What is Delicious?
How Does ENVS Use Delicious?
Browsing Resources
Adding Resources to Delicious
Commenting on Resources

What is Delicious?

Delicious is a free web-based application that uses bookmarks and tags to organize online resources: websites, publications, images, GIS data, concept maps, etc. ENVS has decided to use this web 2.0 technology a) to pool resources together into a single, easy-to-use repository, and b) to encourage users to add and comment upon resources. In other words, Delicious has been chosen as a framework to create a virtual database, distributing the process of building an online resource and facilitating the construction of a community of users. This way we don't each have to start from scratch every time we are doing environmental research!

Delicious uses a very simple approach to organizing resources, consisting of the following primary elements:

• Bookmarks: A bookmark is simply a web address (URL) that points to a resource on the web. Delicious bookmarks are a lot like the bookmarks that you'd find on your own web browser; the difference, however, is that in the Delicious environment the bookmarks a) reside outside of any one particular computer (i.e., they're stored in a "cloud" on the Delicious server) and b) can be viewed by anybody regardless of which computer they are on.
• Titles: Each bookmark includes a short descriptive title summarizing the content of the resource.
• Tags: A tag is a keyword assigned to a bookmark in order to describe and organize it. Tags are simply descriptive words: they describe attributes of the bookmarks you are creating. One bookmark can be associated with an unlimited number of tags; for example, a resource found in one of the ENVS Delicious accounts may be associated with multiple research sites (e.g., Australia, Ecuador) and topics (e.g., population, water). Users generally search the database by selecting combinations of tags in order to narrow down the pool of resources.
• Notes: Descriptive information about the resource, including a summary, comments by users, etc. In addition to adding resource bookmarks, we can each comment on existing resources in the notes field.

How Does ENVS Use Delicious?

• delicious.com/lcenvs: This is a simple place for students to add resources they think may be useful to other students. Students are free to add any type of ENVS-appropriate resource using any tags they think are appropriate. The idea here is to make it as easy as possible to share anything a student comes across, say a news item or a useful website.
• delicious.com/lcenvsres: This is the database for resources specific to any of the ten ENVS situated research sites. Resources listed in this group are screened for quality and adopt specific tags so that resources are easy to search. Tags for lcenvsres cover applicable research sites, topics (e.g., population, water), and resource type (e.g., concept map, blog post). Resources are added to lcenvsres via ENVS course projects; quality resources students add to lcenvs that pertain to one or more research sites will be added here as well.
• delicious.com/lcenvsgis: This database contains information on GIS data resources stored locally and available online. GIS is an important tool we use in connection with our ENVS research sites; lcenvsgis helps students locate GIS data appropriate to their needs (see the GIS help wiki for further info). This database also uses specific tags including research site, topic, and data type.

Since the most common of these three tasks involves browsing existing resources, we'll start with that below, followed by adding and commenting on resources.

Browsing Resources

In order to browse Delicious resources on lcenvs, lcenvsres, and lcenvsgis, you'll build a query with tags. For example, let's say you're on lcenvsres looking for resources on water issues in Vietnam. The easiest way to build a query is to click tags on the right side: start by clicking "vietnam" in the Research Site tag bundle, then look under Related Tags to further constrain your search, clicking "+water." Note above the bookmarks you'll see icons that say lcenvs > vietnam > water, and indeed the current URL simply says http://delicious.com/lcenvsres/vietnam+water. It's that straightforward.

Each of the Delicious databases are browsed in the same manner but each uses slightly different tag conventions:

• lcenvs has no tag conventions to make it easy to add resources; just look at tags on the right side to see whatever tagging folksonomy contributors have opted to use.
• lcenvsres has specific tags for research site, topic, and resource type.
• lcenvsgis has specific tags for research site, topic, and data type.

The research site tags correspond to any of our ten situated research sites; the topic tags correspond to over two dozen environmental topics. The lcenvsres resource type and lcenvsgis data type tags, however, require some clarification:

lcenvsres resource types

• blog: posts made on the official ENVS blog by students, staff, and faculty
• cmap: concept maps done as student projects
• imagery: photos, maps, interactive graphs, etc.
• organizations: websites for agencies, nonprofits, etc.
  
