I just finished watching The Invasion, a fun remake of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers that thrilled me when I was a kid. My wife and I had a lot of fun watching Nicole Kidman try to stay awake, fighting to keep herself from succumbing to the sweet elixir of sleep, and being taken over by a group-mind, a network of alien viral invaders.

As I watched the movie, I couldn't help drawing some parallels to what's been happening today, as Twitter and email are used to spread the Diigo social bookmarking/networking virus. Everywhere I turn, people are joining Diigo, forsaking the simplicity of Delicious for the social nature of Diigo, which offers a variety of ways to connect with others--highlight text, then save it to your bookmarks, post to your blog, send it out as a tweet, and share it with a group of like-minded educators. The power of the network...comes alive in a way that removes the onus of commercialism so prevalent in Facebook.

Somehow, I find myself trusting Diigo more than Facebook, although you can connect to Facebook via Diigo. What's also present is the potential for "Diigo-spam." Ok, I've spammed everyone in my addressbook. I can't remember the last time I did it, but I hope that if you received an email via Diigo from me, you'll jump in and give this a try. If you don't want to, hit delete. Do I think Diigo is that powerful a tool? Well, yes. It offers something Delicious doesn't--groups, and a base of operations that interfaces with other tools. If I could share information using Diigo, ohmygosh, one ring to rule them all.

One of the other aspects of Diigo I liked was that the Diigo crew is hopping to improve things. Importing bookmarks from Delicious API wasn't working well (i had to try 3-4 times), so they came up with an alternative way to accomplish the import. Dean Shareski complained about the interface, and they re-did the user interface. There's also talk of creating an education (student) friendly Diigo....

The groups are already starting to pop up. This morning, I thought about creating a group for educators, and when I came back after breakfast, Vicki Davis (CoolCat Teacher) had begun one. Lisa Parisi had invited us all to partake in a conversation, and tonight, yes, I regret to say, I started a group for Texas EducationTechnology/Education News.

I imagine that such a group will facilitate information sharing from Texas educators around the Alamo state. At least, I hope it will. In a conversation with other technology directors this past Friday--San Antonio Technology Directors Group--the challenge of culture change came up. It's all very well and good to have these tools that connect us, but if people don't understand the value, are still working from their closed up sensibilities that have aided them in the past, then Diigo invitations will come across as so much spam.

Yet, with hundreds of emails from years of connecting with others in Texas, I sent out hundreds of invites to Texas educators...and invited them to invite others. I'm not sure how it will play out. I feel a certain responsibility to make this work, but another part of me also...well...has a sincere hope that they will catch on and start contributing. How long must the pump be primed before water starts flowing?

Time to find out. Join me, Texas educators...and if you're not a Texas educator, join the Educators group Vicki has launched (or, join both!).

Some features I'd like to see in Diigo:

• Easy group subscription - I wish there was a URL I could share with people. They click on it, and bam, if they have a Diigo account, they're subscribed. If they lack an account, it walks them through the process then makes sure to hook them up with the group. I just don't see how to do it easily now.
• Make sure these kinds of errors happen with less frequency, if at all. I was trying to share a large number of bookmarks with a group and this image popped up:
  
• Why does loading recommended tags take so long?
  
• Easy way to export information out of Diigo in case someone else comes along.

What's in it for Diigo.com ? Well, I suppose we'll find out. In the meantime, get busy learning...and sharing.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us | |
Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, SocialBookmarkingTools, TechTips, Texas