Twitter

As Twitter is a fast growing tool for communication, it allows people to stay connected and share information instantly. The advantage is that the people can follow others around and get the information that is relevant to them. Another advantage is that you can follow celebrities and relevant topics. The disadvantage is identity theft where people can pretend to be someone else. In addition, tweeting limits you to 140 characters, that some people view it as an advantage as it is short and succinct.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a website created by Tim Spalding with the purpose of creating a space for online cataloging. I have to be honest, I was not convinced with the practicality of its features at first glance. The site looked too crowed and busy but as I took the tour, I realized the benefits of this site and was surprised with a comprehensive place for book lovers. One of the features that I loved was the the ability to keep track of my collections, the only negative was that I could either share my library with everyone or keep it private but not share with only my selected friends and colleagues.

Online Productivity Tools

The world is constantly changing and it is very expensive to keep updated with the new applications, such as Microsoft Office. For example, just trying Google Calendar, I noticed many advantages over the Microsoft Outlook Calendar. The Google Calendar can be accessed throughout the world without any cost. The other major advantage of Google Calendar was that it automatically connects to Google Maps in order to provide directions to your destination. With just one application, I noticed why people would replace expensive softwares with free online tools.

AzminPoonja - Leadership in Volunteer Management

Flickr & YouTube

Flickr and YouTube are user-friendly applications. These two applications make it easy to share videos and images with friends, family and others. Both of these applications also allow easy searching and information sharing across the world. YouTube is famous for watching videos and makes recommendation based on your choices. Both, Flickr and YouTube are becoming highly popular applications for all agaes.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

RSS is an easy and convenient way to keep track of updates on certain websites. As my daughter attends McGill University, I subcribe to McGill's events and annoucement feed. This helps me keep track of updates without having to visit the McGill website to check for upcoming events.

Google Universe

Google offers comprehensive, user friendly and intuitive products. I find Google's variety of services, such as Gmail, Translate, and Maps to be very beneficial. As well, its search engine offers a vast spectrum of possibilities when researching a specific topic. Lastly, Google is an extremely universal and versatile site as it is web based. This means that Google is not limited to a single PC and can therefore be accessed by any Internet connection anywhere in the world.

However, Google also has its disadvantages. Because Google applications track your activity, it infringes and violates your privacy. Through this tracking system, Google subsequently filters which advertisements to show you. For example, recently, I have been visiting West Jet's website and noticed that due to my frequent visits, Google advertises numerous West Jet promotions on my computer.

Google's advantages greatly outweigh its disadvantages, making it a pervasive and functional web site. I would strongly recommend this product to my friends and colleagues. Google opens countless networking options and connects people all around the world. As the Google Universe continues to expand, I am sure it will open numerous other possibilities!

Facebook

Facebook provides an opportunity to stay connected with family and friends. It is a convenient way to share news, show support, communicate and socialize. This exciting social networking site assists me in keeping in touch with others and permits me to "follow" the lives of my friends. In addition, Facebook is a useful reminder for events and my friends' birthdays. Apart from my wall, I also find this site to be functional and practical as it has numerous applications ranging from games to groups to fan pages. These applications are helpful and fun. Overall, Facebook is a very useful tool!

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a user friendly website that has a clean and uncluttered interface. It was easy to find articles that needed to be edited. For example, I searched on "Ismailism" and the information was not correct. There were segments of the article that were inaccurate and subjective. This is likely due to the content submitted by the public that is not verified.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of storing, sharing and tagging web content via social bookmarking such as Delicious?

The advantages are for visitors to tag webpages with their key words and/or comments. This allows sharing of knowledge and easy access to information. It is a form of a quick directory.

The disadvantage is that the visitor may enter the tag that is not related to the content and can be misleading.

I am most intrigued by using a blog to benefit Volunteer Resources. We have currently started to use a blog to create an awareness about volunteer opportunities and have just started to highlight volunteers. I would now like to learn what other things we can do to maximize this tool.

Social networking such as facebook also intrigues me and it helps to create an online community. One of the things that scares me is to the potential breach of privacy.

This was easy!

This is my first blog!!!