iHCPL : Week 6: #14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

I looked in the Technorati WTF (Where's the Fire?) and wondered why is it "hot" news that WVU (West Virginia University) has the worlds largest dingleberry. I thought of another meaning for the acronym. I looked in the Popular features and discovered that the top search, or at least one of the top searches, was for karen dejo and her new sex video. I saw that the most popular blogs were about the latest consumer gadgets. In short, I observed a vast wasteland. Newton Minnow, where are you now that your county needs you? Audio mp3 Excerpt of Address

I learned that Authority for Technorati means popularity. The more others link to you, the more authority you have.* It's not a bad system. It's also the strategy of Google and the Science Citation Index.

I did an advanced search by typing "Learning 2.0" as an EXACT phrase keyword search in All Blogs and discovered several libraries and the latest ALA Library Technology Reports Blog posts (above right). But it looks like the CPAs are hot on our trails. I hope it’s not an audit trail (sorry, I couldn’t resist)

I did the same search in tags and found much the same thing. And “Twitter and the Power of Micro-Blogging in Emergencies” http://stephensonstrategies.com/2007/10/01/new-on-youtube-use-twitter-in-emergencies/ It appears there is socially redeeming value in Twitter and the Red Cross has put it to use.

I did the same search in the Blog Directory got significantly different results. I found Blogs with Learning 2.0 as the main subject and who else likes the blog and how they tagged it and how many made it their favorite and what they think of it. The hardest thing to find was how to link to it. I discovered that you have to click on its very faint gray URL in one spot of a very cluttered page.

That small gripe aside the popular blogs did link me to other blogs like A Library By Any Other Name http://alibraryisalibrary.edublogs.org, which hooked me in with this eye catching headline: 004.67 Student Participation on the Web.

*A fuller explanation is in their FAQs at http://support.technorati.com/faq/topic/71