2007 goals part 1: Reading right

December 27 2006

OK, I'm starting with the easiest goal for 2007 -- getting my input stream right.  I've been struggling with this for a while, as the pool of bloggers gets bigger and bigger -- who should I read?

Yes, I have a blogroll on this site and I strive to keep it relatively current.  But the reality is that there's a circumstance of seniority playing out there (and on many other bloggers' blogrolls) -- if you were here when I started, you're more likely to be on the list.  But maybe someone started blogging three months ago, and is worth checking out.  Or maybe a site has gone downhill, or silent, or irrelevant.  Or maybe the mere publication of a "blogroll" is inhibiting the startup of new voices.

So I'm struggling.  I can't spend hours a day reading blogs, much as I'd like to.  I'm not finding much value to technorati or google blog searches, though I still watch those for Notes-related posts.  I haven't found a good industry aggregation site -- Collaboration Loop comes pretty close, but the curse of RSS is that it is flat, and all of the numerous new articles carry the same weight.  There's no 18 point headline for important articles and 10 point headline for the reconstituted press releases.  I don't have time to distinguish these and sort the useful from the useless.  And there's plenty of useless.

One good bit of news -- it feels to me like the "echo chamber" phenomena is finally gone.  In the early days of "Lotus bloggers", there was a lot of "me, too" going on -- someone would blog a topic and six other people would link to it with their own 2¢ but that 2¢ didn't deviate much from the original opinion.  Now when we get into blogosphere debates, they tend to be genuine debates, and not just "look at me look at me" links.  But it also means I'm more inclined to read an offshoot conversation.

I also am spending a fair amount of time keeping an eye on blogs from my colleagues at IBM.  So far, through whatever Borg-like state, we have been remarkably good about maintaining individual voices.  There is no conga line going on of blog topics from IBMers, and I'm pretty good about watching for shill requests when I'm asked to consider a topic for blogication.  But that also means that some really great discussions that are relevant to my day job take place on other IBMer blogs, and it's even gotten to the point occasionally where someone (usually Mary Beth or Alan) have blogged something that then comes up in a meeting and I'm expected to already know about it.  I hear the same takes place with reference to discussions on this site.

All that having been said, it's time to take a step back and consider which sites are "must read" from both a Notes/Domino and an industry perspective.  This will also feed into the goal I've alluded to already -- how to bring more voices into the conversation.  So, I'm looking for recommendations.  Posts that are essentially "pick me! pick me!" will be ignored Image:2007 goals part 1: Reading right, but other inputs most appreciated.

Ed Brill | Chicago, IL USA Category:  Blogging  Add/View Comments [24]

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  1. 1  Gavin Bollard http://dominogavin.blogspot.com/ | 12/27/2006 6:08:19 PM

    Slightly off topic, but I've set up a google alert for Notes/Domino which sends an email summary every day. It doesn't get the sort of detail that you get with RSS, but it's a great place to start.

  1. 2  Giuseppe Grasso http://www.dominopoint.it | 12/27/2006 7:44:53 PM

    www.news4notes.com ?

  1. 3  Andrew Price http://www.healthspace.com | 12/27/2006 8:21:57 PM

    * warning, wildly off topic, apologies *

    Someone has re-invented the Notes workplace (sort of):

    { Link }

  1. 4  Andrew Price http://www.healthspace.com | 12/27/2006 8:23:01 PM

    @2 Gavin: I do the same thing :)

  1. 5  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 12/27/2006 8:23:16 PM

    Like yourself I can't read everything from everyone, and granted I don't need to in my position right now as you do.

    But niche is the way sometimes, fewer but more specific?

    When I asked about admin blogs there was some input but not much output really which is why I wanted to start one on admin, but I find it's not really what i wanted to focus on once I started writing.

    Some of the admin blogs get pretty appdev which is not what I want either.

    So best thing i could suggest is see the future, and find it in todays blogs. Or figure out where your influence should be felt/seen/heard and find those as well.

    I have no doubt others do email you with their blog info and your choices are limitless at that point, but maybe at the Sphere you will pick up some good ones too.

    Also you may want to read some in foreign languages, if you are able especially ones from Europe which are more technical in nature and very specific about issues as well.

    As you are reminded everyday, there is a huge world beyond english and the US.

