Trimming in Public is a series where I go through my list of 293 RSS feeds, 10 feeds at a time, give some detail as to why I subscribed to a particular feed, and then decide whether or not to keep on consuming that feed. In Episode 1, I explained what RSS is and how to use it. Please read that if you need a refresher on why RSS is awesome and why you should be using it if you take reading news on the internet seriously. The prefix to Trimming in Public is “Becoming a better blogger, reader and helping me take out the trash.” For the bloggers out there who read IntoMobile, I hope you get a better idea of what I do to keep on top of the news. For the readers who read IntoMobile, I know that this site isn’t the only mobile focused technology publication on the internet, and by sharing which sites I read I’m hoping that you’ll keep on coming back here. Taking out the trash has an obvious explanation, I can’t keep up with my RSS feeds and need to trim my list. For those who want to download my complete list of 293 RSS feeds, feel free to grab my OPML file.
Check out Episode 18 after the jump, and all episodes by clicking on the Trimming in Public tag:
Gooooooooood morning Monday. Hope everyone had an awesome weekend, I know I did at the “Helsinki Drum & Bass & Dubstep Conference 2“. I can still feel the bass lines in my lower intestines. With that, time to kick off this episode:
- Pocketfactory: This RSS feed hasn’t spit anything out since June 2007, back when it was a news site. Now the site says “PocketFactory Mobile Development Labs: Coming Soon”. Kent Pribbernow was responsible for the content, and now it looks like he is doing freelance web design. His personal blog is here. Decision: No updates in 2+ years = unsubscribe.
- POP! PR Jots: Maintained by Jeremy Pepper, who works in public relations, this blog hasn’t been updated in almost a month. The topics discussed have to do with public relations, social media, and that’s about it. Social Media is dead to me, there was even a kid on the dance floor at the Helsinki DnB Conference on Saturday who had a shirt that said DIE FACEBOOK DIE so I know I’m not the only one who has left the service. As for public relations, is it important? Not really. Make good products, make your customer service tip top, make sure your employees are friendly when talking to external customers, and you don’t need a PR firm to spin your next “innovative” as the next big thing to purchase this holiday season. Decision: I used to work in marketing and unless I’m broke and living on the streets, I’m not going to do it ever again: Unsubscribe.
- PostSecret: I have no idea how this site got started, but I love it none the less. Frank Warren posted his address somewhere on the internet and people send him anonymous post cards with secrets on them. He scans them, and then posts them on the internet. People rarely say what is really on their mind, so when I see genuine human emotion, I’m hooked like a fly to a rotting banana. Topics such as suicide, homosexuality, low self esteem, infidelity, and all the beautiful fucked up social conditions that we as humans experience are covered on this blog. Winter is coming up, and I can tell you from experience living in a country this far up north, seasonal depression is real. Post Secret is one of the ways that helps me cope. Decision: Keep on reading, it’s one of my favorite blogs.
- PreCentral.net: A Palm Pre fan site by Dieter Bohn, and a part of the Smartphone Experts network of mobile blogs. The business model is solid. Create a bunch of blogs that tailor to a specific vendor in the smartphone space, gets lots of hits on all of them, walk up to an advertiser and say “across all of our properties we get a billion hits a month”, at which point the advertiser is practically throwing money at you. On top of that you sell accessories and software as an affiliate and get a tiny kick back from online retailers. It’s an ancient (by internet standards) formula for success, and the Smartphone Experts are firing on all cylinders. That being said, back to PreCentral, do I really need to read a blog dedicated to a device that isn’t selling in Europe yet? Nahhh, I’ll just get the new Palm news from the official Palm press RSS feed and updates about the hacks, cracks and new firmware updates from Gizmodo and Engadget. Decision: Unsubscribe.
- Widsets Press: Nokia used to have something called “Widsets”, a play on the word widgets, that was a Java application that displayed little bits and pieces of data from various online properties. I thought it was a terrible concept, and so did Nokia since the project is dead. Widsets became a part of Ovi this April, and no one cares. Decision: Dead RSS feed = unsubscribe, but it will not be counted towards today’s list of 10.
- Symbian Press Releases: This used to be the official Symbian RSS feed for new updates on how the platform is doing, but ever since Nokia purchased the company, and then rebranded it to be ultra cool and hip, the official Symbian site got shut down and was replaced by the Symbian Foundation blog. Decision: Dead RSS feed = unsubscribe, but it will not be counted towards today’s list of 10.
