Delicious social networking

Delicious is a collection of favourites - yours and everyone else’s. To learn how to use it view this video and or listen to my comments about it. Each of these files are about 6 MEG, so wait! And here is a much smaller file with almost the same information but without sound - click the slides to move forward. The video made by www.commoncraft.com on Social bookmarking is very good.

WHY USE DEL.ICIO.US
Cuts down on online clutter to deliver more relevant bits of information.
Makes it easier to find desired information again.
Allows users to make their list of tags and sites available to (and searchable by) either a closed community of individuals or all other web surfers.

HOW DEL.ICIO.US CAN BE USED IN EDUCATION
Storing links that might be lost to time, scattered across different browser bookmark settings, or distributed in emails, printouts, and Web links.
Tagging can offer new perspectives on one’s research, as clusters of tags reveal patterns (or absences) not immediately visible by examining one of several URLs.
Finding people with related interests can magnify one’s work by learning from others or by leading to new collaborations.
Creating multi-authored bookmark pages can be useful for team projects, as each member can upload resources discovered, no matter their location or timing. Tagging can then surface individual perspectives within the collective.

WHAT A TEACHER CAN DO
Get information to students on different topics and have students subscribe to RSS feed. Organize resources for courses and subjects they teach, which is useful if a teacher teaches more than one class or subject. Create accounts for workgroups or entire classes with each student in the group having the password to the account so he or she can add bookmarks.

LIMITATIONS
Can be seen as a rejection of the search engine status quo in favour of tools that are both created by the community and beneficial to the community.
Traditional publishing made evaluation of material simple – was done by ‘authorities’. With del.icio.us new democratic format. Which is better – collective voice of public or of expert academic?
Need tagging standards so there can be real sharing but benefit of tagging is that colloquial or community meaning can be attributed to tags.

ACTION
My students will learn to use deli.icio.us as their bookmarks are not kept in their profiles on a network! They work at home and school and need their bookmarks! They need to collaborate to work effectively.