Readings week #12

Week 12's reading seemed to center around so called "social software."
The first article was about weblogs or commonly called blogs. This article contained a brief history as well as some ideas for using blogs. I appreciated this article since it gave definitions for commonly used terms. I also found the discussion on push/pull types of technology useful.
The second article was about using wiki technology to better serve patrons in a library setting. As with blogs, free software is available to enable this technology. Wikis promote shared knowledge and cooperation to create resources.
The third article discussed social tagging, the creation of bookmarks for websites that are saved online. These tags have subject keywords and description attached for searching purposes. The del.icio.us site was described as a place to collaborate by sharing tags and discovering new resources. Problems with social tagging include variations in tags, user understanding of keywords, and spagging (spam tagging).
The final reading was actually a video of Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia. It was enlightening to realize the huge size of Wikipedia, the international use, and the number of paid employees-one. Additionally, it operates on a free license and is funded by donations and is run by volunteers. Jimmy Wales is also often misquoted by the media. It was also interesting to hear about how the entire Wikipedia functions with regard to deleting pages and who has the final word. Also of interest was the discussion over the citation merits of Wikipedia since this is a topic that has been of interest in other classes.