b5media.com

Advertise with us

Enjoying this blog? Check out the rest of the Technology Channel Subscribe to this Feed

A Feed Is Born

Information Overload and RSS

by Juned on June 21st, 2007

Hi there! This is my first post here at A Feed Is Born: A Weblog about RSS, webfeeds, and information overload. To be honest for the past few days I was not sure how I was going to write for this blog. Should I be informative, evangelical or entertaining? Should I copy the tone and style of my predecessors? What should it be? In the end, I decided to be me – a person who loves information. One of my favorite pastimes is reading and gobbling information. Maybe that is why I ended up studying at a Library and information Science school. And perhaps, why I eventually ended up working in the information industry. I really like information but I do not like information overload.

There is a Greek Proverb that says, “The Fox may know many things , the hedgehog but one, but it is enough”. There are many variations of this story, the most famous would be the one from Aesop. There is one from India concerning the two fishes (With names like Having the Understanding of a Thousand and Having the Understanding of a Hundred) and a frog called The Understanding of One. Nearly all the stories end in the same way: the fox and the fishes (with too many resources and no discernment) dead and the feline and amphibian alive. A case of the fox and the fishes suffering from information overload.

Information Overload brings forward several questions:

  • How do you deal with information overload?
  • How does one avoid becoming the eponymous fox in Aesop’s fable?
  • How does one effectively swim across this sea of information on the Web?
  • How can one effectively make use of Really Simple Syndication or Atom?
  • What are the future possibilities for information syndication?
  • Have you seen any interesting feed lately?

    • Incidentally, when the talk goes to webfeeds it not uncommon to hear the question - What is RSS? A few months ago John Mahoney came out with the Practical RSS video podcasts (hosted on brightcove). Informative and probably a good starting point for those interested in RSS feeds and useful for those who can explain but prefer to take a walk in the park or sip coffee or enjoy a piece of chocolate.

    Links to other Practical RSS shows:
    Practical RSS Show 2: Keeping Current - RSS and News

    PRACTICAL RSS Show 3: Better Bidding - Auctions and RSS

    Share This

    Related Stories

    POSTED IN: Me, myself and RSS

    4 opinions for Information Overload and RSS

    Have an opinion? Leave a comment: