Hi all,
I have set up and been experimenting with a RSS feel to simplify the blogs and other web sites that I tend to try and keep track of. It seems that the process takes away a lot of the click here, and remember how to get there, and get past all of their advertisements and instead just provides you with the articles, and other core data that you go to your chosen sites for.
While I was learning the basics I found that several of the “converted” track 80-some feeds a day. The thought made my head hurt, but the reality is that I will probably be just as “engaged” as soon as I get my favorites linked.
The reality is that this is a positive change regarding my “surfing” habits, but the word change always transports me through fits of rebellion, memories of coffee-table-surfing, and basic heel-digging. I don’t suffer change quietly, politely, or well — just ask my family.
As a new couple, we had been in our home for more than a year, I was pregnant with Wyatt, and had been spending a lot of time on “my section of the couch.” Because I could see and be involved in the family flow, but did not have to “move my girth” to do so,” and I had a direct shot to the stairs and the bathroom, which being pregnant I did frequently, and fast. Anyway, I got up one morning to find that my husband had placed my favorite coffee table where my couch spot had been (evidently he had rearranged the entire living room, but I was pregnant and – alas- not that observant at the time). The coffee table was a heavy, flat surfaced, 3 foot by 6 foot, and solid oak, and as it was in my spot, I settled myself on it, got comfortable, and went on being pregnant, until about two weeks later, when still laying on my coffee table, hubby quietly went berserk.
Hubby had had it, evidently he had watched me and waited for me to shift to the couch, but I never did. So finally he announced that I needed to get up, and he moved me, and my coffee table, out of the way (with me protesting that it was fine where it was — after all, I was use to it), and put the couch and other furniture back where it had been.
Yes that was more than 30 years ago, but we still don’t move the furniture. So when a new piece comes home, we take the time to put it where it should be at the start. I never have liked wandering in the dark and having my toes find a “freshly moved item” — it is just nasty. — (Honest I am not stuck in my ways, but they do fit rather nice, so I don’t see the need to change them often.)
So now that you have a smattering of how I feel about change, you can understand that for me to declare that I am willing to give the RSS method a try is really something. My poor toes are quivering though, can you blame them?
The RSS aggregator that I am trying out is called Bloglines and can be found at http://www.bloglines.com/ Give it a look.
September 27, 2007 at 8:27 pm |
Feed reading has changed the way a lot of tech oriented people do business– and it is making its way into all kind of communities as a professional skill. It does take some adaptation though… if you are the kind of person who is uncomfortable leaving things unread then even a few dozen feeds can feel overwhelming.
On the other hand, while I am subscribed to 300 or so feeds, only a small core of those are things I actually read fully. There are quite a few that I skim for tidbits or for fun and then some grouped into topics that I just dip into when I need to or am in the mood.
How we deal with information when there is so much of it is the critical skill of the age. Learning to create your own network of resources and tools and then be comfortable not reading everything from cover to cover (metaphorically) help…
You might be interested in this video about Robert Scoble and how he “reads” 600+ feeds daily. He makes his living as a blogger and is an extreme case, but I think SOME of his ideas are sound: http://urltea.com/pk2
My friend D’arcy made a screencast on a similar topic, using a different feed reader… in the course revision I will be recommending Google Reader (which Scoble is using in the video above) instead of Bloglines for a web tool and BlogBridge (which D’arcy is using) for those who want a powerful desktop reader: http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/12/04/blogbridge-screencast/
September 28, 2007 at 6:55 pm |
[...] and feed reading commented to me that she liked the “fluidity” of the medium, then noted: I found that several of the converted” track 80-some feeds a day. The thought made my head [...]