Evaluation of Delicious so far...(OLJ Activity Module 2)

My use of Delicious as a social bookmarking tool

As a born organiser, Delicious is heaven sent. Not only does it help me make my references easy to access but I can also share these resources with others and theirs with me. It’s a great collaborative tool. I have heard of people who have created websites where they organised all their favourite sites on one page but I’m not a techno head so Delicious and other social bookmarking tools (Ma.gnolia (open by invitation only), BlinkList (looks similar to Delicious), Furl (now bought by Diigo – bookmarks everything!), Conotea (looks easy to use but mainly for scientists, researchers and clinicians), CiteULike (for scholarly reference) are the best things since card catalogues.

Effectiveness of features and functions

The features and functions aren’t that intuitive. It took me a while to figure out that the ‘tag symbol’ is when you save a web site whilst you’re on the site. I am now trying to learn how I can bundle bookmarks in different subjects. Click on ‘tag bundles’ – name the bundle and list the tags you want in it. It will then save all the bookmarked websites that have those tags you specified.

I’m not sure if I like using the tagging system to create my folders to store my bookmarks in. I don’t mind the idea of tagging in a non-hierarchical way and using words used by everyday people to describe objects also known as folksonomy (Farkas, 2007, pp. 134-135), but my bookmark tags are my own interpretations and others may not view them the same way. However, Delicious has cleverly solved this problem by allowing the user to use recommended tags, which others have already assigned to their websites/resources.

Your Network is a great feature for checking other accounts but its only drawback is you must know the user name.

Different ways an Information Organisation may be able to utilise Delicious to support information service, learning and collaboration of users and employees

For users:

• Library catalogue could be tagged so patrons know what the resource is about
• Assist users in their search of web sites in their subject of interest
• Incorporate RSS feeds for patrons about useful links that the librarians have bookmarked (Farkas, 2007, pp. 139-145)

For employees:

• Keep up to date in their chosen field
• For internal projects
• Manage website links (Wood, 2007, p.135)

References

Farkas, M.G. (2007). Social software in libraries: Building collaboration, communication, and community online. Medford, N.J.: Information Today, Inc.

Wood, M.S. (Eds.). (2007). Medical librarian 2.0: Use of Web 2.0 technologies in reference services. New York: Hawthorn Information Press.

RSS in Action (OLJ Activity Module 2)

I really like this symbol and the tool it represents. After a whole day searching, reading and trying it out, I’ve fallen in love with it. Well, maybe that’s a very strong word…I’ve fallen in like with it.

I’ve registered with Bloglines (a web-based RSS reader) but apparently Ask.com has gone bust and Merchant Circle has bought Bloglines. So the service is up in the air. I’m on a learning curve here and Bloglines is an easy aggregator (RSS reader) to use so it doesn’t really matter if I lose what I’ve saved (there’s not much on my list really). Other web-based aggregators are: News is Free (looks good), Netvibes and Pageflakes (currently upgrading service 22/11/10).

Some examples of RSS in action:

· University of Oklahoma Libraries RSS
· http://libraries.ou.edu/rss/

· Australian Library and Information Association
· http://www.alia.org.au/rss/

· University of Tasmania Libraries RSS
· http://www.library.utas.edu.au/sitename-news/Library-RSS-feed

· Wired
· http://www.wired.com/about/rss_feeds/

· The Motley Fool - a multimedia financial-services company that provides financial solutions for investors through various stock, investing, and personal finance products
· http://www.fool.com/feeds/index.aspx?id=foolwatch&format=rss2


What I like about this tool is that I don’t have to go the website every time I want to see what the latest news, trend or blog posts in the subject area I’m interested in. I just set it all up in my aggregator and voila news get updated automatically. This supports many informational needs that an individual or a group may have. The only problem I have with this is the lack of longevity with some of the web-based aggregators. Certainly, I could set it up on my desktop but that lacks portability.

The following are some ways RSS can be incorporated into the library’s service to meet the information needs of its users:

· To provide lists of new books/resources to the public
· To assist in catalogue searches
· To maintain a patron’s library account
· To help researchers keep up with newly published information
· To inform patrons of journal availability in their databases (Sauers, 2006, pp. 54-62)



Reference

Sauers, M.P. (2006). Blogging and RSS: A librarian’s guide. Medford, N.J.: Information Today.

