Lumpy's Corner

As far as where all this stuff comes from, below are my discovery methods:

1. I like to read and I frequently use Sage to read RSS feeds
2. I read blogs
3. I read "e-zines", which are e-mail based magazines. (I am reading fewer and fewer of these. RSS is the preference. There are still a few "I just have not switched over to yet".)
4. I read books
5. I have just under 1200 bookmarks many of which are specialized search engines
6. I "chat" on the Wyldryde Network mostly in #lockergnome

I attempt to do several things daily:

• Read my feeds and zines
• Reply to all my e-mails, very often I discover new material trying to solve someone's problem(s) or someone shares knowledge with me
• Visit all of the blogs on my blogroll which have an "UPDATED" next to them
• Visit some of the blogs on the bottom of my blogroll (my blogroll places the most recently updated ones at the top and this is largely a house cleaning measure)
• Google® and Dogpile® at least one subject making sure I accept duplication as confirmation and not a frustration

Today, for example, I am reading Amy Gahran's Newsletter. Amy is known for her blog, Contentious, which shares the name with her e-mail newsletter. She has a long reading list at del.icio.us and shared her most read in the last newsletter.

Amy is a professional writer, editor and consultant. I mentioned above that I try and not let duplication frustrate me. If you are going to do digging on the Internet, especially using the more common search engines such as Google®, you must accept it. However, when I replicate items on Amy's list it is a confirmation that I am reading the right material.

I found that I was already aware of five of her top 20. They are:

• Researchbuzz.org - An online publication about search engines and online research. I knew of this one from reading about it in The Invisible Web, which is one of the methods of discovery I mentioned above.
• Online Journalism Review - The title is self-descriptive. I do not recall where I found this one.
• The Onion - A parody news site. I am not positive but I am willing to bet money that I first heard of this one through the #lockergnome channel as I did fark.com.
• Podcasting News - One of two sites I have regarding Podcasting which is something I wanted to look into. The other is dopplerRadio. I know doppler was recommended in a blog by usrbingeek and, I believe, I got the podcastingnews link while chatting in lockergnome.
• John Battelle's SearchBlog - My girlfriend sent me this link in an e-mail. I don't know where she found it and I don't know how I missed it.

Amy also has a few I added to either my bookmarks and/or my blogroll. Here they are and what they led to:

• Center for Democracy & Technology
• The Creative Librarian
• Cutting Through - "helping you cut through the information and technology clutter"
• Designing for a Civil Society
• How to Save the World - Dave Pollard's papers on business innovation & knowledge management
• Hypergene - "News from the bottom up"
• Knowledge Jolt with Jack
• Mathemagenic - An information/education junkie! Very kewl.
• Micropersuasion - Steve Rubel's Blog

The next step is to "spider" from here. By that, I mean to check out all of the links on the new sites Amy has discovered for me. I also made sure I got her OPML list for all her RSS feeds and podcasts. Kudos to Amy Gahran and others like her.

I am Cyber Surfing out of here,
l8tr,
Lumpy