  1. 6  Thomas "Duffbert" Duff http://www.twduff.com | 12/27/2006 9:04:56 PM

    I'll be interested to see what comes out of this thread. I too have often wondered how people decide on which blogs to follow and which to drop. It'd be far too easy to fall into the Scoble "I spend four hours a day reading blogs!" trap, which isn't healthy regardless of *who* you are.

    I generally will add new Notes bloggers when I find out about them, and see how they work out over time. If a relatively new blogger goes silent for a couple of months, I figure they're not going to keep it up. Some of the other longer-term bloggers have a longer grace period, but if three or four months transpire, I usually unsubscribe. Some I follow because of who they are, and others due to their stellar content. Occasionally the two even coincide. :)

    For non-Notes blogs in my RSS reader, I usually add them first and see whether or not I actually read them or end up marking them as read repeatedly. Some things that sounded great at first don't end up holding my interest. On the other hand, the RSS feeds for book publishers is just a fantastic way to feed my book/reviewing addiction. :)

    I know the goal of an RSS reader is to not have to worry about frequency due to the polling nature. But I just don't like having 500 entries that I "follow" when in reality I'm only reading 100 or so.

  1. 7  Sean Burgess http://www.phigsaidwhat.com/ | 12/27/2006 9:11:52 PM

    Ed, I feel your pain. I dread opening up Bloglines if I have been unable to get to reading my feeds in a couple of days. Being one that doesn't like to miss anything, I have opted for the more is better approach and am currently subscribed to over 100 Domino feeds. Since I have a day job and a family, I tend to do a lot subject line surfing to see if I need to delve deeper into an interesting entry.

    Luckily, coComment is extremely helpful in keeping me in touch with entries that I have commented on. Prior to its proliferation, keeping an eye on important entries took way too much time.

    Sean---

  1. 8  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 12/27/2006 11:00:55 PM

    The one blog I do consider a must read is Kathy Sierra's. It's great information and helps me bridge the gap so I can communicate better with people who aren't as technical as I am. I have e-mail subscriptions to some Computerworld content and that gives me all the industry content I need. Blogs are just a way for me to communicate with like-minded people, I don't use them as a primary source of information.

  1. 9  Randy Shimizu  | 12/28/2006 5:49:31 AM

    There is a need for intelligent information parsing. With all the info on the web there one still has to actually view the content to see if it is useful or not. What is needed is some sore of intelligent inference engine that would filter info based upon a users browsing habbits.

    Google News is nice because it presents a lot of custom info in one place. The downside is that it's not intelligent enough. But I can see where that could be a model for a hybrid format of sorts.

  1. 10  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 12/28/2006 8:28:24 AM

    Ed,

    I've always noted that your blogroll is always reasonably up to date, that's a good thing - any people still link to my blog which closed down some 3months ago!

    As for which sites to read, it's always a tough one. I generally like to read facts and not guesswork or opinion.

    I generally prefer to read sites that allow open honest discussion and don't censor readers comments in order to try and help support their cause.

    From your list (in no particular order) I'd be looking at Chris Miller, Paul Mooney, Warren Elsmore, Steve Castledine, Andy Porter and Stu Downes for some open honest discussion. The rest generally lose me content that isn't so relevant from a UK perspective.

    I think it helps a lot if you've actually met the author too, I've met the majority of people on the list above.

  1. 11  Paul Gagnon  | 12/28/2006 8:47:14 AM

    Ed, maybe you could enlist the help of an administrative assistant to pour over the the hundreds and filter them based on your information needs, and relegate yourself to just the 10 or 20 of the sources that read daily.

  1. 12  Nathan T. Freeman http://www.openntf.org/nathan/escape.nsf | 12/28/2006 9:37:40 AM

    "the help of an administrative assistant"

    Boy, wouldn't that represent a failure of the technology, though? The idea of soliciting readers for recommendations is at least collaborative.

  1. 13  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 12/28/2006 10:31:52 AM

    Something like a marumushi newsmap { Link } for blogs would be cool. :)

  1. 14  Bruce Elgort http://www.TakingNotesPodcast.com | 12/28/2006 10:33:15 AM

    Does anybody remember Discovery Server?

