Tagging

Some time ago I set up a Connotea account to store my work-related bookmarks so I could find them if I needed them when I was away from work. I know I could have use Delicious just as easily, but somehow the name put me off, although I could be tempted to store my recipes there.

Connotea has the subtitle 'management for all researchers, clinicians and scientists' has a decidedly non-popularist connotation, but I like it for its simplicity, look, and ease of use. Like Delicious it allows you to bookmark a website, give it a few keywords and tags, and share them with the rest of the world. You can also see who has bookmarked the same site, and then visit their library to see what else they might have found interesting.

One of these days I will export my IE7 bookmarks to Firefox, and then I can upload them all into Connotea.

RSS

RSS was something of a mystery to me before I actually signed up to some to see how it worked. Now I am at risk of being over subscribed:

For work-related things I have 'Library link of the Day' which serves up a daily article relating to developments in the information industry; In Through the Outfield put together by the manager of the British Library's Business & IP Centre - interesting for following developments in the business information world and what the BL is doing to encourage entrepreneural new businesses. I also subscribe to Mary Ellen Bates's monthly Bates InfoTips, but that's by email.

For tango-related things my favourite RSS feed is to 2xtango, devoted to tango goings on in Buenos Aires. It's updated daily and nearly always includes a YouTube snippet. It's love these little videos for their inspirational value.

ABC Radio National and the BBC are my other sources of RSS feeds. They both offer a cornucopia of audio via podcast rss feeds. Nearly all ABC RN programmes are offered as podcasts, including my favourites - Background Briefing, Ramona Koval's Book Show, Lingua Franca, Street Stories and Radio Eye. BBC Radio 3 offers Arts & Ideas as podcasts to which one can subscribe via RSS. BBC World Service has the Interview which is also interesting. All these programmes now flow into my laptop as if by magic, get transferred to my elegant diminutive Ipod by more magic known as 'synching', and taken to bed for feast of late night listening.

Social Networking

Recently I was forced to reassess my feelings about social networking sites. I joined FaceBook and LinkedIn a few years ago, at work, as an exercise in becoming familiar with social networking sites. I didn’t really make much progress with either of them, short of signing up and adding a few details, and visiting sporadically which usually meant accepting requests to be someone’s ‘friend’ on Facebook. Of course I only agreed to be a ‘friend’ of someone I actually knew, which seemed odd to me given that were already were friends. The others I declined, which invariably induced an unsettling feeling of being mean and anti-social. I admit to not having much enthusiasm for this way of expanding my contacts. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer talking to people I actually know rather than to people I’ve never met. But blow me down, two people I know but haven’t seen for years, both of whom live abroad, found me – both via the more business-related Linked In site which is where I had given the name of my current employer. Without the enabling technology of these social networking sites, this would have been impossible, as I didn’t have any of my real-world contact details on either site.

As for Facebook, I still don't really get it. It does seem to be full of blather. I'd much rather have a one-on-one correspondence at length with my friends, rather than have the feeling that I'm eavesdropping on all of their friends. I also steadfastly refuse to sent anything virtual - whether flowers or kisses or anything else - it's too silly for words (perhaps that's the whole point - no words necessary). Nor have I used either site to contact friends of friends, but I know when the time comes, there will be plenty of opportunity. Six degrees of separation and all that.