Monday, July 11, 2005
Social Software Series: Social Bookmarking
Do you still bookmark web pages in your browser? I don't. Why? Well, because I use at least three different computers and it's difficult to sync those bookmarks across those computers. If you're strictly a Mac/Safari user and have a .Mac account, you can sync your Safari bookmarks between computers. But, that leaves out a lot of us. I also tend to bookmark things I run into during the day to read later when I get home. Before social bookmarking, I would have to email these to myself or jot them down, not exactly efficient.
What is social bookmarking? Bascially, it's the process of saving web pages to the web, categorzing them using tagging and then sharing (or not) with others. I personally use a service called Furl. Like most bookmarking tools, I can add a tool to my my browser's toolbar that allows me to "furl" a website with one click. So I might be reading an article, decide it's worth saving and click the furl button on my browser and add it to my list. I then have access to that list from any computer connected to the internet. I can rate my links, categorize them, make notes about them, or pull a snippet to remind me of the content. In addition, furl creates a copy of the page so if the link goes dead, I still have the content. The social aspect comes from two sources. First, I share my list with the public. Anyone can see my list (as you can see by clicking on the link to it above). In addition, on many individual links, I am presented with "recommendations." Furl tells me what other people who "furled" the link have also saved and I might find related articles to add to my collection. Or I can see the collections of the people who furled the same link I did. It's likely their interests are similar. Using furl has really helped me collect information and organize it.
There are other services out there, of course. The Wikipedia has a pretty complete list. Other services I've used include del.icio.us and jots. Of interest to academics is CiteULike, a way of collecting academic articles. Not only can you collect your articles, you can format the citation properly and you can find other articles in the same way one does with Furl, by looking at an individual link or by searching. And for those of you in the sciences, you can import from BibTex.
Like RSS, social bookmarking services have changed the way I use the web. As for its application to education, you could collect articles for a particular class, incorporate that list into your Blackboard course or course web site, making it easy for your students to find that list. You could also have your students use a service to either find articles or collect them. It's a good way to learn how to search and evaluate sources in addition to using library sources. Most of the services allow you to generate separate feeds for each topic or tag, so you could organize articles for your students in that way also. Many services allow for commenting (I know Furl does), so you could require students to make comments on particular articles. Lots of possibilities.
social bookmarking, education
What is social bookmarking? Bascially, it's the process of saving web pages to the web, categorzing them using tagging and then sharing (or not) with others. I personally use a service called Furl. Like most bookmarking tools, I can add a tool to my my browser's toolbar that allows me to "furl" a website with one click. So I might be reading an article, decide it's worth saving and click the furl button on my browser and add it to my list. I then have access to that list from any computer connected to the internet. I can rate my links, categorize them, make notes about them, or pull a snippet to remind me of the content. In addition, furl creates a copy of the page so if the link goes dead, I still have the content. The social aspect comes from two sources. First, I share my list with the public. Anyone can see my list (as you can see by clicking on the link to it above). In addition, on many individual links, I am presented with "recommendations." Furl tells me what other people who "furled" the link have also saved and I might find related articles to add to my collection. Or I can see the collections of the people who furled the same link I did. It's likely their interests are similar. Using furl has really helped me collect information and organize it.
There are other services out there, of course. The Wikipedia has a pretty complete list. Other services I've used include del.icio.us and jots. Of interest to academics is CiteULike, a way of collecting academic articles. Not only can you collect your articles, you can format the citation properly and you can find other articles in the same way one does with Furl, by looking at an individual link or by searching. And for those of you in the sciences, you can import from BibTex.
Like RSS, social bookmarking services have changed the way I use the web. As for its application to education, you could collect articles for a particular class, incorporate that list into your Blackboard course or course web site, making it easy for your students to find that list. You could also have your students use a service to either find articles or collect them. It's a good way to learn how to search and evaluate sources in addition to using library sources. Most of the services allow you to generate separate feeds for each topic or tag, so you could organize articles for your students in that way also. Many services allow for commenting (I know Furl does), so you could require students to make comments on particular articles. Lots of possibilities.
social bookmarking, education
