This week the LIBR 559M course content was about information aggregators and course participants shared a lot of information about what they have used, are using and may use in the future. I was exposed to many information aggregators. Ironically, I experienced information overload about tools available to manage information overload. Then the course instructor, Dean Giustini posted this revelation as part of his summary report for the week’s module, “I am still searching for the best aggregator. If we could get some venture capital, go down to Silicon Valley, who knows? We might be able to get into the chase for the next BIG THING” (Giustini, 2011 Social) I felt a little relieved to discover that it was okay to still be in the exploration stage of what tools are out there for personal and work use.
The point of an aggregator is for a user to filter the incredible amounts of digital information available to meet specific information needs and to access, organize and share that information from one convenient location.
I am currently using both igoogle and google reader as my information aggregators. I will admit that this happened by default as I have used gmail as my email provider for many years. It is great that I can use these tools to filter the flow of information to meet my perceived needs. I now realize that I have not used these tools to their full potential. I have learned that this is an information management tool and I still need to manage the content. As my information needs change it is important to tweak the selection of RSS feeds reaching me by subscribing to some and unsubscribing to others to keep the information relevant to me. The module content this week definitely made me question whether or not these tools were meeting my information management needs.
There were a two aggregators presented this week that I am interested in trying out. Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com/en and Symbaloo http://www.symbaloo.com/
I became curious about Netvibes after watching a Dr. Michael Wesch presentation about how he uses it as a teaching tool in post secondary learning environments. My research afterwards showed that Netvibes is a powerful tool. Netvibes appeals to me because it gives you the option of creating a personal information centre or business information centre. Personal use is free of charge and business use is fee based. As Dean Giustini shared with us, libraries, Archives and businesses are even now using Netvibes instead of websites. On a personal level I liked that Netvibes can be as simple or detailed as you want or need it to be. It can become a project, a work in progress, that you build as you go.
The appeal of Symbaloo is definitely its simplicity.
As I move forward and try out more information aggregators I will keep in mind what I learn this past week and adopt the instructor’s advice for judging an aggregator.
“I judge a platform by how aggregatable new content is; does the tool have the capacity to combine all of the social tools I use together (“integrate-ability”); rather than mere assemblage, can I use the tool for my daily communication and informal learning?” (Giustini, 2011)
References
Giustini, Dean.(2011) “Towards a more optimal learning space” LIBR 559M Social Media for Information Professionals. Module V, Discussion post, Towards a more optimal learning space. Retrieve from https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/urw/lc4822388789241.tp4822388812241/newMessageThread.dowebct?discussionaction=viewMessage&messageid=7504905597261&topicid=7503802911261&refreshPage=false&sourcePage=
Giustini, Dean (2011) “Social networking vs aggregation” LIBR 559M Social Media for Information Professionals. Module V Discussion Post Do aggregators hold the answer to managing information…. https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/urw/lc4822388789241.tp4822388812241/newMessageThread.dowebct?discussionaction=viewMessage&messageid=7497908716181&topicid=4822786117241&refreshPage=false&sourcePage=
Wesch, Michael, “A Portal to Media Literacy”
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s