Zeef Returning
One of the things that has been bringing enjoyment lately is seeing ZEEF coming back to life. It self-describes as: “Curated links, found by algorithms, sifted by people”. I’ve used the new version and have found it more responsive and a bit easier to use.
I have set up a curator page in the new Zeef at Thomas Vander Wal | ZEEF. If you are new to Zeef and didn’t catch it the first time around, it is a different perspective on saved and shared links. Where things like Delicious and Pinboard focus on an abundance of links which the users tags as they go, which provides a folksonomy / folksonomy - defined of terms from the bookmarker’s output, Zeef has a focus on categories on a curator’s page and the links the curator believes are appropriate for that term. From a folksonomy perspective the person adding the tag / category is very clear (which is essential), the group of links has the category, and the links are the objects being tagged / categorized. Different people have different perspectives as we each have multiple contexts from our lives and everybody has a unique set of those contexts.
This early resurfacing of Zeef is still a work in progress, but has some nice new additions. One of the pieces I like is, curators having the option of adding a “why” to the links for a term. This “why” I find valuable as knowing why a curator added a link to their collection provides increased value for those reading the collections. On my page I have started a category collection for folksonomy and I’ve captured an initial three links in the section and I’m showing an expanded the entry for the Ontology of Folksonomy (from Tom Gruber) that shows the “Curator’s Note” and the “Why” reasoning I added. The Curator’s Note provides a definition opportunity and there the link fits, whereas the “Why” is the curator’s insight as to why they believe it is worth including.
Prior Zeef Mentions
The first version of Zeef was something I enjoyed, but didn’t take full advantage of, but I had ideas of how to expand my curated sets. I was looking at it for how to handle Blogfodder and Linkfodder. I also was thinking it could help with managing What to do with Podcast Favorites.
Looking Forward to Zeef As It Move Forward
This new version of Zeef is something I am looking forward to seeing grow and get used again. I think there is a place for having solid curation of links and resources. I’ve been thinking about how Zeef could be the community space to find resources centrally, like things captured on people’s personal sites in their slash pages (slash pages) which they keep on their site, but have a place to discover centrally.
I also really like the idea of having researchers and professionals curate their list of categorized resources. One thing I really enjoy this time of year are syllabi for courses and to see reading lists for new sources, but also how professors frame the accretion of understanding build over a semester (for those professors that share these openly).