Choose YOUR Way to Share, Organize, Access

and Discover Web ResourcesPresented by: Cynthia Williamson & Jenn Horwath,

Library @ MohawkThis is IT, 2007

AgendaIntro: What is social software?Part 1 – Managing your web resources• Social bookmarking software• Social citation software• Social photosharing softwarePart 2 – Keeping up with the latest news• RSS Readers – Bloglines.com

What is social software?• broad term encompassing collaborative,

interactive web software (web link sharing, blogs, wikis, IM, Amazon)

• web has undergone a change...now it's web 2.0, the read/write web!

• what is web 2.0?

What is Web 2.0?• User creates the content (think YouTube)

• Web-based platform – no download! (think blogs)

• Real-time conversation (think MSN chat)

• Interactivity (think book ratings in Amazon, comments feature on YouTube)

Social software - Implications for educators

• social computing named as one of the top 6 areas of emerging technology for 2006 in the 2006 Horizon Report [EDUCAUSE]:

"The promise of social computing has been—and continues to be—more effective knowledge generation, knowledge sharing, collaboration, learning, and collective decision-making. This promise is now beginning to be realized in the areas of distributed learning, research, and campus work settings.”

Social Bookmarking/Citation Software• resource sharing social software

• software that lets you:

share - other people on the Internet can see your bookmarks

organize (tag) - you can create labels and subject headings for your bookmarks for quick retrieval

access - you can access your bookmarks from any computer with an Internet connection (work/home/school)

discover - you can see what other people have collected

What are tags?

• Your own personal subject terms• No authority – can be whatever you

want!• As a result – no consistency –

“folksonomy”• In Del.icio.us – put 2 word terms

together (e.g. libraryscience)

Tagging versus Folders

• Like subject terms –can add many at once

• Like Windows files -can only file under one subject area at a time

Tagstag cloud

“list”

Why use social bookmarking?

• tagging resources within a community = community-built, trusted collection of resources

• ease of sharing = encourages participation, openness in a group

• sharing across communities = greater knowledge of a field of research

Del.icio.us: Nuts and bolts…

• Step 1 – go to: http://del.icio.us and register

• Create a login that you don’t mind people seeing!

Del.icio.us: Nuts and bolts…

• The only tricky part…download the buttons –bookmarklets!

http://del.icio.us/help/buttons

Saving a site

Step 1 – Click Post

Step 2 – Fill out the form

Looking at your collection

Sharing your collectionYour own URL is automatically generated!

Discovering…

Discovering…

More!• Send links to other people (add tag->

for:name)• Create an RSS feed for any page

• Create a network to track what other people are saving

• Import your IE/Firefox favourites• Put your Del.icio.us links on your blog

Applications in your classroom• collect web resources, tag them and share them

with others in your Dept. or on your research team. [Example1, Example2]

• build community in the classroom by encouraging students to add links; give them the username and password and share the collection in the classroom; encourage the use of standard tags in order to build a research collection that everyone can benefit from

• place a link to the collection within your CMS for ease of access

Social citation software

• similar to social bookmarking: allows you to collect articles, organize (tag) them, share them and see what other people are collecting

• register (free!) and download bookmarklet for easy saving

Social Citation Software –Compared to Social Bookmarking

• community is academic in nature so content is scholarly (mostly books and journals, not web links)

• allows easy saving of bibliographic information from selected sites (e.g. Nature, PubMed, Amazon, etc.)

• can save richer information about an article (can prioritize it, save notes)

• works with some reference management software such as EndNote, BibTeX, etc. Can import or export using these formats

• peer-reviewed content is promoted on the sites

Social citation software: Connotea

• from Nature.com

• create login

• download button and add to your browser. (See help for details.)

Applications in your classroom• collect web resources, tag them and share them

with others. [Example]

• see what other people with similar interests have collected. [Click "posted by x others" or see "related tags."]

• build community in the classroom by creating a group for your class. (Everyone's articles will be shared.)

• place a link to the collection within your CMS for ease of access

Social citation software:

• can view tags as cloud and list of authors of articles you have tagged. [Example]

• can create "watchlist" to keep track of tags, other users' collections or journal T of C's. [Example]

• can look at tables of contents of recent issues of journals. [Example] .: can create or join a group (for e.g. for your Department or class.)

• People in group can share articles and create and share notes about articles. [Example]

• can share your reading list with your class. List will update as you add items. [Example]

Social photo sharing software• upload photos, organize (tag) them, share them and

see what other people are uploading.

• useful if you need to share images in a class

example: Flickr> create an account (free) and upload your images.[Cynthia’s account] > explore other photos. [Eiffel Tower]> all about copyright on Flickr> share your photos with others, e.g. your class > can create or join a group, e.g. for your Department or class. [Libraries & Librarians, Canadian Gardens]

- there are many other photo sharing sites: zoto, Picasa, Bubbleshare, FilmLoop, Slide, etc.

Other info management 2.0 tools• LibraryThing – organize your books

• Diigo – bookmarks plus highlighting, clipping parts of pages

• Furl- saves full text of web pages

• Simpy – share groups, notes and bookmarks

• Shadows – like De.licio.us but graphical interface

Part 2 ~ Managing your news

• RSS: Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary.

• A format of web content that makes it easy for you to read many news sources or blogs at once.

• Many blogs use RSS feeds to syndicate content.

• To read all this news you need an RSS Reader (Bloglines).

Olden days…

Nowadays – with RSS!

Relief from Jenn and Cynthia

• RSS Explained in 4 minutes

What to watch for…

What to watch for…

Tool for the job• RSS Readers• Bloglines.com

− Go to http://www.bloglines.com− Create free account

Bloglines … Nuts and boltsStep 1 – Search for feeds

Bloglines: Nuts and bolts• Step 2 - Subscribe!

Bloglines: Nuts and bolts

Step 3 - Put it in a folder

Bloglines … Easy as pie!• Voila! You’re done!

Bloglines … another way• Alternative 2 – Add a

feed from your favourite news site!

• Step 1 – click on the orange RSS symbol

Bloglines … another way (cont’d)

• Step 2 – copy the link (CTRL + C)

Bloglines … another way (cont’d)Step 3 – Add it to Bloglines

> Click Add

> Paste the URL (CTRL + V)

Bloglines … another way (cont’d)Step 4 – Put it in a folder!

Now What?? Read your feeds

Step 1 – open a folder:

Step 2 – Click on a feed:

News galore!

Take Away for Today…Top 5 Things You Can Do1. Create a group in CiteULike or Connotea for your class to

build a collection

2. Create a collection of your own sites and add the link to your CMS

3. Create a login for you and your colleagues to share resources for a group project

4. Create Bloglines account for your class with key online blogs, journals they should read

5. Create a Flickr account for your class to share photos

Further Reading• Weblogg-ed: the read/write web in the

classroom (a blog) • What is Web 2.0 (an article from

O'Reilly) • What is Web 2.0: Ideas, technologies

and implications for education (JISC)• 7 Things You Need to Know About Social

Bookmarking (EDUCAUSE)

Thank you!URL for this presentation:http://tinyurl.com/3b4286

Cynthia [email protected]

Jenn [email protected]