Facebook and Twitter may be the king and queen of popular social bookmarking. A page on Facebook constitutes a collection of personal data, either created by the individual or tagged by him/her. I have mentioned before somewhere that I'm really thankful for Facebook, since it teaches several skills and people learn them by playing Bejeweled® or Farmville® or tagging their embarrassing photos. It all depends on who your friends are, of course. There are other Facebook users who only post serious links and photos, but at the end, most of us learn how to broadcast information.
“Social Bookmarking Tools” (2005) presents a very good starting point for anybody who wants to learn more on social bookmarking, but move beyond Wikipedia. It is sometimes refreshing to read something online that has not been modified in several years—at the bottom of the article, we can read this note: “(A misspelling of the name Pito Salas in note 14 was corrected on May 23, 2005.)”
Tim O'Reilly—with his book series on how to use and develop software, and his Make Magazine—has always amazed me with the way he creates, distributes, discusses, and sells knowledge. For some reason, I had never identified O'Reilly with social bookmarking. But as Make subscriber, it made sense to me that he was involved, or at least talked about this type of application. The article says,
“Originally elaborated in relation to open-source software development, but equally applicable to any online community, Tim O'Reilly has talked about an 'architecture of participation' whereby a grassroots user base creates a self-regulating collaborative network. The result of this approach is that the best applications become more useful for all participants the more that people make use of them.”
I like the idea of calling social bookmarkers “grassroots users.” Now there seem to be more people using social networks and therefore bookmarking. This is why I believe that this term needs to be used for the people who bookmark as part of their job or artistic creations.
"7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking" (Educase) makes an observation related more to Web 2.0 than Web 1.0:
It may become less important to know and remember where information was found and more important to know how to retrieve it using a framework created by and shared with peers and colleagues.
The “architecture of participation” becomes more important than the site where something was located. The problem is that young students usually forget to cite sources, but since social bookmarking means doing research Ringo Star style (with a little help from your friends), then it becomes a great tool for teachers. This means that it is easier to make students collaborate and help each other, and have the correct sources and citations in their papers
There is a great new email going around - 'if Facebook existed years ago. I think it's a great idea for a history project for teachers, and also explores the implications of social networking. As for social networks, I'm trying to determine how to harness their power instead of just feeling overwhelmed by the many ideas and thoughts. Never-the-less, I do believe two heads are much better than one!
ReplyDeleteWould be interested in hearing more about your ideas related to the "architecture of participation." Is this something that you think can empower adults to be more self-directed and self-motivated in their learning? Are their ne skills and practices that represent stumbling blocks to participation in the new media environment?
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