Tag Archives: RSS

Ugh, Google Reader!

Posted on November 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

I have to admit that my consumption of RSS feeds has fallen off in recent months. I used to read a lot of blogs through RSS, using Google Reader, but that became unwieldy because I have this unhealthy completist compulsion. If there was a bold number next to “All Items,” I had to get it down to 0, even if I didn’t have time to read umpty-million blog posts all saying just about the same thing.

So I unsubscribed from a lot of blogs and moved most of my reading over to Twitter. Since Google+ debuted, I’ve been progressively abandoning Twitter for posts on Plus. But I still kept a few RSS feeds that were so valuable to me that I always wanted to read them. I  usually had less than 100 new posts to read a day, so I was generally happy.

But now Google Reader has been redesigned, and I’m very unhappy indeed. When I first heard about this news, I thought it meant better integration with Google+, which could only be a good thing. But this doesn’t seem to be so. The sharing feature that sends Reader items to Google+ is unwieldy to use and the end result is none too elegant. But even worse, Google Reader is now impossible to read. There is so much white space and no clear delineation between posts, making it a chore to read anything. Considering that’s Reader’s main purpose, I’d say the redesign is a massive fail.

So does this mean the much-predicted death of RSS is finally here? Well, it may be here for me. However, RSS is still a fundamentally useful way of keeping up with new content on favorite websites. I just want a friendly way of accessing that content. How do the Kindle and iPad handle feeds?

Here’s an article that captures exactly my feelings on the changes to Google Reader: The Google Reader Redesign is an Ugly, Lonely User Experience – Forbes.

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How to take control of your RSS feed reader…

Posted on June 17, 2010 | 5 Comments

“And it’s like, why can’t I be a good enough person to know things about anything? Why am I so pathetic that I can’t even read, like, 100 words a day? And then I have to hit the ‘pretend everything is read’ button, which is basically like hitting the ‘lie to yourself’ button. It’s embarrassing. I hate myself when I do it. It’s like the biggest possible failure you could have in your entire life, basically.”

When I read this article in The New York Observer about obsessive RSS completists, I definitely recognized myself. Yeah, I used to subscribe to 100+ blogs and websites in Google Reader. Yeah, I used to have to get that bold number of unread posts down to 0 whenever I opened Reader. And I couldn’t just mark all as read, either. I had to skim every post — the title, at least! It felt like cheating, otherwise.

And then I had an epiphany. I was spending so much time on Reader that other things were being neglected. That was okay when I had a job, but now I have more important things to do than work. Like read real books. And take care of my child. Something had to change.

But before change can happen, there must be an ah-ha moment, when you say to yourself, as I did, “This is my tool. It does not own me. It works for me. I am the boss around here.”

The first thing I did was clean out all of my subscriptions. I unsubscribed to everything. I only kept a handful of feeds that I cherished and absolutely knew I wanted to read (almost) every post. These went into a folder labeled “Blogs I Like” and there they will remain permanently.

Next, I went on Twitter and subscribed to the Twitter feeds for the blogs I had unsubscribed from. Twitter has much different — and significantly lower — expectations than RSS. (I have written about this before.) There is no bold number of unread items. Eventually, what you haven’t read falls off the screen into oblivion. Twitter is not your ever-growing pile of homework; it is the water cooler, the fun place you drop in during work breaks.

(Eventually, I had to weed down the number of Twitter feeds I was following too, but more on that at another time.)

Gradually, I started adding blogs back to my Google Reader. It is, after all, not easy to really get to know someone on Twitter. If I want to dive in-depth into a subject or learn more about a particular writer, than I need to read their blog for a while. Only for a while. All of these new blogs go into a folder labeled “Trial.”

Here are my rules:

  • When I subscribe to a new trial blog, I mark everything as read right off the bat. After all, I don’t want to start off with a backlog and handicap myself.
  • If I log in to Google Reader and there are more than 100 unread items, I immediately mark everything in the Trial folder as “read.” No guilt, no mercy. I am just reading these sites on a trial basis, so I’m not missing anything. This is what I tell myself, and it works.
  • If at the end of the month or so, I haven’t shared or starred a post from a particular feed, then I unsubscribe. (I use Google Reader’s Trends to find this info.) So at the beginning of every month, it’s like I’m starting with a fresh slate. What a good feeling.

