Simon Houghton

How Does Social Bookmarking Work?

The basic concept of Web 2.0 is that it is user-directed and social bookmarking is a part of Web 2.0 so it is, of course, user directed. Social bookmarking is a way of organizing and categorizing information with the use of ‘tags’.

Tags are user generated and are based upon key words that identify the bookmark so this is a true user-directed way that information is organized and categorized.

When a bookmarked site is clicked on, the social bookmarking site identifies the person who created the bookmark and provides access to other sites that the same user has bookmarked.

Now, the person who created the bookmark and the tag is also provided information about how many times the link has been clicked on as well as who clicked on it.

This system makes it very easy for like-minded people to make social connections and to identify others who have the same interests. Over time a community of users develops.

As a community of users develops, they sometimes develop a very unique set of key words that define resources of common interest. These unique sets of keywords have come to be referred to as ‘folksonomy’.

Wikipedia defines the term, folksonomy as:

“Folksonomy is a neologism for a practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords. More colloquially, this refers to a group of people cooperating spontaneously to organize information into categories.

In contrast to formal classification methods, this phenomenon typically only arises in non-hierarchical communities, such as public websites, as opposed to multi-level teams.”

How will Social Bookmarking Impact the Web?

Actually, it is pretty clear right now that social bookmarking is having a huge impact on the way that information is being classified, categorized, stored and exchanged.

It is impossible to believe that in the future the impact will be even stronger. Web 1.0 was static but Web 2.0 is fluid. The face is ever changing.

The technology that social bookmarking is based upon is really rather simple…there isn’t anything complex about it. It is user friendly. The level of knowledge needed to gain huge benefits from social bookmarking is low.

People do not have to be computer gurus to make use of the technology at all. The technology is so simple and the system is so easy to use that it will continue to grow in popularity into the foreseeable future.

Because of this inevitable growth of social bookmarking and the easily used tagging of such things as multimedia files, it may well be just as inevitable that the design and function of databases themselves will also change drastically.

They may have to change just to be able to accommodate this new way of managing information.

How is Social Bookmarking Affecting Education?

Teaching and learning are the two components of education. The objective of transferring information and knowledge from one person to another person or a group of persons is being greatly affected by social bookmarking.

The exchange of information and the coming together of like-minded individuals into loosely knitted online communities are both impacting education as a whole.

For so many centuries education suffered from slow communication. Today the internet itself has greatly speeded up communication and social bookmarking has doubled that speed in the last few years.

Social bookmarking has created a method whereby bibliographies, papers, etc. can be easily and quickly shared and accessed by multiple people at the same time. These same resources can be altered or edited in real time.

Tags: Folksonomy, Bookmarking, Social Bookmarking, Web 2.0

What is Social Bookmarking?

According to Wikipedia, social bookmarking is defined as:

“Social bookmarking is an activity performed over a computer network that allows users to save and categorize a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others.

Users may also take bookmarks saved by others and add them to their own collection, as well as to subscribe to the lists of others - a personal knowledge management tool.”

Actually, the idea was first launched back in 1996 as ‘itlist’. Other similar sites quickly followed but that all went belly-up with the dot-com bubble bust in 2001. The idea is new again now with the advent of Web 2.0 and this time around it is thriving.

Who is Using Social Bookmarking?

In a word….everybody! Researchers have found social bookmarking sites to be an invaluable tool as they conduct research and find the need to share information about research with their colleagues.

Professionals like doctors, lawyers and engineers are using social bookmarking services in record numbers.

But social bookmarking is far more than simply a tool for research. People from all walks of like are using social bookmarking.

Users of popular websites like Friendster, FaceBook and MySpace have found that it is very easy to share information about websites that they find to be of mutual interest.

Networks of friends can be set up so that whenever a new posting is made to a social networking site other members of the network are notified immediately by RSS feed.

With all of this instant communication happening, you can see why those who are involved in Internet marketing are very much in touch with social bookmarking sites.

These innovative marketers join such sites as Friendster, FaceBook or MySpace and while they are having a lot of fun, they are also selling their products and services.

They are getting visitors to their websites. They are improving their PageRank. They have found that social bookmarking is one of the very best search engine optimization tools that have come along in a very long time.

Tags: Web 2.0, Bookmarking, Social Bookmarking

We all have a comfort zone and all of us are very fond of our personal comfort zone. It is very, very tempting to just stick with doing the things that we have always done and doing them in the same way we have always done them.

However, staying in your comfort zone and refusing to expand your mind and your horizons can cause you and your internet business to fail.

There is an old saying (probably made up by someone who was afraid of trying new things) that says, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well, ‘it’ doesn’t have to be broken in order to be improved upon whatever ‘it’ is.

Candle light wasn’t broken but we are all glad that electricity was harnessed. Electric light is still light but it is certainly a big improvement over candle light.

New ideas come along every day in the world of internet business. Some of those ideas are even good ones even if they do reside outside of our own personal comfort zone.

In order to continue to invest in yourself, you must be willing to leave your own comfort zone. Just because what has worked is still working it doesn’t mean that there are not newer, better and more efficient ways of doing things.

Nobody is saying that new is always better. New is not always better but sometimes it is and the only way to tell which is which is by investigating new ideas yourself and then adapting the ones that can help you to your business.

Invest in yourself by increasing your knowledge and don’t be afraid of trying new things and new ways of doing things. These things really are the secrets of success and not just in the world of internet business but in life itself.

Tags: Success Mindset Series, Increasing Your Knowledge, Comfort Zone

It is absolutely true that time is the one commodity that most internet entrepreneurs have a very, very short supply of. Still there are ways to use time that would otherwise be of no value to invest in yourself. Here are a few tips that might help:

• Use travel time to invest in yourself. By using your iPod or your MP3 player you can use your travel time to expand your knowledge.

• Set your clock for a half hour earlier and use that time to read and learn.

• After you stop working in the evening, use your computer to search for new information and ideas.

Of course there are some things that are just going to take your time but you can choose wisely.

• Attend webinars and teleseminars that are directly related to your niche or your business.

• Attend real world seminars that are closer to your home and will require less travel time but will provide you with the information that you need.

Tags: Self-Investment, Success Mindset Series