Social Bookmarking and RSS

LSNTAP Online Training

19 July 2006

Presenters

• Steve Gray

Steve Gray is Technology Manager at Legal Services of South Central Michigan, as well as the curator of the LStech.org web site.

• Madhu Lakshmanan

Madhu is a free-lance information architect and end-user advocate. She is also a content coordinator consultant for LSNTAP.

Agenda

• Web 2.0 – What’s the deal?– Features

• Social Bookmarking – Tagging– Spotlight on Del.icio.us– Use in NPOs– Uses in Legal Services

• RSS– What is it All About?– Use in Legal Services– Other Non-profit Uses

Web 2.0 - Introduction

• No single definition for what makes a site a web 2.0 site.

• It is not just using AJAX code or subtle colors and curved boxes in the design.

• Web 2.0 - a set of principles and practices• Sites and web apps are Web 2.0 in varying

degrees – it seems to be a continuum not a yes/no value.

Web 2.0 – Some Features

• More user control of look and feel• Online applications with increased use of

scripting languages• Designed for “hackability” and “remixability”• Perpetual Beta• “Device”, not only PC/Mac• Lightweight, yet rich UI• Harness collective intelligence

“Web 2.0 is using the web the way it was intended to be used” – Paul Graham

Social Bookmarking & Tagging

• Social Bookmarking is the concept of viewing and sharing bookmarks with others using the web as a medium. Tagging is a way of organizing and searching these links.

• A tag is a keyword or descriptive term associated with an item, an item can have more than one tag associated with it

• Allows classification/search in many different ways since each person may see the same thing in different ways

• Gmail uses “labels” in the same way• Key component of social bookmarking, creating context

and add organizational value

Del.icio.us

• It is a social bookmarking web service for storing and sharing web bookmarks

• users can tag each of their bookmarks with a number of freely chosen keywords

• A combined view of everyone's bookmarks with a given tag is available; e.g. the URL "http://del.icio.us/tag/lstech" displays all of the most recent links tagged “lstech“– This feature can be used by organizations to create a set of common

resources based on a tag that is unique to their members.– RSS feeds of any tagged set are available to include on a website or

feed-reader.

Demo Del.icio.us -1

Demo Del.icio.us -2 How to Bookmark

Demo Del.icio.us -3

• Search

• Private saving of bookmarks – use a group login to del.icio.us

• For: username

• RSS feed

Del.icio.us Navigation

Address bar or breadcrumbsEvery user has his or her own page for bookmarks:http://del.icio.us/grangeEvery tag has its own page:http://del.icio.us/tag/lstechYou can view bookmarks by user and tag:http://del.icio.us/grange/ntaptrainingView bookmarks tagged “RSS" and “ntaptraining" (an intersection):http://del.icio.us/tag/RSS+ntaptrainingView bookmarks tagged “RSS" and “ntaptraining" by grange:http://del.icio.us/grange/RSS+ntaptrainingView bookmarks tagged specifically for you:http://del.icio.us/forYour subscriptions:http://del.icio.us/inbox

Del.icio.us Tipsfrom http://slackermanager.com/2005/12/the_several_hab.html

• Create many bookmarks• Tag everything, clean up your tags periodically• Use the Inbox• Play around with compound terms and media

types and file-types• Track other users• Subscribe to feeds• Export, create tag clouds for your blog or

website• Explore – new features are coming

Can We Talk?

How is/could the poverty law community use Del.icio.us?

Please type your answers in the chat window.

Social Bookmarking in NPOs

• Nptech tag on del.icio.us- Using the free online social bookmarking tool, Del.icio.us, any user can mark a web page for the attention of the nonprofit technology community by using the tag "nptech."

- collaboration among individuals who are interested in information technology for NPOs

• Craft Emergency Relief Fund http://craftemergency.org/programs/prevention/preparedness

- using bookmarks to populate links on their preparedness page.

“nptech” tag

“Live” Resource Page

Social Bookmarking in NPOs -2Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

• They set up lots of tags relating to their mission and fundraising program.

• Are experimenting with them within their message boards and emails - the vision is that the "group" can collaborate together to create a much more robust and complete set of articles and resources in one place.

• They continue to experiment and play with tags, using them for a few months in conjunction with experiments on Squidoo to combine tag RSS feeds directly into their “lenses”.

Lymphoma on Squidoo

Social Bookmarking In Poverty Law Programs

• WorkGroups – i.e. statewide taskforces

• Programs – program bookmarks

• Experts – like a blog for resources

Poverty Law Workgroups

Internal use in Poverty Law Programs

Experts

RSS

• Your own personal customized newspaper

• Information delivered to you

• Saves time

• Useful for Collaboration– Track particular topic/source– Suggested Reading list– Everyone sees the same news– Share with others through blog/website

RSS Use in Legal Services

• Roll Your Own Poverty Law Newspaper

• Del.icio.us Feeds

Can We Talk?

How is/could the poverty law community use RSS?

Please type your answers in the chat window?

Poverty Law Newspaper

Use in Statewide Websites

RSS in Other NPOs

• RSS Grant Channel - http://news.gilbert.org/2004RSSGrantsChannels

publication of structured announcements of grants made.

• Project VoteSmart – http://www.vote-smart.org/rss.htm

compiles information updates on the 20 most recent key votes going through Congress

• Handsnet – now populated by content from various RSS feeds.

HandsNet

RSS and Del.icio.us

Resources

• Del.icio.us Tools http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/02/absolutely-delicious-complete-tools-collection/

• Choosing Effective del.icio.us Tags http://www.alexandrasamuel.com/20060310/update-choosing-effective-delicious-tags

• Extended bookmarkletshttp://www.cs.ucf.edu/%7Ecmillward/delish.php

• RSS Resources http://allrss.com/rssresources.html• Delicious Tag for RSS http://del.icio.us/tag/RSS • Delicious Tag for SocialBookmarking and LSTech http://

del.icio.us/tag/SocialBookmarking+LSTech

Questions?