, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
5. Learn about tagging and discover del.icio.us (a social bookmarking site)
Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (web pages, pictures & posts). A tag is just a keyword or term, and tagging is the process of assigning or associating them to something. Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e., MeSH or Library of Congress Subject Headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.
Thomas Vander Wal is credited with coining the term “folksonomy” in 2004. He has described it as “tagging that works.” According to Vander Wal, folksonomy is “the result of personal free tagging of information and objects (anything with a URL) for one’s own retrieval. The tagging is done in a social environment (shared and open to others). The act of tagging is done by the person consuming the information. The value in this external tagging is derived from people using their own vocabulary and adding explicit meaning, which may come from inferred understanding of the information/object as well. The people are not so much categorizing as providing a means to connect items and to provide their meaning in their own understanding.”
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Before we explore Technorati and LibraryThing tagging, we want to first take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called 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. Becker Library uses del.icio.us to manage some of the subject resource guides, such as the Bioinformatics Guides:
- Becker Microarray Resources
- Becker Research Resources
Many users find that the real power of del.icio.us is in its social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other web sites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into another user’s filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user’s filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.
For this exercise, you are asked to take a look at del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.
Resources:
- del.icio.us Help
- “Social Bookmarking in Plain English” (3:25) (from Common Craft)
- “Learning 2.0 and del.icio.us” tutorial (produced by the Otter Group)
- “Inside//Out: del.icio.us” video (from Matt Dickman, Techno/Marketer)
- “Several Habits of wildly successful del.icio.us users”
- Folksonomy (Wikipedia)
- “Folksonomy Coinage and Definition” (vanderwal.net)
- “Folksonomy Definition and Wikipedia” (vanderwal.net)
Exercise:
- View this 9 minute del.icio.us tutorial (produced by the Otter Group) to get a good overview of its features.
- Or, view this 8 minute video “Inside//Out: del.icio.us” video (from Matt Dickman, Techno/Marketer)
- Take a look at the Bioinformatics resource guides on del.icio.us. Explore the site, change your view (use the “tag options” on the right side of the page). What visual clue does del.icio.us use to indicate what tags are used most or what resources are bookmarked by the most users?
- Create a blog post about your exploration of del.icio.us and your thoughts about this application. Can you see its potential for sharing resources? Or, do you think it’s more useful for an individual’s personal use? Can you think of ways that Becker Library could use del.icio.us or other social bookmarking applications to provide service to our patrons?
Optional Exercise:
- Create a del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark or favorites list.
- Add the del.icio.us button to your browser’s toolbar. Instructions are available for Internet Explorer and Firefox.
4. Post a comment on the Learning 2.0 RML Blog and on one of your colleague’s blogs
Now that you’ve set up your blog, we want to know about it!
Exercise:
* Post a comment on the BBML Learning 2.0 Blog with the URL for your blog.
* Visit one of your colleagues’ blogs and submit a comment to their post.
Optional Exercise:
* Customize your blog. Take a look around Blogger
Customizing your Blogger blog
Click on the “Customize” tab in the top right corner of the screen.
You can customize your settings:
Customize your Blogger blog settings
You can customize your Template (or even change your template):
Customize your Blogger blog template
Exercise:
* Post a comment on the BBML Learning 2.0 Blog with the URL for your blog.
* Visit one of your colleagues’ blogs and submit a comment to their post.
Optional Exercise:
* Customize your blog. Take a look around Blogger
Customizing your Blogger blog
Click on the “Customize” tab in the top right corner of the screen.
You can customize your settings:
Customize your Blogger blog settings
You can customize your Template (or even change your template):
Customize your Blogger blog template
3. Blogging – as Easy as 1, 2, 3
Now that you’ve done some exploring around this blog and understand how this program will work, it’s time to set up your very own personal blog in which to begin recording your thoughts, discoveries and exercises.
Some things to keep in mind:
1. Your blog should be work friendly. For the duration of this project there will be work related content on it and your coworkers may read it. After the tutorial is over, it doesn’t have to be about work, but readers should be comfortable reading it at work.
2. Your blog posts should be at least 100-150 words each week - we’d like to have a conversation and the more you post, the better the conversation will be.
3. How you choose to identity yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself.
For this project we recommend that you use Blogger, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use. Blogger is owned by Google, so you can use your Google account (or create a Google account).
Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:
1. Create an account
2. Name your blog
3. Select your template.
Ready? Go to it.
* Use of Blogger is only a recommendation. If there is another blog hosting site that you are more comfortable with, please feel free to use it.
Resources
If you run into problems or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger here are some discovery resources you can use:
* Blogger’s Quick Tutorial
* Blogger.com Tutorial (Ohio State University)
Exercise:
1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/
Blogger home page
2. Click on “Create Your Blog Now”
3. Sign in if you already have a Google account. Otherwise, fill in your email address, password, display name (the name used to sign your blog posts), word verification, and the acceptance of terms box.
