Scholarly Life of a Committed Technofile

Digg (http://digg.com/) is a social bookmarking site that also ranks articles/websites submitted to the system. For example, once a person submits an article to Digg, other members can start to rank the article. As the article gets more “diggs,” it floats to the top of the pile. Submitting an article/website to Digg is more complex than a regular social bookmarking tool; you have to include more than just the URL. However, instead of using Digg as a social bookmarking tool, consider using it as a research tool. Search the articles in the database of materials submitted. See if individuals “dug” it, see what annotations they made, see what tags (key search terms) they associated with the resource, etc. Although you do not necessarily know who is doing the “digging” and whether or not they are qualified, it might give you a sense of what is current and popular. It might also give you some new ideas to consider or follow up on with more “credible” resources. Finally, you might get some ideas for different search terms to use for your research project.