Week 4 Social Bookmarking

Ok, so I'll be the first to admit that when Prof. Mislevy introduced social bookmarking sites in the first class, I was far from impressed. However, these readings made me give credit where credit it's due. While reading I decided to investigate some of the claim of the authors. Counting all the links inside folders I have over 250 links, half I don't even need anymore or know why I bookmarked them. To overcome the limitation of bookmarks being limited to one website, I would e-mail myself all the links so I have them wherever I go. I have over 500 links in my email with no real way of finding one if I needed it. Needless to say, I just created an account on Diigo.

It's been alluded to in the readings, but I think my favorite potential of social bookmarking is an evolved form of scholarly, or at least selective, research. When I used a search engine, I am often curious as to why certain websites come up before others. For the most part it is based upon the number of hits the website receives, but I often notice a correlation between a sites position in the queue and whether or not the website has advertisements on the engine. Theoretically, if I network my social bookmarking with fellow historians, I will be able to find quality articles with another criteria. Through social networking sites, I have been able to gather significant information about my peers (religion, political philosophy, etc.) which has given me insight to their personalities. I hypothesize that a person's bookmarks may also serve as window to the their personalities. The scholarly application of this fact would have to do with the balance of my writing. In the field of history, their are few certainties and numerous viewpoints. Despite this, on several occasions I have found it difficulty to find a diverse collection of sources. I believe that by knowing my colleagues on a social bookmarking site will aid me. For instance, I recently wrote a paper on George Eugene Haussmann and how he influenced France. I found numerous sources praising his renovation of Paris, but I knew for a fact that thousands of Parisians were evicted to make room for his plan. Despite this, I found little criticism. With the aid of a professor I found critical sources, but now I suppose that if I had a colleague who I knew favored social history, I would be able to scan his bookmarks and have a greater chance of success because I personally know the how he/she thinks.