My Top 10 Social Software RSS Feeds

In my previous post I suggested that we all share our RSS feeds. I figure that the best way to walk the walk is to make my own list. I took some time to sift through my feeds and find my top ten. These are the ones that I read the most and find the most interesting (they are not in rank order).

Or, you can view my Google Reader shared page of all the blogs I follow

Drumroll……and now here are my top 10 Social Software RSS Feeds:

1. Andrew McAfee — subscribe

2. Anil Dash — subscribe

3. Lifehacker — subscribe

4. Strange Attractor — subscribe

5. Collaborage — subscribe

6. O’Reilly Radar — subscribe

7. Portals and KM — subscribe

8. Ross Mayfield — subscribe

9. Sobleizer — subscribe

10. Off the Top — subscribe

Please, feel free to let me know about any of the feeds you find interesting.

Do you share your RSS feeds?

So this has been bugging me for a while. Why don’t we share our personal RSS feeds with each other?

There are tons of sites out there that perform this function in amazing ways, but not for RSS feeds. There is digg and delicious for bookmarks. Flickr for photos, youtube for videos, myspace and facebook for nearly everything. I can share my daily actions on twitter and my docs on google.

So, why hasn’t anyone “socialized” RSS feeds? Not sure. It could be due to the lack of interest. RSS has been around for a while now, but is always secondary to the main tools. You can see this on websites where the feeds often break and they are poorly placed on pages. Or, maybe a lack of innovation. The companies that are releasing aggregators offer no really amazing features, just more of the same. Maybe it is because the mainstream public hasn’t caught on to RSS yet.

Anyway which way you want to slice it, I am surprised. Sharing our personal feeds and creating a community out of them, is an obvious evolution. Here is my list of 10 benefits that we can get through “socializing” feeds:

1. See what everyone else is following

2. Tag Feeds. Allows them to be grouped and searched on, while giving you may more ways to find feeds.

3. Send feeds to friends.

4. Feed networks. See what feeds you have in common with friends, what they just subscribed to, or unsubscribed from. (delicious networks)

5. Comment on feeds. Talk about their content and layout.

6. Help new users. Offer pre-populated, popular feed lists based on topics, interests, or preferences.

7. Show a list of the most popular feeds. What are the most popular feeds?

8. Share feed lists. See what your friends are following, try out their feeds for a week, or see what Chuck Norris or other luminaries are following (similar to itunes playlists).

9. Feed list ranking. Publish your list and see how many people like it or use it. (Amazon lists)

10. Numerical analysis – newest and most popular feeds in real time (digg).

If you can think of more, let me know. I mostly just copied what popular sites are already doing. You would then think that most of these could be created quite easily. I have been trying find out if their are sites already doing this, but the best I found was feedburner, share.opml.org, technorati, and I just found spokeo.

None of those seem to be focusing on the social networks that could be created around sharing RSS feeds. So, if you happen to know of any great sites let me know. Or, if you would be interested in teaming up with me to develop something like this let me know.

I look forward to sharing my feeds and creating a community of “active bookmarks” on the web.

Biological Evolution is Dead

A new idea just popped into my head. Now, I can’t think of a name for this new idea, but I am hoping one already exists. Maybe I am slow to the draw and this field already exists. So, please help me if you can.

Here is the idea: Biological Evolution is dead.

It has to be. Human evolution is no longer controlled by biology, it is controlled by technology. Look at these examples:

A person with a cochlear ear implant is, by his senses, 20% machine/robot.

A person with 2 prosthetic legs is, by his appendages, 50% machine/robot.

Humans and not biological evolution have, by far, the greatest impact on every species on earth.

The human brain will be drastically improved by technological evolution, thousands of years before it is improved by technological evolution.

These are just a few examples of how technology is controlling our evolution. I am sure you can think of many more. So, is biological evolution really dead? Have we already pushed aside biology and natural evolution and put ourselves in control of our own evolution?

I would say yes. To confirm this suspicion I tried doing some web browsing but found nothing. I am really intrigued by this thought and I hope to learn more. Does anyone out there know more than I do? Can you point me to some studies that looked into this?

The best I can do is recommend the book, The Singularity is Near, and the clip, the machine is us. Also, I will throw out the best name I could think of for this topic: Evolutionary Technology.

Google is taking over my life!

It is time for me to admit it, Google is taking over my life. I am completely addicted. I think I have become a Google Man.

I love Google products. There, I said it. I know I am not alone too. There are millions just like me out there, including several in my office at work. There are even Google Girls. We are all hopelessly in love with our Google. Just to show you that I am serious, here is a list of the Google products I use everyday, there are 23 of them:

  • Gmail, igoogle, picasa, calendar, groups, docs, spreadsheets, reader, financials, gmail chat, adsense, analytics, video, blogger, text search, image search, book search, scholar search, document search, web history, igoogle skins, google maps, and google earth.

There are plenty more that I casually run across. I don’t stop there though. Next, I go about trying to convince anyone I know to use Google products. I have invited everyone I know to gmail, sent screenshots of my igoogle, and walked countless newbs through the set-up process for these tools. Watch out, if you cross my path I may try to convert you to.

