Thing # 14: Technorati and Tags

Maybe it's just me, but I did not see a difference in the hits when I searched for "School Library Learning 2.0" under blog posts, tags and blog directory. Perhaps I did it wrong. Leave me a comment if I did. I think I did it right, though. I did it a few times. They all produced about the same number of hits, and the first 10 or so looked almost identical.

When I looked at the popular blog searches and tags, I saw some interesting and surprising things. There were 3 blogs that were the same in both the top 100 blogs chosen by authorities as well as by the public. These included: Boing Boing, Engadet, and Tech Crunch. Boing Boing is about "cultural curiosities and curious technologies". Engadget is about technology and software that are new and "hot". Tech Crunch is about new things/ toys on the Web, like Facebook and My Space. It is very interesting that both the public and authorities rank these in the top 5. It really shows the values in our society at the moment. Decades ago, we as a society enjoyed fads like clothes and cars and things we could touch with our hands. Now, all the "coolest" things are on the Web. And people want to learn about them and how to use them. We still, as human beings, want to be "a part of" society. We want to know what it feels like to dress like everybody else, to style our hair like everybody else, to drive the cars that are popular, and to do the things everyone else does. We do all this so we can talk about them with others. We don't want to be the only one who can't talk about them. It is like making oneself a social outcast on purpose. So, to me, it makes a lot of sense that everyone is clamoring to learn all about the new "coolest" things. They can't be bought and worn, or put into our garages- they must be learned on our laptops. They take more of a time and energy investment, and less of a monetary investment. Seems like that's the one thing people have the least of these days. Kind of ironic the new "coolest" things require that one very scarce commodity.

Technorati is a great research tool. It really helps to simplify looking for information. Like I mentioned in another blog posting, I value Consumer Report when I buy things I can hold- like a lawn mower. So, I am very glad to have this site now that I can get a "Consumer Report" about the blogs and sites out there before I go sifting through all of them. The computer is wonderful, but who has time to sift and label everything. This simplifies things. It is like when you go shopping for jeans and know that a particular brand fits you-and that's the brand you go look for when you need jeans. You don't go try on 100 pairs by 100 different designers. You already know they are quality and they fit right. That's what Technorati does for everyone. It makes it easier and faster to narrow your Web tools to what YOU are looking for, what fits you. As a librarian, I will look for others' comments about how to run a library, how to solve problems I see in my particular library, and other questions that come up as a new librarian. That is the great thing about blogs and such other tools. People can help each other and you don't have to even "know" them. It is truly genius.

After having played with Technorati, Delicious, and Flickr, I can definitely see the value of tagging. Tagging information really is like those little tiny file boxes that stay at home housewives used to take to the supermarket decades ago with all the coupons filed in different categories. Just like they wanted to be able to use a discount when they needed it at the supermarket, we can now file away articles, blogs, and other Web tools for when we have a problem or question that could be relieved or solved by looking at that information. We all want a quality life. We don't want to feel like we are living to survive. So, tagging things lets us get the life we want with the least work. Life is about decisions. When we have things all tagged in our computers to use when we need it, we can decide things better and faster as the need arises. Our decisions will be more acceptable to us, too, since we have information we value and trust behind each of those decisions. Maybe it's due to the uncertain economic times, but whatever the reason, people think about every decision- not just what to buy. And tagging lets us make decisions and shape our lives to the ones we want more easily. All of these tools we are learning about are geared toward that- creating the lives we want with others' experiences and expertise to guide us.

I think in our technologically advanced world, we have come full circle to realize that none of the technology serves any good purpose if we can't use it to help each other. That is the most valuable thing that a life of leisure has afforded us. Since Little House on the Prairie times we have been working toward not having to worry about necessities- now we can worry about helping each other and creating lives with a purpose and creating things to help our life and others' lives. All of these Web tools help us do accomplish these things.