Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Social Bookmarking/Tagging
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to define, store, organize, search,
and manage bookmarks of web pages (Millen, Yang, Whittaker, & Feinberg, 2007).
Unlike old ways of using folders to organize bookmarks, social bookmarking uses
tags that collectively and/or collaboratively form folksonomies or
social tagging
,
that the process by which many users add information in the form of keywords to
share content (Yew, Gibson, & Teasley, 2006).
Three elements of social bookmarking, users, resources and tags, are organized
into two dimensions: information management and social networking. Social book-
marking acts as an “outboard memory,” for storing links that might be lost, scattered
across different browser bookmark settings, or distributed among emails, printouts,
and web links (Alexander, 2006). Rather than assigning bookmarks to one category,
tagging enables users to assign bookmarks to a number of tags corresponding to
different dimensions. Tags can refer not only to subject domains but also to levels of
usefulness and interest and individual website can be assigned multiple tags. Web
links can be hierarchically organized under multiple tags based on how many peo-
ple have tagged them. Social tagging systems rely on shared and emergent social
structures and behaviors, as well as the related conceptual and linguistic structures
of user communities (Marlow, Naaman, Boyd, & Davis, 2006). Well-know exam-
ples are del.icio.us, citeulike, and digg.com. Social bookmarking also helps users
to connect through the same bookmarking. Using tags can help users find not only
interesting weblinks but others who share the same interest. While bookmark col-
lections are personally created and maintained, they are typically visible to others.
Users benefit by getting pointers to new information from others while getting a
general sense of other people's interests (Millen et al., 2007).
Shared understanding is the basis of social bookmarking. Social bookmarking
facilitates knowledge building and knowledge management. It provides representa-
tions of knowledge that is associated with old and new collaboratively negotiated
knowledge. Social tagging has been found to enable
processes
of group knowledge
formation and content labeling (Yew et al., 2006). It enables students not only to
interact through shared vocabularies but also to develop common sets of norms and
practices. Social bookmarking supports lightweight information sharing or knowl-
edge management within organizations (Millen et al., 2007). Tagging has also been
found to promote social connection in business organizations (Marlow et al., 2006)
and to provide a common language for communication (Yew et al., 2006). The idea
of a shared vocabulary is crucial to the formation of group knowledge as it can
promote processes of establishing mutual beliefs and assumptions to support group
communication which is essential for the formation of cohesion (Clark & Brennan,
1991).
Conclusion
Web 2.0 fosters learning in society 2.0 in which there are no clear boundaries
between consuming and producing of knowledge and where learners participate
