Learning With Social Semantic Technologies - Exploiting Latest Tools

Since the emergence of Web 2.0 and its easy-to-use web based applications, summarized under the term Social Software, ordinary Internet users are empowered to generate and publish content themselves (O’Reilly 04). During the last two years, it has become quite popular to externalize knowledge on the Web by using social media tools including, most of the time Wikis and Weblogs. While in the past users only consumed information, now they are actively producing content. The enormous growth rate of the blogosphere (Duarte et al. 07), the collection of all Weblogs, is a clear sign of an age of user generated content. Even though it was only about three years ago that Web 2.0 became a trend, starting with applications such as YouTube or Flickr, it has become a common practice to utilize Social Software in enterprises (e.g. Back et al. 08) as well as in learning institutions, as mentioned in section 2.1. The value is clear: Social Software is easy to use. Because of being web-based it is accessible from everywhere. And it perfectly supports collaboration and communication which was not that simple before Social Software when monolithic, rather cumbersome systems dominated learning environments.