  1. 15  Axel Janssen  | 12/28/2006 11:19:17 AM

    { Link }

    Its more a podcast than a blog. And quite technical. The guys put a lot of effort to be understandable by a broader audience and they definitedly know what they are talking about. For my ears its English without too much bells & whistles which might stem from the fact that they are germans :-)

  1. 16  Paul Gagnon  | 12/28/2006 11:49:04 AM

    yeah I know, I hear you Nathan. It's the old how to find those needles in the haystacks... and the time needed to sift through all the hay.

    "I don't have time to distinguish these and sort the useful from the useless. And there's plenty of useless."

    The thing about this is that you have to read each headline and maybe some of the content to determine if you are even interested in the first place, extremely subjective and time consuming. So it is an active/active activity, ie it requires your full attention to read it and then decide if you need to read more or get involved. Imagine if feeds could be broadcast in voice (radio/podcast) where you could hear it passively (and click to bookmark or get, or fastforward, etc).

    A stretch? Maybe. Something to think about.

  1. 17  Ferdy http://www.ferdychristant.com | 12/28/2006 12:45:02 PM

    Ed, what you seem to be looking for is something like digg.com, on a smaller scale (Lotus community). On such a site, the community determines the value of the articles that are submitted by anyone. All you would do is probably read the front page, which contains the most valuable articles.

    Although I am aware of some digg ripoffs, I'm not aware if there is an open source Domino implementation to setup such a system.

  1. 18  Henning Heinz  | 12/28/2006 12:50:01 PM

    Why read everything, why link everything?

    From my opinion the number of blogs and articles especially about Notes and Domino have decreased this year.

    This has little to do with Domino but with the fact that a blog is hard work, especially if you have a life after work.

    When I buy a TV guide there are plenty of series, shows and films I would like to see. I normally do not watch TV at all and if I buy the next guide (more for my family than for me) I can hardly even remember what I intended to see 14 days before.

    The content on the majority of blogs is guessable anyway ( not saying that this is a bad thing).

  1. 19  Nathan T. Freeman http://www.openntf.org/nathan/escape.nsf | 12/28/2006 2:32:00 PM

    "Imagine if feeds could be broadcast in voice (radio/podcast) where you could hear it passively (and click to bookmark or get, or fastforward, etc)."

    Maybe with a screen reader. But podcast content is unsearchable unless it's transcribed.

  1. 20  Ethann Castell http://www.caliton.com | 12/28/2006 5:47:48 PM

    I've faced the same problem for many years with both email and rss. I find that I tend to oscillate over time between having too many sources and not enough sources. I go through a culling process at least once a year where I try to remove all the "junk" sources, but afterwards I feel that I might be missing out on the important stuff. I would be interested to know your top 10 or 20 sources of information - or the ones that you feel that you must read daily.

  1. 21  Joerg Michael  | 12/29/2006 4:56:54 AM

    Ferdy, it would be fairly simple to set up something digg-like using an open source package. But the question is: Who would do the submitting and rating of submissions? Maybe if I get around to it over the weekend, I'll set one up and we'll see where it goes.

  1. 22  Axel Janssen  | 12/29/2006 7:24:31 AM

    Aggregation sites certainly do make a lot of sense.

    I've found dzone as an excelent example of a digg like aggregation site for software development. Using special urls you can filter out the area you are interested in.

    Here are all articles on dzone for the programming language overhyped a bit between 1995 and 2001:

    { Link }

    They have no Lotus Notes tag and it might be difficult to convince them, because it adresses only a fraction of their total audience and probably the big company argument.

  1. 23  Karen Demerly  | 12/29/2006 6:34:09 PM

    I don't think the blogroll should be digg-like (it's not about who everyone reads, imo, it's about who YOU read). I think it should follow the inspiration behind the tag cloud (which I dislike, strongly, but for different reasons).

    Ideally, I think the blogroll should be a "living, breathing" entity. You (blog owner) click over to Codestore five times a week, it counts those trips for you. Every week your blogroll adjusts, based on where you went. And if you never went to another blogger that week, it'd drop off the roll... until you started going back. Now THAT'd be cool.

  1. 24  Don McNally http://dmcnally.blogspot.com | 1/5/2007 2:47:20 PM

    As far as industry stuff, I read Between the Lines (from ZDNet), although I miss David Berlind (I read his TestBed too). TechCrunch is interesting for news about start-ups. I don't read it much, but TechMeme tends to be cited a fair amount as a good source.