Task #3: Oh my, that Cake was tag-tastic!

Library Lady says: From the beautiful cake for the announcement party, to the triumphantly towering wedding cake; from the congratulatory and farewell cakes to the children's birthday beauty blazing with candles, it seems every important occasion brings with it the opportunity to Diigo into another delicious cake...

There's something funny about the way you've spelled "dig"?

Way to sniff out the mystery, Scooby Doo! You're right, there is something suspicious about 'Diigo'... But before we get to that, a word (or two) about tags. 

Is this going to be long? Should I get a snack? I just pulled a tray of cookies out of the oven.

No no no... Cool your jets. And pass me one of those cookies...

†Tags are like subjects in a library catalogue. The subjects assigned to a particular book give you a sense of what that book is about. The subject headings for Nora Roberts' novel, Savour the Moment, for example are "bakers--fiction," "weddings--fiction," "businesswomen--fiction," "female friendship--fiction," "Connecticut--fiction," and "love stories"

To see this library record in more detail, click the image:

By reading the subjects associated with this particular book--without ever having a physical copy of it in your hands--you already know this is a fictitious love story, presumable about a female wedding cake entrepreneur, and not a new-age stress management handbook encouraging you to get in touch with your inner shakra and to 'savour life's little moments' (as the title might imply...)

*giggle*

The same can be said for tags associated with online goodies—when you "tag" something online, you assign a word or a short sentence to describe the content of that website, picture, blog post, etc. However, unlike library cataloguing which follows a strict set of guidelines (the Library of Congress Subject Headings, which can be dull, fussy, and rather formal), tagging is completely unstructured and thus infinitely more fun! Users create connections between online material any way they want, making the entire process more personal.

Tagging is used in many Web 2.0 applications including Blogger and YouTube, which we've already discussed and Facebook, Flickr, and Library Thing (which we'll get into later in the summer.)

Within a blog you can add tags to a post you've written--the tags for this post are 'tagging' and 'diigo', and can been found at the bottom of the page. On BPL's reader’s advisory blog, The Good Book Psychic, each post (or book review) is labelled with relevant tags to characterize the book into genres. The tags associated with the title Ratio by Michael Ruhlman are “Cooking,” “Mathematics,” and "Non-Fiction". Each of these is a link to a list all other posts (or in this case book reviews) with the same tag(s). A complete list of genre tags used on The Good Book Psychic can be found in the blog's ride-hand sidebar. 

Okay, that's pretty neat. But what else can I do with these tags besides search out a new suspense mystery or categorize my blog post? 

Excellent question!

Have you ever visited a website and liked it so much you knew you'd want to go back to it? 

Well sure. All the time. I'm always looking for new recipe websites and I can never remember which sites I've explored or which I've enjoyed the most...

The easiest way to remember your favorite sites is to bookmark them, saving them to a permanent list on your computer. The next time you want to find that page, select it from your bookmark list (learn how to bookmark by following the instructions on the Betty Blogger homepage, under "Betty's Tips".) Bookmarking is great, but only if you: 

a) Have your own computer on which to save a bookmark list
b) Use only one computer, and not multiple computers (i.e. one at work, one at home, one at the cottage, etc.)

Enter tagging! Diigo is a bookmarking service that allows you to bookmark web pages making your favourites available from any computer on the Internet anywhere in the world. Diigo allows you to highlight, create sticky notes, comment on your bookmarks, and add those all important tags, emphasizing collaboration and community. The real power of Diigo lies in the social networking aspect, allowing you to see how other users have tagged similar websites, thus giving you the ability to discover new web pages of similar interest. Diigo will change the way you discover, remember, collaborate, and share websites on the Internet.

Your Task 

To complete this assignment: 

1. Visit Diigo, and consider 'taking a tour' of the site by watching the streamed introductory video. Click HERE to view the video and learn more about the site and how Diigo works.

2. Click Join Diigo, and create your own account. Remember to record your user name and password. 

3. Activate your account--sign into the email account you registered for Diigo with, and click on the link included in their welcome email. 

Please note: Feel free to ignore the prompt to 'Install Diigo Toolbar.' This step is unnecessary. 

4. Add your favourite websites to your Diigo account using the "add a bookmark" search box. By now, I'm sure you're aware of the "theme" I'm working with here, so it won't come as a surprise to you that I chose to bookmark the Betty Crocker website (and for the record, you've gotta try the Malt Shoppe Memories Ice Cream Cookie Cake recipe... To. Die. For. Seriously. Melt in your mouth goodness. But maybe jog or do some Tai Chi afterwards because one bite contains enough calories to sustain an elephant herd.)

5. Click ADD. 

6. Add a description and a few tags to your newly bookmarked site, such as “Betty Blogger Summer School" or in the case of my favourite ice cream cake recipe, "Yummy in my Tummy". 

7. Choose to make your bookmark 'public' or 'private'--do you want other Diigo users to be able to see your collection of bookmarks and tags? Finish by clicking Add New Bookmark.

Now you can view your bookmarked web pages at any time by simply logging into your Diigo account from any computer on the Internet, anywhere in the world and clicking on My Library. 

8. Add at least 2 bookmarks in total to your Diigo library. 

9. Finish up by writing a post on your blog telling me:

• What web sites you bookmarked in Diigo?
• What tags you added to your bookmarks?
• Will you continue to use Diigo, outside of the Betty Blogger summer school?

10. Click Publish Post.

Now go forth and find websites that tempt you, little ones! I recognize ice cream cake doesn't float everyone's boat... 

For the teacher's pet: If you're interested in taking tagging a bit farther, try searching the community library for tags using the search box found in the Diigo navigation tool bar. Add websites recommended by others, and explore the related tags on the right-hand side of the page.

† Research from YCL TwoPointOh Exploration.

Further Reading:
The Brave New World of Social Bookmarking: Everything You Always Wanted to Know But Were Too Afraid to Ask (PDF), Amanda Etches-Johnson.


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