No.2 With A Bullet

socialrank2.jpgName the second hottest elearning blog on the web.

You're reading it.

Now before you choke on your Weetbix, coffee or whatever you happen to be consuming at this moment, bear in mind that this is the opinion of a new "service" on the web called Social Rank. I won't link to it here right now because experience has shown that not all new services casting edubloggers in a favourable light are what they appear to be at first glance. Anyone remember the OEDb list of Top 100 Education Blogs that caused a bit of controversy late last year? This blog was in that list too.

Don't worry - there's plenty of talent in the list - but where's Stephen Downes, Josie Fraser, Dave Cormier or Leigh Blackall? My blog isn't even focussed on the topic of elearning and certainly is a grabbag of educational allsorts that defies logical categorisation. Hmmm.. if I wasn't so cynical, I'd be flattered. Instead, the odour of day old prawns seems to waft off the screen at me when I'm looking at the Social Rank elearning site, Learning Signal. (No link - try Googling it if you must.)

But can anyone apart from SocialRank themselves explain how this "service" is supposed to work? And how does TGZ rank so high (for the moment)?

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4 thoughts on “No.2 With A Bullet

  1. Al Upton

    Just accept and enjoy it Graham – it’s a pat on the back,

    see it as that ‘greater recognition’ we’ve spoken of all that time ago. OK I googled Learning Signal – don’t worry about how they determine ‘best learning’ “We use SocialRank software to monitor each of the best learning sites and determine today’s hottest articles and bloggers in the field.” Just accept and know you deliver and participate in bloody good learning. They continue …
    “This is done by analyzing how sites and users link, connect, and discuss each other’s content.” This is something you work hard at and do very well. The benefits for yourself and others are evident … This bit is something you can more than accept but celebrate … well done!

    BTW from the start of this comment to now you went from 9th to 10th. Another post, another day, another hour and you will move up and down that list [with all the links (including within your own blog), reading/comments on other blogs, tags, technoratiing, etc] but I’m sure you’ll stay in the top ten. More importantly with the quality of your blogging and open social networking you deserve to be there along with all the others you mention.

    Do check out Wesley’s ‘Moving at the Speed of Creativity’ post http://tinyurl.com/2lmznb It suggests that you would have had prior knowledge (Learning Signal notified you that they were going to ping your blog?) and continues with some implications for possible ‘blog scraping’ and Creative Commons licensing … does any of this affect you? Cheers, Al

    Reply
  2. Stephen Downes

    No link to the site?

    And – you should always question it. I don’t care whether I’m on it or not. But what interests me is the bias of the list, and which blog they’re setting this up to plug. Look at the list, over time, and ask, “which of these does not belong” (and I don’t know the answer, because I haven’t seen the list, because there was no URL).

    Reply

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