If I really like a “trial” blog, I may start following the Twitter feed. But if it moves from the Trial folder to the Blogs I Like folder — which currently contains only 3 subscriptions, by the way — then we know it’s love.

And in the meantime, I can get back to the book I’m reading. Right after I check Twitter.

Feed Me, I’m Hungry! New Yorkers Skim, Freak, Purge as RSS Reading Mounts (New York Observer)

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Twitter vs. RSS: How Twitter has freed me from hours of blog reading

Posted on January 16, 2010 | 3 Comments

I used to subscribe to all my favorite blogs and read them in Google Reader. But no matter how much I tried to stay on top of them, I always ended up subscribed to 100 or more blogs, which were collectively posting hundreds of times a day. I was spending hours skimming through blog posts.

There is something about the RSS feed reader that makes a completist like me feel like I have to at least look at every post that shows up. Maybe it’s that bold number at the top. I have to get it down to 0 each time I open up Reader. It’s like my email Inbox — it must always be empty. And it feels like cheating to mark everything as read when I hadn’t actually read it.

Another problem was that I was reading about the same things 5, 6 or 10 times over in different blogs. There aren’t that many blogs that consistently post new content. Usually, they just react to the same bit of news as everyone else.

So one day, not too long ago, I unsubscribed to most of the blogs in my Reader. And I started following the bloggers on Twitter instead.

Almost everyone who blogs is also on Twitter. And they usually tweet about their own blog posts as well as other interesting bits of news and links. So everything in their RSS feeds also shows up on Twitter.

But I don’t have the same need to have to catch up with everything on Twitter that I do in my RSS feed reader. Twitter is like a river of information flowing by (I know that New York Times columnist used the same metaphor in his Twitter article but he stole it from me — he must have overheard me making this observation in a Starbucks or something). Every now and then, when I have a few minutes, I dip my toes in the river. Google Reader, on the other hand, is more like a dam, and all the new information flowing in backs up into a lake that I feel compelled to empty.

But what if I miss something? Well, so what if I do. The Internet is so vast, and there is so much interesting stuff going on all the time, that I’m bound to miss many things. Besides, the truly interesting things get reposted so much that I will see them sooner or later. By doing most of my reading through Twitter, I have found that I am more in control of how long I spend surfing. Whether I want to stop in for a few minutes or hang out for an hour, when I am done and ready to move on to other things, I just close the page and walk away.

Twitter lists are the new feature that have made this really possible for me. I obviously don’t want to follow thousands of people — too much noise. I tend to follow just the people who are consistently interesting. But I can add anyone I want to a list without having to follow them. So when I want to dip into a particular subject of interest, such as the world of book bloggers or minor celebrities, I open up my list on that topic.

I still use Google Reader, but it’s a much more targeted use now. RSS is a very handy way of keeping on top of news that really interests me, such as local events or personal friends’ FriendFeeds or Google alert results. And there are still a very few blogs where I want to see every posting. For instance, I know if it’s interesting, eventually it’s going to show up on MetaFilter, so I still subscribe to that feed. But now when I open Google Reader, the bold number that faces me is usually less than 20, which is a lot easier to zero out.

This is yet another reason why Twitter is so much greater than people generally think it is. And it’s not at all addictive. So if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find out whether Justin Bieber is still trending.

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    How to get started in the Web 2.0 world

    Posted on October 2, 2008 | 1 Comment
    Web 2.0

    Image by Daniel F. Pigatto via Flickr

    I have a colleague who’s interested in bringing some of our organization’s knowledge management efforts into the Web 2.0 world, and she wanted to know how to get started. My advice was, before getting an organizational blog or setting up a wiki or something like that, that she — or ideally everyone on her team — get involved on a personal level. Because I don’t think you can get Web 2.0 — and therefore your organization can’t get Web 2.0 — unless you’re doing it. It’s all about participation and collaboration, and that means you have to dive in.

    So here are my suggestions for the steps you should take before you even think about setting up an organizational blog or wiki or anything like that.

    1. Start bookmarking. You are soon going to be touring all over the web, and you need a way to remember the best blogs, videos and other stuff you find. You can use your browser’s bookmarks feature, but the Web 2.0 way is to share. So I suggest getting an account on a social bookmarking site. I recommend Delicious because it is so clean and easy to use, but StumbleUpon is also a good option. Both provide toolbar buttons so you can bookmark as you surf. Get in the habit of bookmarking the sites that interest you and tagging them in meaningful ways.

