Keep Up-to-date: Social Bookmarking

Hi Everyone,

Let’s turn to this week’s Keeping Up-to-Date activity - “Social Bookmarking”. How did you get on with the activity on RSS last week?

If social bookmarking is new to you or even if it’s not I’m sure you’ll find handy tips and ideas if you read on… and find out how to get the best benefits out of socialbookmarking.

Please watch this short clip from commoncraft. Its excellent in providing a short but perfect explanation on this subject. I know watching video clips can be a pain, but this one is worth watching. Please make sure you have the sound on.

One of the problems I have encountered when searching for information is when I try to do a subject search; in my head I have a series of words I have thought of that relate to what I’m trying to find out about. But sometimes, when I search a database I don’t find many results. This doesn’t mean that there’s nothing there, but rather I’m not using the same controlled terms the database is. With formally organised information it helps to have the mind of a librarian or indexer to be able to get the results you’re looking for.

There is a growth of informal systems such as social bookmarking or tagging. This is where people add their own metadata to internet sites using tools such as del.icio.us, and Flickr to name but two.

 Social bookmarks are stored publicly on a website, whereas bookmarks are stored on your PC. Social bookmarks have tags, that help you identify what the site is about, whereas favorites just have a title and are stored in a folder structure. Social bookmarks are shared whereas favorites tend to be personal.

 You can access your social bookmarks from anywhere. You can see other people’s social bookmarks on the same topic, so you might find new information or see things you hadn’t thought about before. You can find people who are interested in the same things as you.

 The drawback is that there may be some dodgy tagging, so people don’t use the tags in the same way as you, or may use the tag in a derogatory manner. You may find you get items that bear no resemblance to what you’re looking for because of the different way people use tags.

 Tagging is done by amateurs, there is no formally controlled vocabulary or taxonomy, and it can be of poor quality. Tags change to reflect current trends. The formal metadata done by professionals has a structure and vocabulary that doesn’t always reflect terminology you would use.

Here is a list of social bookmarking tools.
Blinklist
Delicious
Simpy

For this activity, choose one of the tools and do the following.
1. Upload your bookmarks (favorites) by using the tool.
2. Search for a topic using the tool.
3. Please bookmark Skillkick!
4. Send a comment in reply to this blog post detailing:
– which tool you used
– what features it has and how easy to use it was
– whether you would recommend it to a friend
- details of any useful resources you found

One of the key benefits of social bookmarks is the social aspect. By using one of these schemes you become part of a greater community, and so can use the social bookmarks to find like-minded individuals.

If I follow a link, I can see who else has bookmarked it and what tags they have used. I can follow these links to see if these people share my interests, or find alternative tags to find similar sites. If a particular person has a lot of sites in the same area as me, I might add them to my network, or I may like to subscribe to tags on a particular theme. By sharing your bookmarks on sites like del.icio.us you are adding to the body of knowledge, and will benefit from the work of other members.

Social bookmarking tools are good for:
 exploring current trends and technologies
 small, close-knit communities with agreed tagging conventions
 helping to remember terms that are meaningful to you
 access from anywhere – unlike favorites which are PC-specific

I look forward to reading your findings on socialbookmarking.
Other posts in this ‘Keeping Up-to-Date’ series:
RSS