This week has had me reflecting on my personal habits in general. I realized that much of my life, I have been a packrat when it came to bookmarking things. I have, in a wide variety of mediums, tagged and bookmarked innumerable items on wide variety of topics. I file away these little gems, or even minor interests, to come back to at a later date and more fully explore or exploit it. You know, when I have time to really use the knowledge or insight the saved item provides. However, when do I have the time? Ironically, the time I could spend delving into bookmarked items is the time I spend finding more items to bookmark. In the end, I am left with an amassed pile of randomness that is easier to dump and start afresh than it is to sort.
This is why I like curation tools. I use Pinterest a lot, and I have completed a number of projects using ideas I have compiled. Whether it was a DIY home improvement, a new recipe, holiday decorations, or simply purchasing a new item, I have gone back to my boards, sorted through specific items, and put the knowledge to use. The active curation of my boards keeps things organized and facilitates recovery of desired materials, and this is something I deeply appreciate and can use.
But I am not throwing out the idea of simple bookmarking. Playing with Goodreads has given me a new appreciation for this. Perhaps because the tool architecture is such that it provides you with sufficient organization, or that the algorithms are making useful and personalized recommendations for you. Or maybe it is because the specificity of the topic--books--keeps the bookmarks from becoming that eclectic pile of randomness. Maybe its all of those things. But I still find it enjoyable.
I will probably keep pinning away. This is a great repository for things I want to work on. And I will probably keep using Goodreads as well. This is because I finally opened a Kindle account and have reacquired my joy of leisure reading. So, I guess my final thought is that each tool has its place, and that place is defined by the user. It's personal, which is why I think Web 2.0 is so powerful.
I couldn't have said it any better myself. The reason why i love tools like Pinterest or Goodreads is because of their ability to grab different ideas or topics and put them together in one place for you. More than that, they give YOU the power to create your own personal collections which is, as you mentioned, why web 2.0 is a powerful tool.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with the personal side is making content ubiquitous. If you are paid to teach American history, all your student need to learn about the American Revolution, without regard to their Web 2.0 preferences!
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