After completing Thing 17
You will have learned about an easy and convenient way to bookmark interesting websites and share them with others using 'diigo'.
Why did we choose to show you diigo rather than the more popular bookmarking web site, Delicious? Recent news reports have revealed that Yahoo! will no longer be supporting Delicious and is currently looking for a new home for the site. Because of the uncertainty of its future, we have decided to show you ...
What is diigo?
diigo is a social bookmarking website that allows users save interesting websites and organise them with tags. Because the bookmarked sites are saved on the web, they can be accessed from any computer simply by going to the diigo website and logging in or you can add a diigo toolbar to your browser homepage and manage your bookmarks in diigo from there. (Unfortunately, you will be unable to add the toolbar to your work computer, but you could do this at home.) What makes diigo attractive to its users is the social aspect. You may think you have found some great web sites and then you tag them, but you are also able to see what other people have bookmarked and see what else they have tagged that may be of interest to you.
Step-by-step instructions
1. The following video will give you a good overview of the features of Diigo.
2. Take a look at diigo and click Get Started Now!. Spend some time discovering the interface using Take A Tour, Groups, and Community buttons on the toolbar. Or, search for a term that is of interest to you.
Here is a sample search using the term ‘chemistry’ but feel free to search for a term that is of interest to you.
Optional (but recommended)
Sign up and become a diigo user; it's a great way of keeping track of interesting websites, especially if you are someone that works from a few different locations or you want to share links with others.
If you found diigo useful, you might be interested in checking out what’s popular on social media sites that allow users to share items that they find interesting.
There are many of these sites – and everyone from mainstream media (ex. New York Times, the Washington Post, even the StarPhoenix) to blogs and Web sites -- include links so readers can recommend content from these sites to other readers. Look for boxes labeled “Share”, “Article tools”, or "Follow us" on news sites, blogs, and Web pages to find links for sharing the article.
You might want to take a look at some of the other popular social bookmarking web sites:
- Delicious is one of the more popular sites with "the freshest bookmarks that are flying like hotcakes". "The Delicious Home page shows you teh hottest bookmarks on Delicious right now...Delicious has a little of everything, from the best programming tips to the most popular travel sites.
- Digg “is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web… You won’t find editors at [Digg]… provide[s] a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.”
- Reddit is a “source for what’s new and popular on the web…We want to democratize the raditional model by giving editorial control to the people who use the site, not those who run it.”
- Newsvine lets “you…read stories from established media organizations…as well as individual contributors … Placement of stories is determined by a multitude of factors including freshness, popularity, and reputation… editorial judgement is in the hands of the community.”
Now Blog!
Create a blog post discussing what you find and what you think of social bookmarking on your blog. You may address any of the following questions.
• Do you think that using tags is a good way to organize your bookmarks/favorites?
• Were you able to find sites which you were previously unaware of through diigo?
• What do you think is the biggest advantage/disadvantage of using diigo?
• Do you think you will be able to use this in your professional or personal life? Why or why not.
Welcome to Week 11, Thing 18 - Widgets
After completing Thing 18
You will know more about using Widgets to enhance your desktop and/or personal web pages, or the web experiences of visitors to your sites (such as subject pages, blogs, etc).
What is a Widget?
A widget is a small, stand-alone application that can be embedded into third party sites by any user on a page where they have rights or authorship, such as webpages (subject pages), blogs, or profile on a social media site. Widgets are fun, engaging, and useful applications that allow users to enhance personal web experiences, or the web experiences of visitors to other's sites.
Widgets are popular with the users of social media who are able to add them to blogs, for example. Widgets add functionality in the same way that an iPhone/iTouch application does.
You are already familiar with widgets and may not even know it! Other terms used to describe web widgets include, in the case of Google, a 'gadget'. We visited this in Week 1, Thing 1 when we created an iGoogle account. Let's add another gadget that you might find useful.
Step-by step instructions
1. Add a 'Countdown' widget (gadget) to your iGoogle account.
2. Enter 'countdown' into the search box on the right hand side. Choose the countdown that you would like to add to your iGoogle account.
3. Edit the countdown widget to calculate how much time you have left to complete University Library 23 Things.
Optional
Add more widgets to your iGoogle page. Browse the list of options by category on the left hand bar or search the web to find gadgets.
Choose a calendar from this article and try it out.
Or take a look at Jasmine Hoovers' Mathematics & Statistics' subject page. She has added a gadget for the Worldcat search box to her page.
Now Blog!
Create a blog post discussing how you might use a widget to enhance your web page. Do you think it would be useful to you? To others?
Can you think of other gadgets that would be more useful to you? What are they?
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