Week 6 #14

Today, I explored Technorati and am amazed at the number of bloggers and blogs that are in existence. I think that blogging is so common because we all need a place to voice our opinions, thoughts and general information. But, as I learned on Technorati, blogging is so much more than opinion, readers can tag blogs they are interested in and that provide information on products or good insight into politics, current events and technology. I reviewed the blog posts and tags and really didn't see much difference in these two except, the tags, had less in their excerpts. The blog directory was a horse of a different color, I thought of it as more of a tutorial in what blogging is all about. The list of available blogs on the popular page is astounding. At first, I was confused at what made a blog authoritative but learned that it is the number of times it is linked, the more your linked the more authoritative the blog becomes. I'm not sure that this is a librarian's qualitative measurement however I am learning that there are many ways of establishing creditability and linking is the equivalent of a good or favorable review. The results that popped up on my various searches were relevant to my search request. Sometimes I was surprised at the differant number of tags one might place on a blog. Even though some only had two tags they still showed up in the search. I believe the tags chosen are important in order for a blogger to be found and for them to gather links.
Popular blogs are not necessarily the most popular topics that are in the entertainment world or what we typically see when we watch the news, read the paper or magazines. I was pleasantly surprised by reading more on fanfiction, seeing popular news headlines and learning about what people are finding interesting that otherwise wouldn't make the local, or world news. I was also impressed with the number of bloggers from around the world. It makes the world seem smaller and more connected. I admit that I couldn't read all blogs as I don't speak or write except in English. One of my servers at Dunkin Donuts told me to listen to music in another language to improve and learn a foreign language. I asked how I would identify what they were singing about and he told me to get a dictionary. I found this to be quite humorous, if not horrifying that I truly only do speak one language and he spoke six.
I believe tagging is as important as subject headings. The more we open up ourselves to be tagged and linked the more opporunities we have to share with the larger world. I also believe that tagging allows us to see and join in on discussions we may not have thought of on our own. We might have missed the bigger picture had we not generated a discussion and been linked to other ideas and thoughts related to our topic. That being said, I still find myself hesitant about opening myself up to being tagged. What if I offend someone, or what if noone ever links to me? I should be more positive but I'm hesitant.Why? I watch too many crime shows and imagine all kinds of things happening because I put information about myself out to the world. I wonder how safe I am and yet I can't imaging not being safe. I chose not to tag my blog at this time, but I haven't given up entirely. I think tagging will be important to keep up with ideas that are being generated now and learning how to keep up with the global community at large. There are certainly many sites that offer tagging and we've explored at the very least three companies that specialize in tagging. I don't have a favorite although I suppose I do as I like the formatting of Technorati better than the formatting of del.icio.us. Flickr reminds me more of a promotional tag by providing us with the opportunity to create picture books, posters and communicate using photographs. I wasn't aware of any of these before I began this class and exploring all the possiblities. I will think long and hard about tagging my blog. What I need to do is think about where I want to be in five to ten years and what the possibilities are for a school library.