Lost in a Sea of Web 2.0

[Richard Bernier]

How does one sift through almost 200 Web 2.0 applications to create...

[Bob Kosovsky]

I suppose one could respond on his blog, but I prefer here. I'm not sure whether he wants to find out information about all the applications for himself, or just to see what students are using. As people have said here, he should just experiment and find out about the stuff - they probably won't kill his computers.

He could have a survey and have students write in what are their favorite applications. The problem with this is that the simplest and earliest-introduced applications tend to be the ones must used, while those with more functionality and utility are used less. (I'm sure tons of people use Delicious; how many use Diigo?). Maybe he should just invent his own 23things, raising it to 50things.

[Paul Hatch]

Hmmm, I see what Bob means. There's no way you can research, or are likely to get anything meaningful from researching, that many apps. I recently contacted a survey of library staff's web 2.0 usage and included a checklist of the top half dozen apps in each area (blogging, start-pages, etc, etc.) and ask if they used/had ever used/ever heard of any of them, together with a chance mention any they used that I'd missed out and say which they particularly loved or hated.
If my experience is anything to go by, it not necessarily simplest or earliest that are used but the most popular currently (apps were abandoned when they became less popular and the 'trendy' ones used despite people disliking them). I also found that the further you stray from the "usual suspects" recognition plummets in all but the most tech-savvy.

[Richard Bernier]

What I plan on doing is creating a web survey with the help of our assessment office and any student that wants to take it can. I will need to create categories and then list a whole bunch of services within each with check boxes. Paul brings up a good point; some might be new and will fall by the way-side soon. I will have to be careful how I word the questions. I also have to think about other questions I will want to ask.

[Bob Kosovsky]

You will need a place for "write-in" applications that are not covered by your list. You might want to structure your survey based on categories of items (bookmarks, social networks, chat, etc.) - you can look at lists of recommended software to see how these things are categorized.

You might also want to go beyond the survey aspect and ask why they use a certain product. Some responses might be "because everyone else does," but some thoughtful responses might result as well. If you post the results on your blog, it would be nice to alert us in the Library 2.0 of them.