My initial reaction to this was: "Oh no, I have to read more than what I already get via email?" I'm on many professional email lists. Here's my not-very-effective method of monitoring these lists: Step 1) I have my account set up to sort them into folders to reduce the volume coming into my inbox. Step 2) When I receive a system message saying "you've exceeded your email quota" I go in and delete all the accumulated email in my list folders! Ta da! (Actually I do try to read the stuff, but things tend to get out of hand pretty quickly.)
But that's my cynical side. I'm doing my best to see the positive side of RSS feeds. It's true, I don't have any blogs or web pages that I regularly view, so this will be an addition to my regular online reading. However, the introductions to RSS feeds that I read/viewed made me realize that 2 of my favorite tools use the same concept as these feeds: podcast subscriptions from ITunes and DVDs from Netflix. I adore both of these services!
A potential advantage of feeds over email could be that most(?) of the feeds tend be be authored by one or few people; at least they aren't being added to by the sometimes thousands of people subscribed to a listserv. I imagine following the feeds to which I subscribe may end up being a better use of my time than wading through email.
There are blogs and other online content I've seen (usually linked from one of those darn emails!) that I would be interested in reading regularly. (Of course now I can't remember what they are...) Email has always been my way of keeping up with online content relevant to my job, because I didn't have to go out and look for it. Now the same will be true for other online content. So, if I can perhaps learn what I need and want to know for my job using the reader, maybe I can cut back on the email lists and save time in the long run.
On my Google reader I added links to 2 fellow "23 things" bloggers, as well as feeds to 2 other library-related blogs. I promise to add the 3rd, as required, when I find another one that interests me!
Now I just have to remember to open my reader, right? Hmmm....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment