Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Mmmm Delicious!!

tequilalix

Obviously this kind of snack does not appeal to everyone, with its chewy centre, but if you are interested you can buy one from the Queen's own grocer's Fortnum and Mason's. (I always suspected she had a penchant for worms.)

Actually the Delicious I was really thinking about was this one here which is in fact 'del.icio.us'.
I have not really bothered with it before, but have decided to open an account and use it. And although I only have five sites marked on it sofar, I have already had fun.


This is how it works:
You can create your own 'Delicious' page and save all your favourite sites on it. You can tag the sites and add notes to remind you what is what. You can then click on your tags and see all the sites you have tagged in that way. For example you can tag several sites 'museum' and then you will be able to click on that tag and draw up all your museum sites. Or you can tag 'artefact', or 'online learning' or 'identity' or 'literacy' etc etc. (Or 'fetish'). This is useful as when you favourite sites through your web browser, they often get squashed up and out of order. And with Delicious you have your helpful notes too.

BUT. You can also look at all the sites which other Delicious people have on their favourites, e.g. ones that they may have tagged as 'artefact' or 'Museum'. This is a very good tool as users of the web are doing the classifying as they use sites. Web site writers obviously also put in key words, but these may not be the same ones that occur to a site user. The Delicious site is like a HUGE database of people's bookmarked and categorised sites. So your bookmarks are public; but you can view everyone else's too. (It is like being in an academic nudist camp!! (But less embarrassing.) Hurrah!!)

This is yet another way in which the web is interactive; a way in which readers can become active and use their reading of a text to influence other people's readings of a text.

By using the tag 'artefact' I came across this site on 'Making the Modern World' . I have now added this to my 'Delicious' page.

I really enjoyed looking around on that site and especially enjoyed people's narratives on objects that mean a lot to them, like this . (Guy will like this skating one.) It is really nice to hear the stories spoken via a sound file as the voices add particular nuances which I enjoy.

Anyway more info about Delicious is here if you want to do it. I think I have got it right but I may not have it all in my head yet as I just started to use it. I did not read how to do it or what it was, I just 'kind of fiddled'. This is how I learn digital stuf f these days.
Like Maryplain I am a child of the digital age. Talking of which, check this article out for a shock ... written in 1996 it is SO out of date.

7 comments:

Mick said...

Hi DrJoolz,
people in marketing never cease to amaze me. I can see it now a young thrusting executive (who happens to be the nephew of the MD) pitches his product idea,
"so to sum up, it's a Tequila flavoured lolly with a worm in it, it looks disgusting but tastes delicious"
The members of the board all look at each other and think " he's effing bonkers" the MD says " what a marvellous idea, such original thinking is what made this company great". And before you know it a Tequila and worm lolly is on the shelves.
This is my first comment here and I feel Dr Rob would be proud of the high wibble factor.

Kate said...

This is marvellous Dr Joolz.
I would like to try delicious but I spent a lot of time thinking it was a recipe site and so got a little confused.
I think it would be very good.
The only thing that worries me about it is that it is a very tidy idea.
I like the messiness of the web and stumbling accidentally on exciting sites.
Or maybe I just need to be v. organised as the whole of the museum world is interactive, tells stories and has objects on line.
I must catch up.

Joolz said...

Oh. I thought you would love it DrK. Oh well.
Sorry to upset you re marketers MrMick. And thanks for dropping by.

Kate said...

Actually it is just too hard for my poor old brain.
I told you I should have been a waitress.

Guy Merchant said...

Great discovery learning journey on the tagging/bookmarking front- this is how it is. I think of these practices as new ways of knowledge building but more often consider myself to be the grey shade of digital.

Joolz said...

Yeah; some tings I have avoided so far. Don't know how to do a 'proper web site'. Don't know about podcasting; abot RSS ... there is SO much.

Joolz said...

I mean 'things' I am not from the Carribean. I say 'things'. Sorry.

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Sheffield, South Yorks, United Kingdom
I am an academic interested in New Literacies, Digital Lifestyles, Informal Online Learning.