Weeks 5&6: Tagging, Folksonomies and Online Applications

Introduction

During this unit, you will learn to use del.icio.us, a social bookmarking website. You will also explore some of the word processing capabilities of GoogleDocs.

Tagging and Folksonomies

Sharing and collaboration are major characteristics of Web 2.0 applications. Tagging and folksonomies are somewhat synonymous terms. "Tags" are labels that people can apply to objects found online and a "folksonomy" is a taxonomy created by a community. Both allow people to share how they categorize items found on the web – be it pictures, webpages, blog posts, etc. Hmmm.....organizing information? This module should be a natural for library folks!

Activities

Activity 1: Create a del.icio.us account

Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) is a website that allows you to store your Internet bookmarks online. This means that you can access your bookmarks from any computer. When you book mark a webpage, you can “tag” it with keywords of your choosing which will help you organize similar pages. This is more versatile than bookmark folders since you can “tag” a website with more than one descriptor. For example, one could save a link to this blog on del.icio.us and tag it with “blog” “web 2.0” “UKBlue2.0” and/or “library.” Later, you could easily see all other websites that you’ve labeled with “blog” as well as “web2.0”

Del.icio.us is most commonly known as a “social bookmarking” site. This means you can share your bookmarks with friends if you choose (but you don’t have to!) You can also see what websites other people are bookmarking and what tags that they assign them. Many libraries use social bookmarking sites as a way to create online resource guides. Some examples of these appear at the end of the module.

1. Go to https://secure.del.icio.us/register/ and create a del.icio.us account.
• Del.icio.us provides easy to follow, step by step instructions through this process.
• As part of this process, you will be offered the opportunity to install “post to del.icio.us” button on your web browser. If you choose not to do so, that’s okay! You can always go to http://del.icio.us/post/ and enter the URLs of the websites that you’d like to post to del.icio.us.
2. Find five websites that interest you (they don’t have to be about Web 2.0).
• Assign them tags based on whatever organizational scheme makes sense to you.
• If you make a mistake or think of another tag later, don't worry...you can always go back and edit your tags.
  
• Additionally, tag all of your sites “UKBlue2.0”.
• You can also import bookmarks from your browser.
  
3. After finishing this, look at your list of bookmarks.
• Click on “saved by – other people”
• Click on one of the usernames of the people that have saved your page. See if they have saved some pages that you may find interesting.
4. Go to the Blue 2.0 del.icio.us account (http://del.icio.us/connectedlibrary) and add it to your network. Also, you may want to check out some of the websites that have been tagged in this account.
5. Write a quick blog post in your own blog with a link to your del.icio.us account.

Estimated completion time: 30 – 60 minutes.

So to recap, for this activity you will:
1) Create a del.icio.us account
2) Post 5 websites to your del.icio.us account
3) Tag this websites with whatever terms make sense to you AND “UKBlue2.0”
4) Add the Connected Library del.icio.us account to your network.
5) Post link to your del.icio.us account in your blog.

Optional Activity 1A: LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a website that allows users to post their book collection, assign the books tags (or catalog it) and then share their collection with others. You can also use LibraryThing to find people who have similar reading tastes to yours. Many libraries use LibraryThing as a way to highlight their collection, supplement their OPAC and, in some rare cases, completely replace their OPAC.

Joining LibraryThing is as simple as creating a username and password. There is an option for creating a profile, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t wish. After that, you can add books to your library by searching for them in sources provided by LibraryThing, such as library catalogs or online retailers. Alternatively, you can upload your library by, for example, using your Amazon wish list.

Here are some things to check out in LibraryThing:

• After creating your LibraryThing account, you can join the UK Blue 2.0 group. This will allow you to find other Blue 2.0 participants and check out their libraries.
• You can also make a widget and add a link to your LibraryThing on your blog.
• Not sure what to read next? Use LibraryThing's Suggester.
• Oh, look! LibraryThing has a blog with an RSS feed you can add to your list to keep up-to-date on LibraryThing enhancements!
• Finally, LibraryThing has a wiki component of its website called Common Knowledge . This allows users to contribute information on authors and works.
  

