RSS Atom and Syndication

Missing RSS Doesn't Hurt

leelefever — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:42:33 +0000

Iâ€™ve written before that I love reading my RSS feeds, but I often get behind and end up missing a lot. The more I think about it, itâ€™s like the morning newspaper. It appears in the morning and is packed with interesting information that could benefit me during the day. But, if the newspaper goes straight to recycle bin, I experience no pain.

The big point here is that reading RSS feeds can be a positive, but missing them doesnâ€™t create a negative, for me at least. Yesterdayâ€™s news is yesterdayâ€™s news.

I wonder if this will be the role of RSS in the future, or if it will start to move to more into the realm of the mailed letter, where it hurts to miss it?

Missing RSS Doesn't Hurt

leelefever — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:42:33 +0000

The big point here is that reading RSS feeds can be a positive, but missing them doesnâ€™t create a negative, for me at least. Yesterdayâ€™s news is yesterdayâ€™s news.

I wonder if this will be the role of RSS in the future, or if it will start to move to more into the realm of the mailed letter, where it hurts to miss it?

Missing RSS Doesn't Hurt

leelefever — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:42:33 +0000

The big point here is that reading RSS feeds can be a positive, but missing them doesnâ€™t create a negative, for me at least. Yesterdayâ€™s news is yesterdayâ€™s news.

I wonder if this will be the role of RSS in the future, or if it will start to move to more into the realm of the mailed letter, where it hurts to miss it?

Missing RSS Doesn't Hurt

leelefever — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:42:33 +0000

The big point here is that reading RSS feeds can be a positive, but missing them doesnâ€™t create a negative, for me at least. Yesterdayâ€™s news is yesterdayâ€™s news.

I wonder if this will be the role of RSS in the future, or if it will start to move to more into the realm of the mailed letter, where it hurts to miss it?

Missing RSS Doesn't Hurt

leelefever — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:42:33 +0000

The big point here is that reading RSS feeds can be a positive, but missing them doesnâ€™t create a negative, for me at least. Yesterdayâ€™s news is yesterdayâ€™s news.

I wonder if this will be the role of RSS in the future, or if it will start to move to more into the realm of the mailed letter, where it hurts to miss it?

Custom Packaging of RSS Feeds

leelefever — Fri, 20 May 2005 00:07:08 +0000

Kathleen Gilroy posted recently about a vision of the future of RSS:

Imagine a universal portal (public or internal for corporate use) that does nothing more than help people to collect feeds that will help them learn about subjects they care about.

I think sheâ€™s onto something and Iâ€™ll relate her point to a project Iâ€™m working on now:

Iâ€™m working with a start-up called mpire here in Seattle. Mpire is building an online application that makes life easier for small businesses that use eBay. Iâ€™m working with them on their blog strategy and support forums.

One of the priorities weâ€™ve outlined is to get them up to speed on the blog world and RSS. So, I set out to find all the eBay-related blogs I could find. Then, I created a NewsGator Online account for them and subscribed to all the eBay blogs, along with some other feeds and sent them the login.

This was a way for me to provide them a look at the kind of information they could track using blogs and RSS. Itâ€™s just step one.

The Opportunity

This process of creating a customized set of RSS feeds that focus on a particular niche really seems like an opportunity, particularly in the future. The mpire example is an example of what virtually every business should be doing -- keeping up with the â€œconversationâ€ thatâ€™s happening right now.

Often, businesses donâ€™t know there IS a conversation going on, much less how to be aware of it. I see an opportunity for a service that could provide businesses with custom packages of RSS feeds for their area of focus. The packages might include feeds from:

Pertinent blogs (including competitors blogs)
PubSub for terms matching product, company and executive names (perhaps even followed by the word â€œsucksâ€)
Links to their sites from Technorati
Related del.icio.us bookmark tags
Industry news sources

This sort of packaged RSS aggregation would enable a one-stop shop for businesses wanting to get started with RSS and blogging, but not knowing where to start.

Of course, as Murphyâ€™s Law would have it- itâ€™s time for you, dear reader, to tell me about the myriad companies already doing thisâ€¦

Custom Packaging of RSS Feeds

leelefever — Fri, 20 May 2005 00:07:08 +0000

Kathleen Gilroy posted recently about a vision of the future of RSS:

Imagine a universal portal (public or internal for corporate use) that does nothing more than help people to collect feeds that will help them learn about subjects they care about.

