Week 6: Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

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Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e. Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flickr and LibraryThing to name two that allow users to take advantage of tagging and in week 3 many even used a common tag (PBCLSW2) to create an association between photos that we individually uploaded. This week, in addition to exploring Technorati tagging, we want to also take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us/).

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks.

Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

• View Social Bookmarking in Plain English from leelefever on YouTube. Note: if you have a problem with this link, simply go to YouTube.com and search for Social Bookmarking in Plain English. You will need to temporarily override the library content filter with the username and password that were sent to your Gmail account. If you did not receive the password, please get in touch with one of the consultants.
  
• Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us
  
  Discovery Exercise:
  
  
  1. View the Social Bookmarking in Plain English tutorial to get a good overview of its features.
     
  2. Take a look around Del.icio.us using the PBCLS account that was created for this exercise. You should have received an email in your gmail account with the username and password to access the PBCLS Del.icio.us account. If you did not receive the username and password, please get in touch with one of the consultants and he/she will be able to help you. Note: In this account you will find resources that have been highlighted or used in the Web 2.0 Exploration Project.
     
  3. Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the user notes they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
     
  4. Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.
     Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?
  
  
  OPTIONAL: If you’re up to the challenge, create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list.