuals. If, when searching for others who have tagged “umanitoba”, I might find I share a similar interest in origami. Or whatever. The tag is a conduit - a window or connection to individuals, resources, and connections. In our hyperlinked world, a tag opens doors.
Tags have numerous educational uses. A few to consider:
- Set up a tag for each course (if you want it specifically for your students, use a course code ... if you want students to connect with others from around the world, use more generic terms). Have students use that tag when posting images to flickr, bookmarking in del.icio.us, or saving in furl.
- Set up learning activities where learners contribute to your course by searching and following a tag . . . and bringing the best (however you define that) resources into their personal or class bookmarking site. The resources from all students in a course can then be moved into a wiki for subsequent classes to edit.
- Explore tags of relevant interest to your class, and assign learners to subscribe to key tags and follow them as a way of augmenting in class instruction
Networks
A page on your site that lists the bookmarks of other del.icio.us users. To add a person to your network, you can type their username into the add box on the right side of your network page. Or, you can use the add username to your network link in the grey bar at the top of other people's bookmarks pages. To remove a person from your network, click the little x next to their username on the right side of your network page.
Your fans is your reverse network: a list of people who have added you to their network.
Subscriptions
Allows you to create a page which lists bookmarks that others have added with a particular tag.
Teaching and learning possibilities
Collaboration
- classmates and other groups can use a shared account
- use a special tag just for a class or courses
Research - Writing an article? Researching an industry? Slaving away on your dissertation? Use del.icio.us to keep track of all the source materials and commentary that you find online. Create a special tag for an assignment to easily gather all bookmarks.
Importing your bookmarks into a webpage
Del.icio.us link rolls are a way to share your bookmarks with the people who read your website or blog. You can add some javascript to your webpage (automatically created on the linkroll page) to display an automatically-updated list of your latest bookmarks on your page.
As an example, the Learning Technologies Centre home page pulls in del.icio.us tags (bottom of centre column).
Daily blog posting is another way to do this; it automatically creates posts to your blog containing your latest bookmarks.
del.icio.us navigation tips
URLs within del.icio.us follow a set of rules to make it easier to navigate:
- Every user has his or her own page for bookmarks:
del.icio.us/geoffrey - Every tag has its own page:
del.icio.us/tag/politics - You can view bookmarks by user and tag:
del.icio.us/lauren/literature - View bookmarks tagged both france and politics (this is called an intersection or tag combination):
del.icio.us/tag/france+politics - View bookmarks tagged both france and politics by Tom
del.icio.us/tom/france+politics - View popular bookmarks for a certain tag:
del.icio.us/popular/recipes