- Public Jaiku Nokia: Before Twitter and FriendFeed existed, there was a service called Jaiku that did the whole microblogging thing. It was HUGE in Finland, which you expect since the company was built by a bunch of Finnish guys, and it gained some popularity around Europe as well, but it never took off in the states. When all was said and done, the team who built the website got purchased by Google 2 years ago. This RSS feed was a custom Yahoo Pipe! that I built. I took the public RSS feed, which spit out everyone’s Jaiku, and applied a filter to it to see only posts that contained the word “Nokia” in it. Very useful back when I was writing at Ring Nokia and wanted to find scoops. Decision: Dead RSS feed = unsubscribe, but it will not be counted towards today’s list of 10.
- Putting People First: As a kid who always took apart everything because I wanted to know how it worked, and who also annoyingly questioned, and disregarded, the status quo, design was a subject I’ve deeply admired. Not being a creative, at least a practical creative that creates products and services, but instead wrangles words in a word processor, I’m always interested to see what’s the latest and greatest in design and more importantly the thought process that went into creating something new. Putting People First does that job remarkably well and it is one on my favorite blogs on the internet because of that. Decision: I love it!
- Radio Free Finland: My buddy Phil Schwarzmann, who now runs Nokia Conversations, and also performs stand up comedy in Helsinki on a fairly regular basis, used to have a podcast were he interviewed Finnish people to discuss current issues in the country. He hasn’t updated it in over 2 years, which is a shame, since I learned a lot about Finland from this show. He is still active on his other blog, Finland For Thought, which is maintained by him and a few locals. His recent post about how to fit in Finland is a must read. Decision: No new content in 2+ years = unsubscribe.
- ReadWriteWeb: This blog polarizes people. Some people say the conclusions RWW reaches are often wrong, while others say they highlight issues that are going to be critically important in the near future. Back up for a second, what is RWW? Think of it as a blog about the internet, and where it is going. A topic that I’m greatly interested in since I’ll never forget how I got my start on the internet, using America Online, even saving my allowance one year by not eating lunch at school just so I could buy a faster dial up modem. Compare that to where we are now, and is it any wonder why I’m curious to see where the future is heading? Now I agree some what with the people who hate RWW, that the conclusions they reach are often incorrect, but that being said, they do bring to my attention topics that I wasn’t thinking about before. I’m enough of a critical thinker to appreciate new information, even if it is incorrect information, only because it helps me conduct research about something I’ve never heard of. Decision: Keep on reading.
- Releaselog: I don’t make it a secret that I commit massive amounts of piracy. All pirates face the same problem, and no, it isn’t the government, it’s an issue I like to call “The Pirate’s Dilemma”. Before digital piracy existed, and technology was still very expensive, the range of content available to you was rather limited. You could, if you put in some effort, watch all the videos in a video store or listen to all the music in a music shop. Today there is an explosion of content out on the net, so much so that you don’t know what to consume. People much smarter than I am call this an “attention economy”, the thesis being attention is now the new scarcity, and therefore the new valuable currency. ReleaseLog is simply a blog that keeps track of what has been posted to the internet. When a new movie comes out, they post a link to the torrent, the score of that movie on IMDB, a photo of the film’s poster, a link to the trailer, and a brief plot outline. The same can be said for music, television programs, and software. Is it illegal? Sure. Have they been threatened? You bet! If they get shut down, how long will it take to get replaces? Less than 24 hours. Decision: Helping me solve the Pirate’s Dilemma = I love you.
- RickyCadden.com: Ricky and I started out as arch rivals. He started his website, Symbian-Guru, a few days after I started Ring Nokia. We were both living in Texas back then. Over time, as both of our sites got popular, we slowly became friends, and that friendship became official when we got together one night and cranked out a few videos to parody the “I’m a PC. I’m a Mac.” commercials. He was the Nokia N95, I was the iPhone. We had a great time. RickyCadden.com is his personal blog and he uses it to keep people up to date on side projects he is working on and what new technology he is playing with that isn’t related to Symbian. Decision: I read my real life friend’s blog.
- Ring Nokia: My most hard core of hard core fans always ask me for an RSS feed that has only my posts from IntoMobile, and nothing from the other editors. This RSS feed is it. I prefer you read what everyone on this blog has to say since we all pretty much cancel out each other biases. Now you may be asking, why the hell am I subscribing to my own stuff? I like to see how my content looks like in an RSS reader. I use it to tweak my visual style in terms of how long my paragraphs should be and how many links should be in each paragraph. Writing well is a necessary skill for surviving on the internet, making your text look good is a skill that is highly underrated. Decision: Keep on reading.
With that, over 1900 words, I hope you enjoy your Monday!