I think sheâ€™s onto something and Iâ€™ll relate her point to a project Iâ€™m working on now:

This was a way for me to provide them a look at the kind of information they could track using blogs and RSS. Itâ€™s just step one.

The Opportunity

Pertinent blogs (including competitors blogs)
PubSub for terms matching product, company and executive names (perhaps even followed by the word â€œsucksâ€)
Links to their sites from Technorati
Related del.icio.us bookmark tags
Industry news sources

This sort of packaged RSS aggregation would enable a one-stop shop for businesses wanting to get started with RSS and blogging, but not knowing where to start.

Of course, as Murphyâ€™s Law would have it- itâ€™s time for you, dear reader, to tell me about the myriad companies already doing thisâ€¦

Custom Packaging of RSS Feeds

leelefever — Fri, 20 May 2005 00:07:08 +0000

Kathleen Gilroy posted recently about a vision of the future of RSS:

Imagine a universal portal (public or internal for corporate use) that does nothing more than help people to collect feeds that will help them learn about subjects they care about.

I think sheâ€™s onto something and Iâ€™ll relate her point to a project Iâ€™m working on now:

This was a way for me to provide them a look at the kind of information they could track using blogs and RSS. Itâ€™s just step one.

The Opportunity

Pertinent blogs (including competitors blogs)
PubSub for terms matching product, company and executive names (perhaps even followed by the word â€œsucksâ€)
Links to their sites from Technorati
Related del.icio.us bookmark tags
Industry news sources

This sort of packaged RSS aggregation would enable a one-stop shop for businesses wanting to get started with RSS and blogging, but not knowing where to start.

Of course, as Murphyâ€™s Law would have it- itâ€™s time for you, dear reader, to tell me about the myriad companies already doing thisâ€¦

Custom Packaging of RSS Feeds

leelefever — Fri, 20 May 2005 00:07:08 +0000

Kathleen Gilroy posted recently about a vision of the future of RSS:

Imagine a universal portal (public or internal for corporate use) that does nothing more than help people to collect feeds that will help them learn about subjects they care about.

I think sheâ€™s onto something and Iâ€™ll relate her point to a project Iâ€™m working on now:

This was a way for me to provide them a look at the kind of information they could track using blogs and RSS. Itâ€™s just step one.

The Opportunity

Pertinent blogs (including competitors blogs)
PubSub for terms matching product, company and executive names (perhaps even followed by the word â€œsucksâ€)
Links to their sites from Technorati
Related del.icio.us bookmark tags
Industry news sources

This sort of packaged RSS aggregation would enable a one-stop shop for businesses wanting to get started with RSS and blogging, but not knowing where to start.

Of course, as Murphyâ€™s Law would have it- itâ€™s time for you, dear reader, to tell me about the myriad companies already doing thisâ€¦

Drowning in the Flow

leelefever — Wed, 18 May 2005 19:15:24 +0000

Iâ€™ve posted before about trying to figure out how to manage all my RSS feeds (read the comments) . Unfortunately I donâ€™t get paid to read them and when I get busy, they build up, making me feel like Iâ€™m missing something. They mock me, those feeds, I swear.

I really want to keep up because it makes me aware and more informed. When they build up, I just nuke the whole bunch and start from scratch. Blowing off a few days of feeds makes me feel guilty and a bit liberated at the same time. This was the case when I returned from a couple of days off recently.

One strategy that has helped is to check the feeds multiple times during the day. Since Iâ€™m a bit spastic with my online behavior anyway, it fits for me to check feeds in the 2 minutes before a conference call, for instance. I drop in and look at the new stuff and clear the backlog. Doing this helps me keep up with the flow in short bursts.

For me, this all comes down to â€œflow managementâ€ â€“ the ability to manage the constant flow of information emerging from blogs, message boards and sites like PubSub via RSS (which is rocket fuel for flow).

In the future, developing a style and strategy of managing the flow is going to be a required skill. Those who do it well may have an advantage over others by being able to extract valuable nuggets of information from a flood of feeds and notifications.

I'm keeping my head above water for now, but I've got a long way to go and I see more and more flow coming my way every day. Maybe its time to get a snorkel.