RSS is My Daily Box of Chocolates

May 1, 2008 By

RSS Awareness Day

When I got the first notification that today, May 1, was to be promoted as RSS Awareness Day, my first thought was, why not have a Watching Grass Grow Awareness Day?

After all, for a lot of us bloggers and other netizens, RSS is more a feature of the landscape than something needing more awareness.

But of course I appreciate that not everyone knows about RSS and many of those who know “about” it do not have a real grasp of what it is or how it can be used. In fact, from various things I’ve read, I quite believe the statement by the RSS Awareness Day people that

Only a very small percentage of the Internet population is aware of the RSS format and its benefits, and that number is growing slowly over time.

I suspect that the most helpful thing I can do for those people is to provide a link to Lee Lefever’s excellent video explanation of RSS.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU]

But I don’t think that’s really enough.

Thinking a bit more about what RSS means to me, I realized that most of what I read about RSS and have told others about it, and even Lee Lefer’s video which is a fun style of presentation, have a sense of worthiness and in that they do not fully represent why I love RSS.

It does seem to me that, albeit with the best of intentions and especially on business-focused blogs such as this, we feel we have to explain RSS in terms of productivity, or efficiency or “getting things done” – all obligation and duty stuff.

Is there any fun here?

Well, for me there is. I actually open my RSS feed reader each day – and sometimes more than once a day – with eager anticipation. There is invariably a nice surprise, something entertaining, something to make me smile, as well as things that are “serious”.

It’s by no means all earnestness and efficiency.

For me, as life was for Forrest Gump’s mother, RSS is “like a box of chocolates, never know what you’re gonna get.”

Like today I read about:

OK, maybe these examples are not chocolatey enough for everyone, but they work for me.

RSS – don’t logon without it.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , , ,

Rojo a Good Way to Keep Up With the Information Deluge

January 6, 2008 By

There is so much information each week about new social media applications, new developments, controversies real or manufactured, that I don’t pretend to be able to keep up. But as I like to have at least a sense of what’s happening I have a couple of feed readers I scan, on pretty much a daily basis. I use BlogBridge a lot and am hearing such good things about Google Reader that I’m thinking of re-visiting it.

Rojo buttonI’m thinking also of making more use of the Rojo feed reader service (“RSS with mojo”).

In the meantime, one email I really enjoy getting is Rojo’s succinct, and linked, weekly update on top stories on the web and in blogs. The digest takes up no more than a screen and a half and has good summary headlines, so it’s very easy to scan.

rojo feed reader screenshot

It’s eclectic, as in this sample from yesterday:

…John Battelle’s Searchblog predicts significant gains in Web-based advertising despite recession fears, Wall Street frustration with Google, and a Facebook identity crisis. (Mashable! then riffs off Battelle to predict what a successful, recession-proof ad platform looks like.) Finally, HipMojo.com‘s crystal ball shows a $1 billion online-video ad market, Yahoo! getting bought, and free, ad-supported online music.

Last August, when I was still authoring the Business and Blogging site at b5media, I wrote a short series of posts on favorite feed readers. Rojo was not included. Now, looking at it more closely, I’m thinking it could become, if not a favorite of mine, at least a helpful addition to my online information management toolkit.

Filed Under: Blogging, General, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,