Commentary on Del.icio.us

Dear Folks,

The Social Apps Del.icio.us has been reviewed by Pam and Diane.
A Google search on Del.icio.us finds millions of hits. I mention this since Del.icio.us is suitable to an edited list or selected list of a few hits only. Selected by who ? - well you, or him ( who ? ) or her ( who ? ) depending on which network of friends of friends of friends you link to and what they ( who ? ) like best.

I have watched the excellent video by Pam at http://www.compmat.wcape.school.za/PHS/examples/delicious/delicious.swf and the excellent powerpoint by Diane at http://www.westga.edu/~dfulkers/Del.icio.us/Del.icio.us.html , and am enthralled not only by the technological achievement but also by the clarity in presentation.

As a brief introduction here, Del.icio.us is a web-based Social Software Application for use on any browser online. It is essentially a subject-grouped list of URLs. Whereas before you telephoned to directory enquiries or used a local yellow-pages, now you can post your favourite website URLs to Del.icio.us and add tags to each one (don't forget this !!) to cross-link them among various subject-groups. They do not yet allow personalised annotations. For this functionality please use your offline wordprocessor or notebook and pencil like I do.

I would use and plan to use Del.icio.us for my own use with no importing of lists from others from others from others : very much just an online store of my subject-indexing as part of my online library ; for mainly myself as well as for others to use. I would not like my blog open to adverts or any other uninvited intruders, not my Del.icio.us, not my wiki, and not my kitchen. I agree with Pam and Diane that Del.icio.us can be useful, and we should use tools each for their own advantages. When I first set up my own online library (including definitions I like and quotations) it was to satisfy a need. It did, it does, and it will for the foreseeable future. But I think we do require the 'need' to be tangible - not to use Del.ico.us just in case we might ... or just for fun. Of course personal websites, personal blogs, MySpace and so on are widely popular, but I don't subscribe to such time-consuming pastimes. I am too busy learning and teaching.

Actually if I need help academically, I usually email to a colleague friend in my network and they help me out, as I do them. They personalise their search to my purposes. So there is no need for me to import their bookmarks. I think we need to maintain some human-human contact in teaching and learning. This position does not conflict with my stand on objectivity and no-posting of beautiful faces, blond hair and blue eyes. Indeed I maintain that the human-human contact should be objective - I ask my colleague friend for specific academic help - not to download his bookmarks of his local tailor and candlestick maker. Do I have time to download your bookmarks then go through them deleting the irreverent and irrelevant, and re-tagging them to my own purposes ? No, not yet. Del.icio.us is mass mailing your private contacts. I will however upload my own bookmarks for synchronised portability between home and office, but I would nevertheless still want them downloadable for use offline - together with my annotations and comments for my use and re-use - as DVD-backup or on A4-paper.

More later,
All Best Wishes
Paul