This assignment was my first introduction to Diigo. I find it to be an interesting bulletin board of sorts for organizing thoughts, images, information, resources, and media. While I tend to keep information organized in a personal way that works for me, I can readily see the benefit of using technology like Diigo for collaboration. I can also see the obvious benefit to a computer user who uses different computers in the course of a day, week or project so that jump drives might be a little unnecessary. The downside to relying on technology for storing and organizing information is the risk of technical difficulties. Over the past week, I have been unable to access Diigo three times. Had I been desperate to retrieve information, or working against a deadline, I could see a real conflict for the user.

As a collaborative tool, I can see the social aspect of Diigo working well with file- (or in this case, bookmark) sharing combining to make for a good user experience. The ability to make things private could be beneficial for developing thoughts until they are ready to be shared.

I think Google Docs and email can accomplish the same results as collaboration with Diigo, but I created a few groups and joined a few groups to give it a solid opportunity to be useful. I tend to store images and organize them in Pinterest in a similar way to how I might catalog resources in Diigo, but I am still not totally convinced one way or the other.

I don't care for the automatic floppy disk icon that appears on images everywhere (I have mostly noticed it on facebook) since I joined Diigo. I have inadvertently saved things to my Diigo library when I was attempting to zoom in on images. One of the Diigo groups I joined also tends to have a lot of posts that are advertisements - though I don't blame Diigo. I was sure to set up my groups as invitation only, and added in the group description some of the guidelines for member posts to avoid any unintended group activity.

Hello S603 Fall '11 Classmates!

Please visit my Group "Documentary Film Festival" and request an invitation.

Then visit either imdb.com or another website of your choice and bookmark your favorite three documentary films. Be sure to add a description of the film and send it to the group.

Next, visit at least two bookmarked pages of other group members and highlight a section of the page. Add a sticky note somewhere on the page that indicates whether you have already seen the film and agree that it should be a favorite, or that the bookmark has encouraged you to see the film in the near future.

Hello S603 Fall '11 Classmates!

Please visit my Group "Documentary Film Festival" and request an invitation.

Visit a website or blog about documentary films OTHER THAN imdb.com and bookmark a review of a documentary. Then go to a library catalog and locate either a LoC or Dewey call number. Put a sticky note on the review that indicates one or both call numbers to assist others with locating a copy of the film at their local library.

Be sure to add your bookmark to the diigo group.

Group URL for "Documentary Film Festival:

http://groups.diigo.com/group/documentary-film-festival

Hello S603 Fall '11 Classmates!

Please visit my Group "Documentary Film Festival" and request an invitation.

Then visit either imdb.com or another website of your choice and bookmark your favorite three documentary films. Be sure to add a description of the film and send it to the group.

Next, visit at least two bookmarked pages of other group members and highlight a section of the page. Add a sticky note somewhere on the page that indicates whether you have already seen the film and agree that it should be a favorite, or that the bookmark has encouraged you to see the film in the near future.

I added five bookmarks to web pages with notes and highlights, then I created a list in My Library called "experiments" to organize the pages for this part of the assignment.

The pages seem random, but they are not terribly random to me. I tend to think about things at odd times and have varied interests. This tool could be useful in a similar way to the notepad on the nightstand.

I also requested to join a few diigo groups, and noticed that at least one of the group moderators indicated she accessed the internet at the library. For a research project, for a person who does not have access to a computer, or a person who uses different computers, diigo could be a useful tool to keep things organized and in in one place.

I think I inadvertently made my bookmarks public for the first pages, then simply bookmarked them to my library. My username URL can be found here: http://www.diigo.com/user/cplanten

I initially looked for a favorite poem on poets.org, but did not find it. I then chose to look for poems that I had not read before (or at least couldn't remember having read).

I selected the Walt Whitman piece, "Spontaneous Me." My bookmark and notes can be found by this link or by pasting this address in your browser: http://diigo.com/0l5q7

While the entire poem is not specifically meaningful to me, most of it is. The "wet of woods through the early hours" is something that I enjoy when I go camping alone. As I have always been a primitive camper, the early morning walk with my dog has always been my favorite part of camping.

As for parts of the poem that aren't specific to me personally, I highlighted and added a sticky note to the passage "the oath of procreation I have sworn." I would take seriously any oath I might take, but an oath of procreation would not be one of them. Whitman is far more spiritual than I am, but his work is accessible to everyone.

-christine