I am an unwitting Google Man. I didn’t ask for this. I just wanted to become more efficient and use better tools. That was my downfall. Now, I am an unpaid Google representative. Pierre and Sergy you sick demons.

The only comfort I have is knowing that I am not alone. Google Boys and Girls I know you are out there. I talk to you every day in gmail chat!

Oh well, I better go upload my Gmail photo from the google picasa web album.

If you are wondering what the hell I am talking about, maybe should:

The Government is pulling a fast one?


Now I know not everyone shares my “openness”, but why not? A recent press release by the bush administration, shows the benefits of transparency. I first learned about this through Dan Carlin’s podcast about the subject. Basically, the administration signed an executive order outlining how it would operate during an emergency. So, Dan and a few small papers flipped out about this. Saying that it completely overrides constitutional authority, congress, and the sanctity of this country. So, my political undies all in a bunch, I had to check it out for myself.

The order started out okay only to end in ruin, by a few simple words. Basically, the order outlines how the executive branch will act (our army, airways, civil services, etc.) in the case of an emergency. It also states that it will “advise” our state and local governments on how to act as well. Great leadership, right…so here is the catch.

A few words (most likely intentional) state that in an emergency the president proclaims a new title upon himself, National Continuity Coordinator, and he can not only advise but tell the entire federal government how to act. What could cause el presidente to want to annoint himself a dictator in case of an emergency? Even worse, the definition of an emergency is ambiguous and the coordinator gets to decide what an emergency is. Ok, yeah, like I said, totally ruins in.

All revolt and disbelief aside. This makes me think that transparency for our government and its leaders is a good thing. It would be nice to lark down all those dark holes and see what is hiding, besides tons of money in a freezer. Who doesn’t store bribes in their freezer?

But, lets not pin this all on the Executive Branch. All branches, Congress and the Supreme Court should lay bare what they do. Imagine what they can get away with then? We could weed out corruption and greed from the comfort of our own homes.

I would love to do that.

Alas, dreams and a tiny blog are all I have. Still at least I am publishing my disgust for this order, the lack of openness in our government, and making a statement for transparency in the government.

Transparency: how far down the rabbit hole will you go?

Transparency is a scary thing for some people. Not for me, over a decade ago I decided that everything in my life should be transparent. Rather, I should be able to tell my parents about everything I do. Well, now that has matured into telling the police and feds about everything I do (whycome? i is a grown up 🙂

What about the rest of the country? Do you all share my same free-spirited confidence and naive trust. My guess is not. But, wait a minute, what about this younger generation that posts intricate details of their lives on myspace, blogs, and other sites. What are they going to think…

Are we breeding a new generation that is going to expect transparency. Ooh, does that mean I am a leader of the new generation since I am way ahead of the pack, ha!

Ok, then what about having GPS, RFID, and cameras everywhere so that people know where we are at all times and even know when we are running a red light…Would this new generation be open to that. I’m pretty sure they would. In fact, I think they are going to expect it and when they find out that it isn’t that way, they are going to make it happen. And, guess what, they aren’t going to make it happen by running for an election, asking their local congressman, or whatever people do. They are just going to do it, let the old gaurd be dammed. Seriously, though, how many of the old guard even know what google earth mash-ups are?

Me, I know that I am loving this new wave of transparency. Business are doing it, friends are doing it, and so are the feds (albiet slowly). In the meantime, I am going to tell the whole world, about what I am doing and what I think. So, check out my twitter account, find me on facebook, check out my favorites on delicious and digg, and finally try and find me in google.

The new Chief: CCO, The Chief Collaboration Officer

CCO – Chief Collaboration Officer

Get used to it. This acronym will be haunting our lives for the next 20 years.

Web 2.0 will bring about many changes in corporations. One of which will be a reshuffling of management. Most of this will take place at the low and mid management levels, but their is always room for one more Chief at the top.

A colleague and I recently discussed the value of establishing a CCO. Will it be a hindrance to innovation and growth? Or, an enabler that provides top-level support?

I think that a CCO will be an enabler who radically changes the landscape of the corporate environment. The transition will not be smooth, though, many will fail and a few will succeed. Those who succeed will be copied incessantly until the role of CCO is fleshed out, understood, and books are written about it (The 7 habits of highly effective CCO’s…).

In the end, the CCO will be here to stay.

P.S. – Those CCO’s who succeed will be the ones who use the tools at home. See you on myspace!

The new Chief: CCO, The Chief Collaboration Officer

CCO – Chief Collaboration Officer

Get used to it. This acronym will be haunting our lives for the next 20 years.

Web 2.0 will bring about many changes in corporations. One of which will be a reshuffling of management. Most of this will take place at the low and mid management levels, but their is always room for one more Chief at the top.

A colleague and I recently discussed the value of establishing a CCO. Will it be a hindrance to innovation and growth? Or, an enabler that provides top-level support?

I think that a CCO will be an enabler who radically changes the landscape of the corporate environment. The transition will not be smooth, though, many will fail and a few will succeed. Those who succeed will be copied incessantly until the role of CCO is fleshed out, understood, and books are written about it (The 7 habits of highly effective CCO’s…).

In the end, the CCO will be here to stay.

P.S. – Those CCO’s who succeed will be the ones who use the tools at home. See you on myspace!