Week #7: Tagging, folksonomies, del.icio.us etc

The Del.icio.us site is a good example of tagging and such a handy online tool for personal research purposes or within a team context. I like the ability to access your bookmarks regardless of your location and the ability to view websites that have been deemed interesting or significant by organisations and individuals. It is also a way of discovering exciting sites that you haven’t heard of yet - I found a few interesting sites in Sutherland Shire Libraries’ Bookmarks list. Here is a list to my delicious account http://www.delicious.com/mrnnhr which was relatively easy to set up.

I find the cloud view useful when the tagging is limited but prefer the list option when the tagging is extensive and when you are interested in the frequency or use of a particular tag.

As I am coming to this training package quite late (in 2011), a few links on the State Library of NSW learning 2.0 tag set's Bookmarks appear broken. I had a few issues working through the discover activities - it is either me or the websites have changed since the course was introduced. Nevertheless, the exercises still work as great learning tools.

I have experienced the addictive nature of blogging - in terms of being a blogger and being keen to add new content and as a reader of other people’s blogs and being very keen to follow their personal experiences. I have also seen the power of blogging for businesses and would definitely use Technorati for promotional purposes and to increase coverage.

I had a look at Technorati’s Top 100 list, business, political and technological blogs featured prominently on this daily updated list. Their website - including tags, popular articles, blogging themes etc - is extremely reflective of recent events and popular culture. The website also maps the rise and fall of blogs. I just linked to a very interesting article on prominent mothers who have successfully used various online applications to promote their experiences, businesses, careers etc. It just shows you that online applications can and are being used extremely effectively and successfully by very different users in a range of contexts.