Thursday, October 30, 2008

del.icio.us

This is the first time I've looked at del.icio.us. I really like the idea of having a list of favorites that I could get to from any computer, although the idea of having to sign in an extra time to get to my favorites is at least a small barrier, not to mention setting up all my favorites in yet another place.

I see positives and negatives with the concept of "folksonomy." Each person or discipline does have its own language; thus the utility of searching CINAHL for nursing research as opposed to MEDLINE at times - the subject headings just "fit" better. On the other hand, if we all want to use our own terms as opposed to standardized ones, aren't we just back to the whole keyword mess? If I'm understanding the idea of tagging your sites with your own terms, it seems you're just overriding any imbedded metadata and adding your own keywords. This is great for your own use and maybe for your close colleagues, but adds more chaos as a whole. I guess the utility all depends on the scope of your social circle and how precise you are with your tags!

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