Delicious

Delicous is a great tool to be able to store bookmarks that can be retrieved from anywhere. Tagging allows you to group bookmarks according to subject, so they stop being just a list of tags, but an organised group. You are also able to use the tags that others are using to be able to find new resources or join networks to access their tags as well as add your own.

Some of the features I like:

1) being able to merge tags. When you first start tagging you get a bit tag happy and tend not to tag too effectively – using different terms for the same thing. Over time logical tags begin to emerge and you need to then merge groups to be able to keep track.

2) bundling your tags to create a meta tag – The bundle feature allows you to create a group of tags under a particular topic eg. a meta tag of craft may contain knitting, patterns, crochet, childrens craft etc. This feature allows you to develop a library of tags for different topics, allowing you to drill down for more detail.

3) I like the search functionality eg. using # in the search box, and then you can keep adding fields to narrow it down further and further. You can use this within a network using the @sissocialmedia #folksonomy to find the links related to folksonomy within a network. You can then drill down further following the tags on the left of the screen under the tag option.

There are many positive benefits for having a delicious site for an organistion. Libraries can use Delicious to build subject guides for their users. It becomes a centralised, accessible place for people to sort links to relevant information on different subjects. People can tag according to terms which are relevant to the organisation eg. a tag 'back ground info' can contain links for people who are new to the organisation which will help them get acquainted with the industry or organisation. This is one of the things that I like about folksonomies – you can make them relevant to your organisation’s needs. Information which is public can be tagged using more conventional tags. There is much debate about the objective (taxonomy) vs the subjective (folksonomy), but as Visser (2010) believes, all tags face the survival of the fittest test and that they will disappear if they don’t get used.  Loasby (2006) says that using the tags in a folksonomy allows you to tap into the language of that subject and its users. There will be mismatches, but following Vissers logic there will also be hits.  

Visser, M.A. (2010). Tagging: An Organization Scheme for the Internet. Information Technology and Libraries, 29(1), 34-39.
Loasby, K (2006) . Changing Approaches to Metadata at bbc.co.uk: From Chaos to Control and Then Letting Go Again.  In Bulletin, October/November 2006. Retrieved from http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Oct-06/loasby.html.