Module 1 (A)musing

I found Kevin Kelly’s ideas about technology very interesting. I think technology including the use of the Web is an extension of our already existing knowledge and capabilities. I’m probably going off tangent here and I may sound New Agey but I think we invented technologies because we have forgotten how to do things with our own mind and bodies. For example, we invented the telephone so we could communicate instantly to people….then we wanted something faster and visual so the Internet came about. We are all ‘connected’ now. But why is there a need for a telephone or a computer when we can connect just by using our mind – something called ‘telepathy’. I think I read somewhere that we only use 12% of our brain capacity. What about the rest of it? Is it lying dormant ready to be unleashed by some cosmic dragon? Anyways, my point is we are on an evolution and technologies will keep emerging and re-emerging until we reach a point when we don’t need them anymore and we’ll be communicating via our own brain waves. Faaaar out man…

Reflections on the OCLC Report

What I found interesting was the report on cell (mobile) phone usage for sending emails and searching the Internet amongst the Japanese general public (De Rosa et. al, 2007, p 1-17). Is this a phase or the way of the future? Will Australia follow the same trend? Personally, I’d like to see things on big screens as I have four eyes. (I really must get my eyes checked again as I am seeing plenty of cobwebs lately). Imagine me trying to read tiny text on my mobile phone. I’ve been hearing a lot about iPhones lately and how wonderful they are. Ha! I’ll wait till they go down in price and get one. Anyways, back to Japan. I think the main reason that the Japanese use their phone a lot to access the Internet is due to the lack of space. I mean if you live in a small apartment in Tokyo, you’d want to maximise the space you already have. Why have a cumbersome desktop hardrive and a huge screen when all the desk space you have is the kitchen bench? Australia isn’t in the same boat. Although we are becoming mobile (with short attention span) so we might follow suit.

MySpace seems to be the most popular social networking site by country according to the OCLC report (De Rosa et. al, 2007, p. 2-11) with Facebook coming 4th or 5th on the list. I wonder why the designers of the subject INF506 have chosen Facebook as a social networking site to study. Perhaps from a marketing point of view, Facebook is more appealing than MySpace. According to Holzner (2009, p. 7), MySpace is a ‘chaotic zoo’ with unfriendly and navigational pages. Facebook on the other hand, has an attractive demographic suited for marketing exploitation (he he he).


References

De Rosa, C., Cantrell, J., Havens, A., Hawk, J. & Jenkins, L. (2007). Sharing privacy and trust in our networked world: A report to the OCLC membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC. [ebook] Available http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/sharing.pdf

Holzner, S. (2009). Facebook marketing: Leverage social media to grow your business. Indianapolis: Que Publishing.

A journey of a thousand steps

When I first signed up for this unit (INF506) last year, I thought the subject entailed going out there physically, meeting people, handing out my business cards and discussing what I do professionally. How WRONG and NAIVE can I be?? After reading the subject outline and modules I have realised that social networking is all about sharing common interests to benefit individual members of a particular and special group using the online environment.


Although I have used the RSVP (gasp!) site eight years ago, I did not personally belong to any social networking groups. I have heard and know of Facebook, Flickr and Twitter but really had no great desire or need to sign up as I thought it would take my already limited time ‘chatting up’ with people. I started a blog for the first time four months ago when I studied ETL401. It also required an online learning journal. For work, I’ve joined the mailing list for ALIA OPAL, Tasmanian Libraries and Koha User Group to guide me professionally.


After I complete this subject, I would like to understand more about Web 2.0 technologies and applications. I would also like to become proficient at using different social networking platforms and be able to apply these in my professional and business activities.

My INF506 Learning Journal

I will be using this blog to post thoughts, ideas and learning outcomes for INF506. I have started to skim through the modules and online readings/class readings but will write down more of my thoughts when I get a peaceful moment – perhaps Friday this week.

I have read the OCLC report and I found it quite interesting. I would really like to research and study information and psychology together (maybe a thesis topic) and the onset of social media networks on the Internet is a great example of such amalgamation of two fascinating ideas.

The next post will be to answer Assessment Item 1.

A Facebook Addict

I’ve become a Facebook addict! I’ve resisted it for so long and now here I am with my own personal online profile. I’ve always thought that it’s such a time waster and I guess it can be especially in the early days when everything is new. I’ve realised though that it has potential in getting yourself out there especially if you’re looking for work or want to spread ideas.

I’ve created a Twitter account but I haven’t sent any messages to anyone yet.

I’ve also created a delicious account but I find it’s not intuitive. I downloaded plug ins so that I can just click on the icon and instantly it would bookmark a web page for me. But this isn’t as straightforward as I thought. Somehow I’ve figured it out in a round about way. It’s a great learning tool because it’s a fantastic way to share information.