Bookmarking sites of interest so that you can remember them is a familiar concept. Social bookmarking takes this idea much further. del.icio.us (pronounced "delicious") is a social bookmarking site for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site has several million members and uses a non-hierarchical keyword categorization system ('tagging") where users can label each of their bookmarks freely chosen keywords (c.f. folksonomy). A combined view of everyone's bookmarks with a given tag is available; for instance, http://del.icio.us/tag/wiki displays all of the links tagged "wiki". del.icio.us also has a "hotlist" on its home page and "popular" and "recent" pages, which help users to find interesting content and make the website an effective conveyor of popular trends. The most powerful feature of del.icio.us and similar sites is the social network. del.icio.us help is well worth reading, especially del.icio.us/help/network. Similar social bookmarking sites include: Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and many more:  Social cataloging allows users to catalog items (i.e., books, CDs, etc) owned or otherwise of interest to them. Once cataloged, such applications generally allow users to share their catalogs with others, and interact with others based upon their shared items. Librarything and Shelfari store and share book and reading list recommendations. Sites such as Connotea, CiteULike and refbase perform a similar role for academic publications. Connotea has many advanced features for cataloging academic publications, and you may also decide it's a good idea to keep your references separate from your general internet bookmarks.
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 Information is chopped into smaller and smaller pieces. But it also escapes its leash - adding to a pile that can be sorted and arranged by anyone. |