Creating your Blogger account
4. Click on “Continue.”
5. Name your blog and choose an address
* The name is the title that displays at the top. For example, Estelle’s Thoughts or Estelle’s Rules for Librarianship
* Your address is the URL people will type into go to go your blog, they do not have to match. For example your address could be estelle123.blogspot.com
* It may be hard to find an address that’s available, you may have to try several and use the “Check Availability” link
* Be sure to also write down your password and blog address
Naming your Blogger blog
6. Click on “Continue.”
7. Select your template.
Selecting your Blogger template
8. You’re ready to start blogging!
9. Create your first post. Post your thoughts about lifelong learning (Thing #1).
Once you’ve created your blog here are 3 important things to know:
* To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the step-up your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/
* Use your email address and password to sign in
* To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique identifier you entered in Step 5 above.
Some things to keep in mind:
1. Your blog should be work friendly. For the duration of this project there will be work related content on it and your coworkers may read it. After the tutorial is over, it doesn’t have to be about work, but readers should be comfortable reading it at work.
2. Your blog posts should be at least 100-150 words each week - we’d like to have a conversation and the more you post, the better the conversation will be.
3. How you choose to identity yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself.
For this project we recommend that you use Blogger, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use. Blogger is owned by Google, so you can use your Google account (or create a Google account).
Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:
1. Create an account
2. Name your blog
3. Select your template.
Ready? Go to it.
* Use of Blogger is only a recommendation. If there is another blog hosting site that you are more comfortable with, please feel free to use it.
Resources
If you run into problems or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger here are some discovery resources you can use:
* Blogger’s Quick Tutorial
* Blogger.com Tutorial (Ohio State University)
Exercise:
1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/
Blogger home page
2. Click on “Create Your Blog Now”
3. Sign in if you already have a Google account. Otherwise, fill in your email address, password, display name (the name used to sign your blog posts), word verification, and the acceptance of terms box.
Creating your Blogger account
4. Click on “Continue.”
5. Name your blog and choose an address
* The name is the title that displays at the top. For example, Estelle’s Thoughts or Estelle’s Rules for Librarianship
* Your address is the URL people will type into go to go your blog, they do not have to match. For example your address could be estelle123.blogspot.com
* It may be hard to find an address that’s available, you may have to try several and use the “Check Availability” link
* Be sure to also write down your password and blog address
Naming your Blogger blog
6. Click on “Continue.”
7. Select your template.
Selecting your Blogger template
8. You’re ready to start blogging!
9. Create your first post. Post your thoughts about lifelong learning (Thing #1).
Once you’ve created your blog here are 3 important things to know:
* To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the step-up your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/
* Use your email address and password to sign in
* To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique identifier you entered in Step 5 above.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
2. Web 2.0 and Social Networking
Web 2.0 does not mean you need a computer upgrade. It refers to current generation of web-based communities and hosted services that aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing between users. Web 1.0 revolved around the democratization of access. Web 2.0 is about the democratization of content creation – it revolves around the tools and applications that enable all users to create and re-use content. One of the benefits of Web 2.0 tools is that they are often web-based tools, not browser-based tools. That means that your content, your communities, your bookmarks, your images, your music are accessible to you and others from any computer, not just your computer at work or your computer at home or your laptop or your mobile phone or your PDA or …
A social network is a social structure made of nodes (generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific type of interdependency or relationship (such as values, friends, likes or dislikes, kinship, or ideas).
A social network service focuses on building online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities. Most social networking involves using web-based applications and provides users various ways to interact. Email is a form of social networking, as are instant messages, file sharing, blogging, wikis, and listservs.
In other words, social networking applications are simply online communication tools. The interaction may be synchronous (taking place at the same time) or asynchronous (as in “I’ll post this now, you read it whenever you like”).
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Social networking communication can take many forms:
- One to one – email, instant messaging
- One to many – web pages and blogs
- Many to many – wikis
Resources:
- Web 2.0 (Wikipedia entry)
- The Machine is Us/ing Us (Michael Wesch, Kansas State University)
Exercise:
- Explore the history of Instant Messaging. When did it start? When did it take-off? What are some of the popular IM applications? Do you think IM is a useful tool for a library to utilize in its communication with patrons? Post a comment to this page with a list of IM applications and your thoughts about how a library can best use (if at all) instant messaging.
1. Lifelong Learning and Learning 2.0
Among libraries, lifelong learning is one of those core values we shelve our books by. So it makes sense that before we embark on this new online learning and discovery journey that we should take a few minutes to review a few habits that can assist in creating lifelong learners. 7-1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners — This screencast from Lori Reed, Training Specialist at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, will help get you into the mindset of a lifelong learner. (You do not need to create a learning contract.)
Resources:
- 7-1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners (Public Library of Charlotte and Meckenburg County)
- Smith, M. K. (1996, 2001) ‘Lifelong learning’, the encyclopedia of informal education
Exercise:
- Make sure you have headphones or speakers attached to your computer
- Open the 7-1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners and view the online tutorial
- As you watch and listen, write down which habit among the 7 and 1/2 is the easiest for you and which is the hardest. You will use your personal blog (which you will set up in Thing #3) to post your thoughts about lifelong learning.
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