LIS 9763

Hard to believe this is my last class blog entry; has it really been a semester already? When I first started this course I was a casual user of the web 2.0, using some of the tools we’ve discussed on a personal and professional level. Some tools I liked, some I didn’t, and a few I even looked down upon. Since the course’s introduction however, I have gained much more insight into the possibilities social software can present, and a significant amount of respect for tools I didn’t use or care for, such as MySpace and Flickr.

Taking my second blog holiday this week, so I can be better origanized with final assignments & other projects. I'll be back for week 14's wrap-up.
-Victoria
 

One thing I caught on with many of the readings, particularly Karin Coombs and Michael Sauers is that part of the marketing we need to do isn’t just towards our user base: we need to market any web 2.0 technology we wish to implement to our staff, and in a way I can’t help but think this may be harder to do than market to our users.

According to Good  the biggest bonus of YouTube would appear to be promotion: YouTube is another area to connect with users, and let them know what we have available. There’s no question that our users are on it: the number one media sharing service to date, YouTube is practically a household name, much in the same vein as Google and ipod.

Ah games: there’s nothing so relaxing after a hard day in the office or classroom as coming home and be taken into a world so different than our own, with new problems to take your mind off of any plaguing in reality. I’m not as hardcore a gamer as many others, but I certainly enjoy playing a few titles, particularly since Nintendo came along. I’ve been tempted by friends to try World of Warcraft, but as of yet have refused: I’ve seen with my own eyes just how addictive that can become. If nothing else, games are fun, which is why those who play keep coming back.

Just a little add-on that felt appropriate sharing this week given the context. It's official: apparently people now use online social networks more often than they email. There's an article in a few online papers, including PC Magazine and the Globe.

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of social networks. Oh, I certainly don’t see anything wrong with them- although I don’t think I had much respect for MySpace prior to Boyd’s article- it’s just that they were never my cup of tea. Currently, I have an account on Facebook, but I really don’t use it much: I pop in once every other day, if that, to read updates, but otherwise don’t bother.

Quintarelli states folksonomies “are not the solution to every modern problem of classification”, nor are they an alternative to traditional classification schemes; rather they have their own merit as a powerful tool with special properties. After reading the articles and playing around with a few of the sample systems, I have to agree: for sure, folksonomies can be useful and offer have a lot of possibilities, but I don’t see them replacing traditional cataloging practices anytime soon.

There’s something to be said for information placement on the web: like a library after a hurricane, much of what you want could be in one pile, but further resources you need on the same subject could easily be mixed in with three or four others. This isn’t to say that it’s impossible to find information on the web: that’s why those clever people at yahoo and google created their search engines, not to mention directories, link lists and other tools.

Taking out one of my "blog holidays" this week: I've been trying to put something together, but I just can't seem to get organized blog-wise this week. I'll be back for social bookmarking.