Delicious 13

I fired up a del.icio.us account under the peaisforpurl username (I now have to maintain a googledoc that lists all my accounts, user names, passwords and email affiliations.)and tagged some websites--I must say that the word "tag" is now "overdetermined" and since I have an endless fascination with words let's play with the "tagging" phenomenon. On my tool bar now is an icon that looks like a luggage tag. This is what I click on to let my d account know that the current website will be added to my bookmarks. I can also apply "tags" or descriptors to that bookmark to add to the cloudbursts of descriptors in my account as well as to the mushrooming cloud in the tag universe of del.icio.us. I can look at all of my bookmarks with a particular tag. I can look at all of my tags. Tagging also refers to what graffiti artists do which to me means making an individual identifying and identifiable mark on the landscape's skin for all to see. When you play a game of tag you are tapping or striking someone b/c they have been "caught" and are now tagged "it" The "it" has a new identity and becomes tagger. Tag=identity, tag=designator, tag=marker but it does not replace anything, it is just a means of identifying sort of the way a catalog card used to do and hey that looks like a kind of paper tag and also if you are a scrapbooker (the bricks and mortar kind) then you know about the tag rage among scrapbookers-- So much of what this technology is promulgating is a kind of "cut and paste" universe. No judgment just an observation.

Thing #10- Technology rocks with paper and scissors

For me technology is another play tool--a powerful one but a tool nonetheless. I am one of those who shakes her head everytime she sees a "connected" family on an outing-Dad and mom on cell phones. 1 child texting another gaming another ipod stricken. I worry about language and correct grammar and civility--yes manners are still important so is spelling, and that is what is so funny about technology and "social networking." We are indeed creating connections. We are bonding, but the quality of that bonding is inherently different. I used to curtsy whenever I met an adult. I wore white gloves and went to dancing school. I hated it all but it seems we had so much more "face" time not "facebook" time. Now I can learn to dance from YouTube. I do not "blame" technology but I want to ensure that our children know how to speak to one another and to others without that mediation.
End of "soapbox" rant.

So here is an example of how I "play" with technology: I logged on to OCL webthings challenge blog and accessed The 20 Things to Watch doc. I was intrigued by #5 Scrapbooking. I actually do the paper,scissors and glue stick kind. This refers to technology on the web that allows you to research across databases while it captures and stores full text and citations for use at a later date. I wanted to know more so I googled "scrapbooking technology" and yup that was not helpful. I happened to mention this to a colleague and she said oh yeah RefWorks does that. BINGO--face time!! My coworker told me it had some limitations so I decided to figure out what "category" of technology this kind of software fit in. BINGO wikipedia called RefWorks a "citation manager" and I was OFF like greased lightning. BUT before I launched myself I remember a technology colleague having emailed some time ago about some cool Firefox extension that did some of this "scrapbooking" so I went to my Outlook sorted by name and BINGO there it was ZOTERO. I went from A to Z didn't I? I got the answers--which was simply satisfying a curiosity- I was looking for and I HAD FUN!!!