Sharing Tools
Sites which enable people to share resources of all kinds have proved to be another hugely popular social software development. The possibilities are endless, but some of the most well-known include those which enable people to share multimedia resources, bookmarks/favourites and just about anything collectable, including non-digital resources (books, record collections etc). Most sites enable you to upload your own resources, and view those uploaded by others, though configuration options usually enable you to make your resources available only to a private group if required. The increased availability of low-cost multimedia production tools has led to a phenomenal increase in popularity, with sites such as YouTube beginning to overtake mainstream media in viewing figures.
Sharing tools operate in different ways, but one of the common principles is keyword tagging, whereby people can assign their own keywords to the object they are submitting. This non-standard 'DIY' taxonomy is also known as folksonomy. It is supposed to lead to the development of social searching, whereby your searches are filtered through your own personal networks and preferences, instead of relying on pot luck with a search engine - rather like asking a friend or colleague to recommend a plumber! Tim O'Reilly refers to this as 'harnessing collective intelligence' or the 'wisdom of crowds'. Many sites also invite users to rate content, thus creating popularity lists. Popularity of tags can be visually represented via 'tag clouds' which display the most popular entries in larger font sizes.
Examples
Del.icio.us and Furl are two of the most popular bookmark-sharing services, while cite-u-like and Connotea are more academically oriented, for sharing bibliographical references. Image-sharing sites include Flickr and Phlog, while Odeo focuses on audio material. More specific applications include this JISC delicious account focusing on e-Learning and this collection of relevant BCE links. Increasingly, keyword tagging can be applied to just about any content on a social network site, thus blurring the distinction between, say, shared resources, forums, blogs and people. For example, the vinspired networking site for student volunteers, tags all of its content.
The tags below are embedded from del.icio.us indicating resources relevant to the BCE community.
Benefits and Barriers of Sharing Tools
Potential benefits for users:
Sharing tools are enormously variable in scope, functionality and accessibility. They do offer a range of significant benefits to users which include the following:
The ability to visualise information in different ways (for example, cloud tagging in del.icio.us).
The ability to communicate information in different ways (for example, image or video sharing or voice based messaging systems such as Yackpack).
The ability to collaborate effectively without needing physical access or physical proximity to other collaborators. This has benefits to users with a wide range of disabilities.
By allowing users to use a variety of formats and media, richer interactions and collaborations can take place benefiting a wide range of users, especially those who experience difficulty with print related content.
Potential barriers for users:
There are two types of barrier that these tools may create. The first is the interface barrier. If the interface is designed for accessibility, there should be few difficulties. However, the evidence suggests many Web 2.0 applications have ignored traditional good practice in website design. The accessibility and usability of tools should be trialled with a wide variety of learners (using a wide variety of assistive technologies) before committing to a significant implementation strategy. A second kind of barrier is the medium used. If the project is based around sharing images, how does a visually impaired person participate? If the project is based around sharing audio clips, how does a deaf person participate?
Sharing your images
In addition to its blog and wiki resources mentioned above, TASI has produced two resources with detailed information about the use of photo sharing services. Photo Sharing Sites outlines some of the main features offered by such services, considering their use as both a rich source of images and an easy way to manage and share your own image collection.
The second paper, Finding Images on Flickr, looks at one of the most popular photo sharing services. It focuses particularly on Flickr as a source of images, looking at how the social aspects of this service (e.g. tagging, groups and sharing of favourites) make it much easier to locate relevant images. It also looks at Flickr's support for the Creative Commons initiative, which can help address some of the copyright-related issues that arise when you want to make use of other people's images.
