Three Stars and a Chili Pepper

Three Stars and a Chili Pepper: Social Software, Folksonomy, and User

Reviews in the College Context

Joseph Ugoretz

Borough of Manhattan Community College

CUNY IT Forum—December 2, 2005

Vignette the First—Boca Raton

Vignette the Second—Vatican City

Vignette the ThirdBrooklyn

Vignette the Fourth—Massachusetts

The New Tools--Google

The New Tools--Wikis

The New Tools—Tagging and Folksonomy

The New Tools—User Reviews

The New Tools

•Little central authority

•Shared, social, control

•Collaborative references

•User-provided content

What Can We do with These New Tools?

•Use them for what they are—

•New tools have new uses.

What Can We do with These New Tools?

•New Questions—

•Who is an expert?

•What is expertise?

•What is relevant?

•What is accurate?

What Can We Do with These New Tools?

•Use the tools—and make use of the fact that they’re public.

•Evaluate and challenge.

•Object lessons—learn the rules of the tools (and the rule of extremes).

What Can We Do with These New Tools?

Serendipity!

Caveats and Conclusions

•Think about your own discipline…

•A hacksaw is not a hammer!

Email me for more information about how to try these tools:

[email protected]