Social Bookmarking
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
A way to sort, store and share information found on the internet for personal and public use.
Contents |
Overview
Social bookmarking takes designating a "favorite place" on the internet to a whole new level. Rather than saving bookmarked pages on a browser drop down file, internet users can now save pages of interest using a free social bookmarking network. These tools can save many types of pages: basic webpages, RSS feeds, maps, e-books, videos, etc. Social bookmarking sites like Furl and del.icio.us allow members to organize their marked sites, share their sites with others, and connect with other users with similar interests. These sites connect educators, students, and recreational users with the resources they seek, and with other users who have access to other sites. In this manner, social bookmarking sites are spinning a web throughout the Web, organizing information and sharing it with the masses.
Components
Social bookmarking sites consist of several main components. In del.icio.us, for example, each bookmarked page is labeled, and therefore searchable by its heading, a short description, and "tags", which are keywords attributed by the user. The headings link to the page and the tags link to other pages the user has tagged with the same keywords. Users can search their own accounts or the entire site by tag. Pages have an RSS feed so users can monitor frequent updates. The social aspect of this type of bookmarking tool is that people with like interests can connect and peruse each other's resources. By locating other users with similar tags, or similar interests, one becomes part of a community of users with similar pursuits. Also, the act of inputting one's own subject headings means that each user has a vested interest in the material and how accessible it is to others.
More About Tags
Since anyone can use social bookmarking sites, tags are assigned at the user's discretion. Over time, "folksonomies", informal canons of popular keyword terms, have been gathered and they more or less govern the process of classifying the information. These tags can also be grouped, or "bundled", to use a del.icio.us term. Bundling tags means creating folders of related tags, like "recipes", "cooking" and "baking". One caveat: since there is no controlled vocabulary, tagging can be inconsistent. Since there are no standardized rules for tagging, spelling errors, added or neglected plurals, and slang words arise. This lack of standardization means that many useful bookmarks will be overlooked or labeled inaccurately.
Social Bookmarking Sites
Furl del.icio.us Social Bookmarking Top Sites
Question Remaining
Is there a way to organize some form of controlled list of tag terms?
Sources Used
Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2006.
