Blog Journal 5 - The Blog So Far, Diigo, and Web 2.0 Tools

Welcome back!

This marks the fifth journal on this blog, and somewhere between the sixth and eighth post overall- I think, anyway, I haven't been keeping much of a count going. Personally, the idea of keeping an active blog before this class didn't seem like something I much cared to do. I mean, I haven't posted on my Twitter in years, I deleted my Facebook (if I remember correctly, anyway), and I rarely do anything on Snapchat- all things considered, social media has just never really been my thing. I just never feel like I actually have much to share. That said, compared to other sorts of social media, I do enjoy keeping up with this blog. It feels like a good place to write down my thoughts on whatever the topic at hand is, in an environment specifically designed for that purpose. It feels more focused than Twitter and Facebook and all that- I guess, in my mind at least, it feels like it actually has a point. With that in mind, I really do like keeping up with this blog for that reason. Honestly, trying to list any one thing that I don't like about the blogging experience would probably get into nitpicking. I feel like it's a great experience all around to help in gathering your thoughts and putting them in an understandable format for others. If I've learned one thing from doing this blog so far, it's that I really shouldn't knock an experience before I try it. Before running this, blogging just never seemed like something I'd be interested in, but here I am now writing nearly 300 words just about that very thing. I still have two topics to cover!

Now, blogging is still pretty new to me, but not nearly as new as some other things- for example, Diigo. I'll be honest- when I first heard of Diigo and the whole idea of "social bookmarking," the first thing that ran through my head was "who in the world would want to use something like that?" Needless to say, my thoughts on it have changed a good bit. It definitely seems like it could be very useful for networking and in helping people connect and share resources. It's very easy to use, which is definitely a plus. What I don't like about it, however, is that it seems like it would open the door for people to potentially flood a group with all sorts of resources that are either out-of-date or otherwise unreliable. It seems like you'd have to make sure the people in your group know what to look for and what sources are reliable.

Now, tools like Diigo wouldn't exist were it not for the advent of Web 2.0- the current (I think) age of the internet. Under web 2.0, users are able to view, interact with, and produce content on a massive scale. An interesting tool that's emerged as a result of Web 2.0 is the wiki, which is basically a collection of interactive, collaborative web-pages. The most well-known example of this is, of course, Wikipedia. I'm sure many a teacher will frown upon what I'm about to say, but honestly Wikipedia receives a glowing review from me. Sure, you shouldn't use it alone, it definitely isn't flawless, but over time it has become an amazing source of information. I wrote a speech back in high school- specifically to spite my public speaking teacher because he really didn't like Wikipedia- about the site's honestly incredible reliability, and as it turns out based on my research (mostly done on Wikipedia), Wikipedia actually isn't that much less reliable than the Encyclopedia Britannica. I believe the exact number given is that Wikipedia has about one more error per page than the Britannica. When used in conjunction with other sources and not used alone, I think Wikipedia is honestly a wonderful resource when seeking new information.