Things to become aquainted with (if you haven't already)

Presuming you are an active user of the Internet, there are a few things that I have come across that prove very useful and productive towards the end of building a more communal structure online. To make you feel like you are a part of something, because we all make up this network called the Internet.

1. Browsers: This is number one because in order to reap any benefits from the Internet, you must have a good, legitimate browser. And that browser is Firefox. Or it simply is anything other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which for those of you who don't know is a disgrace to the web. IE makes life very difficult for people who design web sites because it is not compliant with the standards of the web, so you can't design a site the right way without IE displaying it incorrectly. Not to mention the fact that you are much more likely to get virus' on your computer by using IE in comparison with the alternative browsers, who offer better protection for you while you browse the web. So if you have and use Internet Explorer, stop. Now. Moving on...


2. Social Bookmarking: When you visit a site you find interesting, what do you do? You bookmark it. But this can turn the toolbar on you're browser into a gigantic, multicolumn list of unorganized sites. A list where it is very unlikely you'll find what you want if you ever want to revisit a bookmarked site. Enter social bookmarking. These are sites dedicated to not only holding your bookmarks, but also sharing them with others. Sites like del.icio.us (pronounced delicious) allow you to place two little icons on the top of your browser, and whenever you want to save a site you click one, and whenever you want to look at all your bookmarks you click the other. Moreover, it allows you to put tags on a site when you bookmark it, so you can sort all your saved sites by subject (which makes finding something you saved two months ago a breeze). Theres also a search bar you can use that looks through everyones bookmarks and lists sites other people saved that match your request. There are many of these sites, I happen to use del.icio.us but feel free to check out others. These sites are a great way to stumble onto pages you might not have by just searching google, plus by making your own bookmarks you are allowing others to find things they might not have otherwise.


3. Wiki: I'm sure most, if not all, of you have heard of or used Wikipedia. This site has put the term wiki on the map, but wiki does not mean wikipedia. A Wiki is simply a piece of software placed on a server that creates an environment where anyone can create and edit web pages. Wiki's are commonly used for the documentation of open source software, where lots of people are working on the same project and can update the documents with their added features or input. Chances are you haven't really come into contact with these because they aren't really used in commonly visited sites, but its still a concept and technology you can use for whatever you want. TiddlyWiki allows you to create your own Wiki without the server software.


4. Open Source Software: This is a topic in and of itself so for now I'll be brief. Open Source software is free, in the sense that anyone can take the original code and modify it however they want and all that is required is that they send their modifications to the person they took the code from. Most of the time it is also free in the sense that it costs no money to obtain, but this isn't always the case. Definitely check out sites like SourceForge and Open Source Alternative for cool, free software.

Well that should hopefully keep you busy for a while, if not then post something yourself!