Social+bookmarking

=**Social Bookmarking with Delicious** =

**Introduction**
[|Delicious] is a popular [|social bookmarking] site (of which there are [|dozens]) that allows Internet users to store all of their saved websites (a.k.a. "favorites" or "bookmarks") online, so that they are accessible from any Internet-enabled computer. Users can organize their sites using tags (user-defined keywords), and descriptions. The "social" aspect comes from the fact that users' bookmarks and tags are publicly browsable and searchable. Users can also subscribe to others' bookmark collections or to specific tags to create a personal resource network. Delicious tags are an example of a folksonomy, or user-created organizational structure.

Here's Social Bookmarking in Plain English (3:24), from our best friends at CommonCraft:
[]

**A Few Delicious Features**
 * Import all your existing bookmarks (a.k.a favorites) from your browser with a few clicks.
 * Access (and add to) your bookmarks from any computer! Never lose another link, email links to yourself, or paste into a document for sharing access.
 * Discover great resources saved by millions of delicious users with a keyword search, or by browsing specific tags or individual user collections. Try searching Delicious as an alternative to Google when looking for resources for a particular topic.
 * Mark any bookmark as private by selecting "do not share" when you save it. (Only YOU will see these sites when you are logged into delicious).
 * Let others do the work for you!
 * Add users to your Network (click "Add to my Network") to automatically track all their sites (displayed on a separate page from your own). You can also share/recommend a site to any user who is in your Network (such as a colleague!)
 * Subscribe to a specific tag (go to Tags > My Subscriptions > Add a Subscription) to receive all users' sites saved with that tag (or even narrow your subscription to a specific user and tag).
 * Display your own and others' bookmarks as a list or in a cloud, sorted by tag name or count (frequency of use). The larger a tag appears in the cloud, the more times that tag has been used.
 * Easily share and collect bookmarks with others!
 * Share all your bookmarks with students or colleagues by giving them a single URL for your delicious username (e.g. []).
 * Share sites for a specific tag (i.e topic) by providing the link for that tag only, (e.g. http:delicious.com/lottascales/digital_storytelling -- where the user is lottascales and the tag is digital_storytelling).
 * Subscribe to the RSS feed of a specific user, tag or user/tag combination in your RSS reader, or display the feed results on a blog, wiki or other webpage to share with students or colleagues.
 * Create a special "shared" tag to collect resources along with others for a particular purpose or topic. Imagine how you could leverage this capability for student research, sharing sites with colleagues, or for the school library

= Five ways of "looking at bookmarks" in delicious = (If you take a moment to look at the structure of each link, it's easy to see how delicious is organized).
 * by **User**: [] (all sites saved by user 'lottascales')
 * by **Tag**: [] (all sites tagged 'web2.0' by all users)
 * by **Tag Intersection**: [] (a "Tag Intersection" combines two or more tags to refine/narrow a search. This link displays all sites tagged with both 'web2.0' and 'podcast' by all users).
 * by **User/Tag combination**: [] (all of 'lottascales' sites tagged 'web2.0')
 * by **User/Tag Intersection**: [] (all of 'lottascales' sites tagged with both 'web2.0' and 'podcast')

=**A Few "High Profile" Ed Tech Delicious Users (Not a Representative Sample)**=
 * Will Richardson - []
 * David Warlick - []
 * Vicki Davis (coolcatteacher) - []
 * Alan Levine - []
 * David Jakes - []
 * Wesley Fryer - []

**Discovery Exercise**

**PART 1: Explore Delicious** (~30 min)
 * Go to [|delicious].
 * Search for something that interests you. (You can do this more than once). Enter one or more keywords in the search box at the top of the page.
 * Review the results and begin browsing. Things to notice: additional tags used for each site, number of other people who have tagged the site (numbers in blue boxes), usernames of those who have tagged the sites (click any username to see all sites saved by that user).

**HELP PAGE:** Here is a sample delicious results page for a search using the keyword "bento."


 * Explore the results of your search by following some of the "delicious" information -- click a related tag, a username, a blue "saved by X other people" box. HINT: To actually visit a "discovered" site, try right-clicking the link and selecting "open in new tab" or "open in new window". That way, you won't lose your delicious results.
 * When viewing a particular user's saved sites, explore his or her tag list, top 10 tags and tag bundles on the right side of the page. Use Related Tags to narrow your search results. Use Tag Options to switch between cloud and list views, and alpha and count order.
 * Basically, search and browse around, and see what you can figure out about how delicious works and how it may be helpful to you.

**HELP Page**: Anatomy of a Delicious Page (This will give you some idea of what you are looking at when exploring del.icio.us).


 * PART 2: Get Del.icio.us (~5-10 min) **

Sign up for a delicious account and install the browser 'add-on' buttons.

= TASK =

**PART 1:** Log into your delicious account and practice adding and tagging 7-10 sites. Give some thought to your choices of tags -- think about all the different ways you would categorize the site -- remember that each tag is a SINGLE KEYWORD and you must leave a space between each tag. Don't be afraid to use several tags, they don't cost anything. Also give some thought to the **Descriptions** (site titles -- the "link" you will click) and **Notes** (site descriptions). Click the "Delicious" button (checkerboard) on your browser toolbar to go to your account and check out the results of your tagging spree.

**HELP Video:** [|Adding & Tagging Sites in Delicious] (3 Ways)

**HELP Instructions: Steps for Tagging a Site in Delicious** (for video haters):
 * 1) Go to [|delicious] and log into your account.
 * 2) Go to a web site of interest (either perform a search, or select a familiar site).
 * 3) While viewing the site, click the TAG button on your browser toolbar. Fill in the notes and tags fields, and edit the title as desired. (If other users have tagged the site, tag suggestions will be provided and you can just click them. After awhile, your own tags will be suggested as well). Remember to separate each tag with a space. Also keep in mind that (to a point) "over" tagging is better than "under" tagging -- more tags are better than fewer.
 * 4) Click Save. Repeat for several sites.


 * HELP TIP:** Try highlighting a bit of text on a page before clicking the TAG button. The highlighted text will be added automatically to the description field when you save the bookmark to delicious!

**PART 2:** Add the 'shared' tag to a couple of sites that you would like to share with our group.

**PART 3**: Write a brief blog post sharing your thoughts about delicious and what you learned/noticed in your exploration and initial tagging experiences. Include any ideas you have for using delicious in your professional practice (for yourself, with colleagues, and/or with students). Include a link to your delicious links in the post ([]).

**Stretch Task** Try one or more of the following:
 * **Add a subscription**. Find a tag that interests you and subscribe to it (click Subscriptions > Add a Subscription). You can refine/narrow a subscription by using a Tag Intersection (multiple tags joined by + e.g. poetry+shakespeare)
 * **Add someone to your network**. You can add a colleague or anyone you wish. (Click Network > Add a user to Network). It might be a good idea if teachers almost all belong to each others' Delicious networks. It's a great way to pool resources and share with each other.
 * **Create a Tag Bundle** (click Tag Options > Manage tag bundles) to organize your tags. Bundles are really helpful for keeping your bookmarks in good order. This is most meaningful when you have a lot of sites.

**Stretchier Task** When you are feeling brave, import your existing bookmarks into delicious (log into your account, click settings, then import/upload). You may also want to check out [|Diigo]. (**Diigo** is like Delicious on steroids mixed with a social network, collaborative tools, and notetaking).