    2. Read some blogs. Blogs are the heart of the social web. Somewhere out there, someone is writing about something you’re interested in or working on. Use Google’s blog search to find 5-10 blogs on those subjects and start reading them. Take a look at their blogrolls or the blogs they cite often, and start reading them too. Of course, there’s an upper limit to the number of blogs you can read, but you do want to be keeping up with at least 20, probably more if you can handle it.

    RSS feed readers make it a lot easier to keep up with all those blogs, because they deliver new content to you, instead of you having to go out on the web to get it. I like Google Reader myself, but there are many  other choices. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer have RSS feed readers built in, as well. To find the feed, look for the orange RSS feed icon and click on it: RSS feed icon

    The most important thing, though, when reading blogs is to comment on what you read and like. Web 2.0 is all about participation, and commenting is one of the main ways to join in. Once you start commenting on blogs in your niche, you’ll meet the bloggers and other commenters and begin getting to know the community that you’re joining.

    3. Jump into Twitter. It’s time to up the interaction a notch, and Twitter is a good way to do it. You can start out small and build up as your confidence increases. Find a few people to follow; first check the blogs you’re reading, as bloggers are typically on Twitter too. See who they are following and follow any of those people who seem interesting, as well. There are plenty of Twitter applications that make following tweets easier.

    Why are you on Twitter? You will get in the habit of sharing: what you’re working on, what you’re reading, links, whatever. And you will have a ready-made community to ask questions and get feedback from. What’s more, it’s fun.

    4. Get a blog. It’s now time to join the conversation. And I don’t mean starting an organizational blog. That should come later. First, you should start your own personal blog where you can write in your own voice. You may choose to write about your work or about some other passion. What matters is that you’re adding your voice to the conversation.

    Starting a blog is easy and takes less than five minutes. I recommend WordPress.com as the best free blogging platform, because even if you don’t know the software, it’s easy to learn and get started on right away. If you’re intimidated by having a full-fledged blog or don’t have the time, you can start a “micro-blog” on Tumblr and share interesting links, video, quotes and other short snippets. Remember to keep commenting on other blogs and leave a link to your blog when you do. You’ll soon find that folks who read your comments are stopping by your blog and commenting on what you’re writing.

    And before you know it, you’re part of Web 2.0.

    If you follow these steps, more or less, and get involved in the online community on a personal level, you’ll probably find it much easier to think of creative and worthwhile ways your organization can get involved.

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    How to use tagging to make connections in the nonprofit web

    Posted on October 1, 2008 | 4 Comments
    A tag cloud with terms related to Web 2.

    Image via Wikipedia

    Probably one of the best innovations of the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon is tagging. A tag is “a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information” (source). Tags can be used to identify blog posts, bookmarks, photos, videos, presentations, events, etc., and are supported by pretty much every Web 2.0 tool. Tags are generally assigned informally and without regard to a structure of categories; they are more like annotations and are often assigned in addition to categories, such as on blog posts.

    The genius of tagging is that it organically builds connections over time between seemingly unconnected content. If my blog post and your video and his bookmark and her photograph all have the same tag, then we can start to see how they are related in some way. This leads to a bottoms-up classification system for web content that is often called a folksonomy.

    The problem is that tags are arbitrarily decided on by the content creator, and with language being what it is, one tag can mean many different things to many different people. Take the word development, for instance. In my own little industry, it can refer to the process of creating software or giving aid to low-resource countries. In other contexts, it might refer to child development or personal development or a large and ugly subdivision.

    The nonprofit field has bypassed this limitation by coming up with some unique tags to identify our content. If we use these tags consistently, we can easily locate a wealth of content in our particular niches. Here are some of the most useful tags I’ve come across:

    nptech: Short for “nonprofit technology,” this tag refers to nonprofits’ use of technology, mostly internally rather than as part of the program offerings.

    Examples:

    ict4d: Stands for “Information and Communication Technologies for Development.” Refers to groups that are using technology in their development programs, usually international development.

    Examples:

    web4dev: Using Web technologies, mostly Web 2.0, for supporting international aid and development.

    Examples:

    km4dev: Stands for “Knowledge Management for Development.” Using knowledge management tools and techniques to support international development.

    Examples:

    m4dev or m4d: Using mobile technology to support internatonal development.

    Examples:

    I’m sure I haven’t discovered all of the tags being used by nonprofits using technology, especially in international development. If you know of any other good ones, please leave a comment.

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