Tuesday 1 April 2008

A Diigo Flavoured Month





As fast as I learn about one particular app- a new one moves across the blogosphere and is the flavour of the month. Diigo is the new killer app in terms of what it can do and twitter is running hot with conversations about the pros and cons and lots of tips and hints to make it more effective. It seems to combine the best parts of Del.icio.us as a bookmarking and tagging and sharing tool, the social capabilities for connecting and chatting as Facebook and Twitter, as well as some other new capabilities which appear to make it a very powerful app. Kristin Hokansen has written a really detailed post examining the potential of the program and Liz Davis has made a great screencast which takes you through the basics. I have had a play and I am excited by the idea of the group which will be like a ning I imagine but a bit different. Feeling very forthright, I created a group for Australian Educators and NZ ones too and called it Oz Educators in the hope that the rapidly increasing number of teachers in the Southern Hemisphere can start making some connections and finding resources appropriate to our schools and teaching experience. The voice from the Northern Hemisphere is a very strong one and we also need to develop our own one. Jo Mcleay has had the idea of some kind of show like WOW 2.0 but for the southern Hemisphere, and this is a start at building this. We already have 24 members and there are lots of familiar and also several unfamiliar names, evidence of how these tools of twitter and Diigo are expanding and contracting the network of teachers by bringing them closer.There are a number of other areas of Diigo I have yet to explore like some of the highlighting and notetaking functions, but it will happen.
On a sadder note Nikki -one of my darling Redpoint Siamese cats is failing fast as he is struck down by a kidney problem that he had when younger which has been kept in abeyance up till now, but his age and the heat of summer and the sudden cold has made flare up again very badly. He has lost lots of weight and after tests today there is not much that can be done; we are trying to make him as comfortable as possible.He is nine years old now and he and his brother have been such a wonderful part of our lives - siamese twins who rule the house.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue, yes, I am getting into diigo too even when away from home and have imported my delicious links in. Love the social networking part of diigo. Can't wait till we start the show talking abiout our perspective on web 2.0 and building stronger community. Lets aim to start 1st week of May.

diane said...

Sue,

I'll be keeping an eye on my innovative friends down under!

So sorry to hear about your pet.

diane

Unknown said...

hi Sue!

thanks for posting a link to liz's video. I just watched it and understad Diigo now! I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks and haven't had much time to sit and play. could be very cool and I defintely join your group. Also, don't forget me when it comes to the talkshow.

on another note - poor nikki! how sad for you. pets become such a part of the family, don't they? we got a cat recently that weekend i met you (don't tell the landlord) and she is settling in well. already ruling the house! :-)

take care,
jess

The Wandering Author said...

I am so sorry about your cat, Nikki. I found your blog by accident - what I wanted to mention is this. I lost one cat (Sir Andrew) to kidney failure, and have another cat (Julius Timothy) dying of it right now. I'm not a vet, but I do have a pretty good idea how kidney problems work in cats. If your vet told you there was nothing to be done, please ask about administering subcutaneous fluids. I hated doing it at first, but after seeing how much more comfortable Sir Andrew was after he got a dose of fluids, I understood why it was necessary. And dehydration is the worst possible thing that can happen. Even the Final Vet Visit is a better option (I say that despite the fact that, after a year and a half, when we finally had to take Sir Andrew in, I felt like I should be arrested for murder).

Reputationist said...

Wow! Thanks, I never knew that teachers where having so much fun. I'm a kind of geek business guy and thought I knew something about building conversations - you folks rock.

Anonymous said...

A great post which I have bookmarked to diigo.
Are you a member of the Aussie Bloggers Forums? You may find people interested in your educators group thre.
http://www.aussiebloggers.ocm.au/forum

Anonymous said...

Well, this is 'true confessions'. I have joined diigo, made many friends but have done nothing with it. So, again, this will be on the agenda for this week. Thanks for sharing.