As discussed by Gloria Rand, recently Linkedin announced it will be ending RSS support for Linedin Groups. This feature allowed Linkedin group administrators to feed article links to groups automatically without reviewing each and every one. One possible upside of this move on Linkedin’s part is that it will be harder to flood groups with spam or unreviewed content.
All in RSS
I’m optimistic. I’m beginning to think that second-nature use of collaborative technologies by non-technologists, both for social engagement as well as for work, could reach a tipping point much sooner than I had thought. It’s not going to be completely smooth sailing, though.
Why I Don't Use a Ghost Writer
And that’s why I would never use a ghost writer on my personal web site. It’s a public expression of myself and my interests, an online resume, and a personal soapbox, all rolled into one.
How We Use Media Will Drive Development of a Real Time Web
Why do we use media?
What got me thinking about this was a recent post by Robert Scoble about the “real-time web.” Scoble’s focus was on the technical standards and processes that are evolving to support the use of the web for instantaneous two way communication.
The page on this blog My Comments Elsewhere displays a list of links to bookmarks from my del.icio.us account I have tagged using the term “comments.” Recently Kathie Thomas, a member of the Linkedin Bloggers group on Yahoo! Groups that I co-moderate, asked how I generated this page. Here’s how.
A friend, a professional engineer, asked me for tips on establishing a “web presence.” This is what I wrote:
At last night’s Meeting VI of the Alexandria Web Strategy Discussion Group, convened at New Target in Alexandria, Virginia, Maddie Grant raised the topic of RSS feeds. She’s tried a number of readers and now she uses Google Reader. Still, she complains about the problems with setting up readers and especially the challenges of explaining the process to other users. In her mind, RSS has not lived up to its promise.
Given my longstanding interest in copyright, I’ve been following the AP anti-fair-use story with some interest (e.g., see this by Jason Kintzler, or this by Julian Baldwin; there’s also an interesting discussion thread ongoing at the Linkedin Bloggers group on Yahoo! Groups).
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out corporate IT manager Jim MacLennan’s RSS: Underappreciated Web 2.0 in the Enterprise blog post.
In Three effective uses of a blog for association magazines Ben Martin lists a fourth item from a conference he attended recently:
Lee White and I are discussing how social media can be used to support project management. Lee discusses his views on his blog, I discuss my views here, and below you can see a combination of both of our posts.
One of the nice things about modern web standards and publishing technology is the ability we non-programmers now have to rapidly combine data from different web based sources through use of easy to handle scripting tools.
Here is an example of how RSS feeds can be used by local governments to provide information to the public. The City of Alexandria, Virginia is using RSS feeds to distribute information to the public about city events.
Dave Munger in The end of the RSS experiment presents the results of data collected to analyze what happened when his web site turned off partial RSS feeds and substituted full RSS feeds. A reduction in site page hits corresponded to the publishing of the full RSS feeds, presumably because feed reader users had no need to return to the web site -- where ads are visible.
No, I’m not stopping my blog reading. I’m referring to the “blogs” folder that has been sitting in the upper left hand corner of my Firefox browser’s Navigation Toolbar for I don’t know how long.
I recently demonstrated social networking and social media concepts to a group of professionals via a special version of this blog. I showed among other things how easy it is to locate RSS feeds and subscribe to them as well as the various ways you can view them. I even showed how easy it is to see what Netflix DVDs I have at home, courtesy of a special RSS feed.
In retrospect I realize how confusing this topic can be to some people who are accustomed to the concept of “web sites” and “web pages.”
I'm Almost Finished Deleting All My Email Subscriptions
One of the things I’m doing to get control of my email is to cancel subscriptions where I receive unrequested broadcast or narrowcast emails from individuals, organizations, or news services. My goal is to dedicate my two main email addresses to personalized incoming and outgoing communications. I am making progress toward that goal.
EirePreneur has a real interesting use of OPML files and GRAZR -- a personal list of experts that is shareable. Now, I've just gotten through with updating my own feeds-on-web-page so I have some questions about the cumbersome nature of this process, but I like the idea. Check it out; it generates discussion about a variety of interrelated topics including tagging, taxonomy, what is an expert, and sexual discrimination (I kid you not).
One blog I read is the Microsoft Knowledge Network Team Blog (registration required). It describes development and features of the "Knowledge Network" product that will accompany Microsoft's upcoming Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 which is also in Beta status.