Diigo, founded in 2006, is a popular social bookmarking application. Social bookmarking is a Web 2.0 technology that allows users to bookmark Web sites and place tags on those bookmarks using keywords. In juxtaposition, the traditional concept of bookmarking in a browser simply saved a placeholder for a Web site so that users could return to that site in the future. Social bookmarking also differs from file sharing in that the bookmarks merely reference resources rather than sharing material. The term “social bookmarking” was actually coined by another social bookmarking service called Delicious, which was launched in 2003.
After registering with Diigo, users can store bookmarks and give a description to each bookmark (e.g., metadata). Users have the option to designate these bookmarks as private or public, add tags, highlight a page for future reference and add post it notes to Web pages for personal viewing. During the process of bookmarking a page, Diigo actually populates a list of suggested tags that are based on classification schemes that other users have already created and saved.
Social bookmarking facilitates a new way to categorize and organize information. These Web sites are usually free and anyone can become a user. This tool is especially beneficial when trying to share resources with other individuals. Interestingly, the users of social bookmarking services (amateurs) create the tags for each bookmark. Over a period of time, these communities of users create distinctive structures of terms and keywords. This bank of keywords has been named a “folksonomy,” as opposed to a taxonomy.
These new groups of users facilitate the creation of new communities that help to evolve and establish the tags and folksonomies within any given field. As a result, folksonomies are constantly changing. This scenario also serves as a potential downfall because there is no oversight on how resources are tagged or organized. For example, if a user created a bookmark with information about guitars and only included the tag “guitar,” then others looking for that source might miss the site because the tags “instrument” and “music” were not also included. Another obvious issue inherent with social bookmarking is that it does add another layer of maintenance in a very busy and congested Web 2.0 world.
Creating social bookmarks is easy and straightforward. There seems to be a continuous shift toward folksonomies and away from taxonomies. This could force databases to include these novel classification systems in the futures. After all, storing and accessing information is one of the most basic tasks involved in education. In the future, more focus might be placed upon retrieving information in the context of a shared peer group rather than remembering where information was stored. In the end, social bookmarks help students and peers to share and distribute resources, papers and references.
[…] Social Bookmarking (Diigo): Reflection on Assignment #2 […]
Jonathon,
Great post! I agree with you in that social bookmarking facilitates a new way to categorize and organize information. I have really enjoyed viewing other users’ bookmarks and would love to see faculty integrate this tool more not only within the classroom but also within the professional environment. Imagine how useful it would be, for example, to view Helen Barrett’s bookmarks for electronic portfolios or even Chickering’s bookmarks of resources he used to develop the seven vectors of student engagement. It certainly would provide interesting insight and allow new scholars the opportunity to build on previous knowledge and contribute new information yet in a different way than they currently do in publishing articles.
I also like that you introduced the reader of your post to the term folksonomy and discussed the meaning, challenges, and implications new users can have on organizing and locating electronic resources. I think this is especially important and, as we continue to utilize tools such as social bookmarking, educators should incorporate activities into curricular activities that help students build these type of skills.
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