del.icio.us vs Digg

After playing around on both sites, I see delicious as a bookmarking and sharing site. Easy to use for both, I am not sure I would use Digg for bookmarking. I do like the Tag and Bookmark icon delicious enables on the tool bar, making it really convenient to bookmark sites to an account. The delicious interface is easy to use, networking is easy, and tag rolls are easy to establish. Without the tool bar icon from Digg, the user has to be logged into Digg and use its search engine to find sites. The user does not have to be logged onto delicious to tag sites found while on Google or other search engines. Is Digg hoping its users will switch to their search engine? Overall, I felt more comfortable using delicious as a bookmarking and sharing site. The periods in the name do drive me crazy though ! One other comment on Digg--I found myself using the 'Dugg' numbers to judge popularity, and therefore relevance. This was not so. Many sites with high numbers were truly junk.

SCILS or SCI

A name change to SCI--I haven't read any compelling reason to change. I don't see SCI as broadening the view of the school, in fact I see it as making the mission of the school unclear. Information science is a term we as practitioners endear. However, we are in the field and recognize its elements. Those outside of the field will not see it as a well defined degree program, and in fact will have to dig into the schools offerings to know it includes library science. When looking for library science programs at schools (examples in the ALA link: (http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/education/accreditedprograms/directory/list/index.cfm
most all have the term library included in the name. To me it doesn't weaken or make the term seem "old fashioned", but when paired with information science it becomes stronger and partnered with the 21st century aspects of technology and information seen as a science. In the scheme of things, I know my opinion won't matter on the final decision, yet as the eternal optimist I hope someone is at least reading our opinions.

Information overload?

RSS might not be perfect, but it sure is a big help in freeing up my time from searching to reading. The option to read or not to read a full article is a plus, as well as the ease with which aggregators work. However, sites that update very frequently are a complication and with these sites it may be hard to distinguish good info from junk, or a topic not of interest. Categorizing feeds helps with topic organization and eliminates random reading. I began using a ning at school, and like the option of defining a 'Twitter Tweet' with keywords that are of interest to me. So does RSS help or contribute to information overload? Information overload is a facet of life today, so I'm of the opinion that it can only help in an inevitable situation.

digg

I discovered "digg" http://www.digg.com/ in an article on the best Web 2.0 software. It is a members only, user moderated, social news site (anyone can join) in which members can post anything they find of interest from the web (news, videos, images etc). Each post is rated by digg's members, with the most popular ones (the most dugg stories!) getting a spot on the front page, and possibly a top ten rank. There are no editors on digg, members rank the information posted and are able to bury information if it is objectionable or simply spam. Users can comment on articles as well as bury comments. Digg also offers RSS feeds for the site or parts of it, and search terms of the users choice. Categories include world news, science, technology, sports, gaming, lifestyle, entertainment, and offbeat (comedy, odd stuff, people, pets and animals). Information overload is becoming a problem, and digg seems to offer one solution in that current news events can be found in one place. One concern with digg--can a group of users conspire to bury a news worthy story?

I am passionate about---

This may seem so cliche, but I am truly passionate about my kids and being the best parent I know how to be. No, I'm not a hovering, overbearing mom. I just like to share life with them, and each day it gets better. Just watching them develop their interests and adult personalities makes me smile every day. Unknown to them is the strength they give me to pursue my own happiness and endure life's ups and downs. Although as young adults they spend less time with me and my husband, it is a great feeling to know they still want to. So when I consider other passions of mine such as travelling or reading, they seem very trivial compared to being a parent. Sappy? I guess!