One concern of Diigo 3.0 users we hear about is this: ” I already have trouble keeping up with all the other social networks such as Linkedin and Facebook. Why should I maintain yet another social network on Diigo?”

First of all, it is completely ok to be anti-social on Diigo. In this “anti-social mode”, Diigo as simply a great research tool that can really enhance your productivity ~ it is the best web bookmarking and annotation tool you will find. No other social network can make the same claim.

Second, and more importantly, most of the “social” things happening on Diigo do not require any extra effort from you — they are just there to augment your information discovery and sharing. Say for example, you are now browsing the web to learn more about the subject of elearning. You found a few resources on the subject, which you annotated and tagged “elearning”, and now reviewing your findings by the tag “elearning”, you see that you can also view the popular and most recent resources on e-learning from the entire Diigo community. You can also see who are the top contributors on this subject, and what groups are interested in this subject. You can then add these top contributors as your friends or to your watch lists so you will automatically get the latest information they find on elearning. Think of how powerful a “knowledge filter” this aspect can be given the quality of content searched.

If you choose to invite some friends to Diigo, you can keep in touch with them without any extra effort. You will automatically see what their latest interests are from their most recent public bookmarks, which of course can also be an excellent source of information for you. If any associate makes any comment on pages you also bookmarked, you will be notified, giving you a chance to learn their opinion and interact with them as you choose.

In a sense, Diigo is more like “unintentional social networking” that requires minimal effort, as opposed to “intentional social networking” such as Linkedin and Facebook, which do require a lot of effort to maintain. Diigo simply integrates people and knowledge seamlessly making socializing a choice rather than a condition.