• project: entries in the ENVS Research Projects Database
  
• publication: scholarly publications including books, articles, etc., generally linked to L&C WorldCat
• theme: situated research themes organized by research site

lcenvsgis data types (see GIS help wiki for further info)

• download: downloadable GIS data found at external websites
• local: data hosted on our Lewis and Clark GIS server
• wms: data available from external websites available via Web Map Service without downloading

Adding Resources

The ENVS Program wants to come up with the easiest possible way for each of us to add useful research site resources into the mutual repository; if we all do this, we all potentially benefit from each other's hard work. As mentioned above, students will most typically add resources to the lcenvs database; the lcenvsres database is used in specific course projects.

There are three easy tools you can use to add resources to Delicious; choose the one that works best for you.

• You can simply go to lcenvs or lcenvsres, then choose Sign In at upper right, then click Save a New Bookmark also toward the upper right.
• Or you can add a Delicious bookmarklet to your own browser, so anytime you find a resource of interest you can just click and go.
• Finally, many websites already have a bookmark function with Delicious included; just look for the
  
   icon and click.

Here's how you can add resources to either database.

1. Before you begin, consider doing a quick search in lcenvs or lcenvsres to make sure your resource isn't already bookmarked! Also, if you're planning to add a publication, remember we prefer that you link to the L&C WorldCat record.
2. You'll of course need to login to one of the above tools using our shared name and password (if you don't know it, contact ENVS for login information). If you've already logged in, you may be able to skip this step.
3. Remember the four primary elements of a Delicious resource introduced above. Here's how you will add each:
• Bookmark: If you're using a bookmarklet or clicking the Delicious icon on a website, the bookmark URL will automatically be copied. If instead you clicked Save a New Bookmark on lcenvs or lcenvsres, you'll need to enter the URL yourself, then click Next to add the remaining elements. Note: it's important to try and enter a stable URL, i.e. one that won't change over time. Sometimes this won't be the same as the URL in your browser bar; look for a "share" or "permalink" link somewhere on the page.
• Title: The title will be automatically provided in all cases, though you may wish to edit it a bit.
• Tags: Here's where it depends on whether you are adding a resource to lcenvs or lcenvsres.
• lcenvs: To make it easy to add to lcenvs, use any tags you wish, but please consider using one or more of the existing tags found at the bottom of the page. To do this, just click on each tag. This way you'll avoid spelling mistakes and we'll slowly build a list of common tags to help with searching.  Note: don't separate your tags with commas: Delicious will think you want a comma in your tag!!
• lcenvsres: Since lcenvsres is our research sites database, we have a tag convention you will follow, including (a) at least one research site, (b) one or more topics, and (c) any one resource type (see above for descriptions of each resource type tag). Please select appropriate tags by clicking on them at the bottom of the page! Don't add new tags or spell them yourself. Note: if you want to recommend new tags for lcenvsres, contact the ENVS Program.
• Notes: Please provide a fuller description of the resource than the user could obtain by viewing the title alone. Make sure your note includes the following: (a) resource summary and relevance, and (b) your name, course (if applicable), and semester/year (even though Delicious adds a date, there may be multiple notes in the Notes field so each should have its own date). Try to keep it under 500 characters to allow room for others to provide comments in the Notes field as well.
4. Now click the Save button and you're done! Thanks for your contribution; it will be really useful to others.
   

Commenting on Resources

Adding and browsing resource data are important, but to truly create a community it is equally important for everyone to comment on their quality and appropriateness. Each Delicious bookmark will include some summary comments inserted by the creator in the Notes field, but this doesn't mean that everyone will agree! What if you question the veracity of a certain resource or take issue with the creator's interpretation? What if you find an error or irregularity in a particular resource? Or what if you find something to be extremely helpful or relevant and want to inform your colleagues?

In each of these cases, ENVS encourages users to annotate the resource by adding a comment in the Notes field. The procedure is simple:

1. Log in to the appropriate Delicious database (see above or contact envs@lclark.edu if you need login information).
2. Click Edit right under the bookmark of interest
3. At the end of the Notes field, enter your brief comment, ending with the same info you'd add with a note: your name, course (if applicable), and semester/year.
4. Click Save and, voila , you've added your feedback to the resource!

Please make sure your commentary is fair and accurate: we are all certainly entitled to our own opinions, but the ENVS community will benefit the most if your opinion is civil and clear. If you want to discuss your opinion first before posting it online, feel free to contact ENVS and we'll be happy to sit down with you.