At this point in the semester, I have not been able to fully appreciate the value of Delicious. In theory I can understand why social bookmarking is helpful, but I have realized that despite adding a few extra websites of interest, I have not actually referred to my Delicious account as a way of navigating to those sites. Instead, I still use the Favorites tab on my own laptop. I have also discussed Delicious with my family and found that a few of them have tried it but have not used it consistently.
However, as I completed the tasks for Exercise 5, I gained some new insight into why Delicious and social bookmarking has created their own niche within web 2.0 tools. Through this exercise I learned about the social aspects of bookmarking, such as being able to click on the number of people that have tagged a certain item. From there I could select individual users and that is where I began to fall in love with Delicious. I found that I could really gain a sense of users' personalities and interests. I could also find individuals who share similarities with me, such as a love of cooking, shopping and music.
To some I understand that this may all seem so obvious and you may be asking yourself why it took me so long to gain a full grasp of what Delicious offers. I think that just goes to show that you get out of Web 2.0 tools what you put into them. I can read about the features offered by a certain tool but if I do not take the time to actually explore it myself, I will never be abe to make an informed decision on whether or not it is worthwhile to me.
You totally hit the nail on the head! I felt the same way after doing Exercise 5. Even when all my other SLIS friends were geeking out over Delicious, I just couldn't see the point. Now I do and I might even continue to use it after the semester ends.
ReplyDeleteGood point--you get out what you put in. And sometimes you need the right motivation or set of circumstances to make it worth putting in the extra effort. A class assignment, maybe, or finding a group of people you want to learn from that already uses a particular tool. It also seems to me that what works at one time in my life may not be the best fit in different circumstances. All the more reason to keep trying new tools (though probably at a slower pace than for our class!)
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