Online Software Suites

As we learned in the last module, wikis are a great way to collaborate with others. However, sometimes you may need to use a document, a spreadsheet or want to create a presentation. This is where Online Software Suites come in handy. As an added benefit, they’re free!

Activity 2: Explore Google Docs

Google Docs is a free, online version of a productivity suite like MS Office. With Google Docs, you can create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Besides the obvious benefit of being free, you can also co-edit these projects with other people and then easily publish them to the web or post to a blog. We're going to just look at the word processing aspect of Google Docs.

1. Go to the Google Docs page (http://docs.google.com/) You can also find it by going to the Google homepage and then clicking on "more" on the top left hand side of the page.
2. If you have not already done so, login to your Google Account that you created when you created an account with Blogger.
3. On the left hand side of the blue bar, click on the word “new” and select “document”
4. Write a brief summary of your experiences with either del.icio.us or google docs or both.
5. Save the document by clicking on “save” in the gray button on the top right hand corner
6. Publish the document to your blog.
• Click the “publish” tab.
• There will be two options: “publish to Internet” and “post to blog.” You want “post to blog” You will likely have to set your blog site settings, which just involves providing your blogger login and the name of your blog.
• NOTE: This only works with select blog hosts. Blogger and Wordpress are supported, which I think almost everyone in Blue 2.0 is using. If you’re not using either of these blog hosts, just write a blog post about your experiences the normal way.
7. Share the document with Sarah Glassmeyer (kentucky.sarah AT gmail.com)
• She will make a revision to your document and send it back to you.
• When you get it back, click on the “Revisions” tab. There you can compare previous versions of the document.

So to recap, for this part of the module you will:
1) Go to google docs
2) Write a brief summary of your experiences with del.icio.us and/or google docs.
3) Publish this document to your blog
4) Share it with Sarah Glassmeyer

Estimated completion time: 30 – 60 minutes.

Resources

For more information:

Tagging and Folksonomies

Social Bookmarking
Folksonomies
Tagging

Del.ici.ous Examples

University of Georgia Libraries Cataloging Department del.icio.us
This is a nice example of subject specific del.icio.us account. These resources are for library employees, not the public

Dublin City Public Libraries (Ireland) del.icio.us
Notice how they bundle tags by subjects.

Colorado State University Pueblo del.icio.us
Here is an academic library that uses subject bundles.

San Mateo Public Library del.icio.us
This library chooses to use the Dewey Decimal System numbers for its subject bundles.

Libraries Using LibraryThing

Librarians who LibraryThing - This is a group for librarians.
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Duke Law Library
Kingwood College Library
Morris County Public Library

Other Examples of Sites that use Tagging.

Social bookmarking sites – These websites are going be very similar to del.icio.us in that they are used to manage webpages. Some of them have “extras”, such as the ability to discuss the saved websites with other users.

Digg
Furl
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Fark

Social citation sites – These websites act very similarly to EndNote or RefWorks.

citeUlike
Connotea
Refbase

Social cataloging sites – These sites allow you to catalog and share your book collection, like LibraryThing.

Shelfari
GoodReads
aNobii

Online Applications

For more information:
Office Suite
Lifehacker Faceoff: Zoho Suite vs. Google Docs

Office Suites
Google Docs
Zoho

Need Help?

Remember, Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! IM a co-participant or post a question to the “Need Help?” blog post if you need (you guessed it) help. Sarah Glassmeyer is the primary contact for this topic, but please feel free to contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck.

REMEMBER: There will be a party and prize drawing on Wednesday, February 13. Come with questions if you have any! Blue 2.0 participants who have completed Modules 1 and 2 (Chat, Blogs, RSS and wikis) by Feb12 are eligible for the $50 restaurant gift certificate drawing. If you're not caught up by that time, don't worry...you can still catch up and be eligible for the iPod Shuffle drawing on March 18 and the Grand Prize 80GB iPod Classic drawing at the Staff Appreciation Event during the week of April 7.