The bookmarking feature of Internet browsers is quite popular. Many people will instantly bookmark a page they find particularly interesting and informative. The problem is that once you step away from your computer, you no longer have your bookmarks. Whether you're across campus at a meeting or across the world at a conference, there's no way to access your bookmarks unless you have your computer with (which you may). Furthermore, your some of the pages you've bookmarked may be very useful for colleagues or students. Unfortunately, they are not at all aware of this resource and probably haven't thought to ask you.
Using a social bookmarking web site is an excellent way to access your bookmarks from any computer and share them with colleagues. There are many social bookmarking web sites available on the Internet. Some of the more popular sites are del.icio.us, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon. Even popular sites such as Google and Yahoo! have bookmarking services, but they don't contain the social aspect of the other sites. In other words, you could access your bookmarks anywhere, but it wouldn't be as easy to share them with others.
I would encourage you to visit the social bookmarking sites and at least try one of them out. Del.icio.us offers a browser tool which will allow you to bookmark any page with the click of the mouse. If you want, you can privatize individual bookmarks you do not wish to share. Keep in mind these sites are designed to share information - not privatize it. So, the more you can share with the rest of the world, the better.
If you try it out (and I hope you do!), feel free to bookmark this blog post and share it with others. If you want an example, feel free to visit my del.icio.us page (sounds funny, huh?). If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them in the comment section below or in the Emerging Technology forum's social bookmarking thread. Just remember, you need to sign in with your eRaider username and password at the top-right of the page before posting.