Buzz

The greatest thing to come from Google Buzz is the uptick in Google Reader sharing. That and the random connections that it brings. Somehow, I am following all of Chris Blattman's shared items and he's following mine. Ha.

Information Anxiety

The Internet makes available a lot of information, and its democratizing effect really is unbelievable. If you are at all curious about or hungry for what is out there, though, the sheer amount and variety of information can be overwhelming.

So this is my plug for Google Reader. It takes a modest amount of time to familiarize yourself with all of the tools, but it allows you to conveniently centralize your information consumption and to keep up with sources that you might not visit with high frequency.

The information flow is still a bit overwhelming. I currently have 256 new items. But Google Reader allows you to manage the flow with some efficiency. The function that I am most excited about is the "Share" function. Rather than have an anonymous crowd filter Internet content, you can have those people whose opinions you respect and interests you share perform a filtering function. In this way, you get to see quality articles that you would never have seen otherwise. Plus, the "Share" function doubles as an archiving tool.

Now, the thing to do is get on Google Reader and find a group of people that will actively share. As with all network ideas, the "Share" function becomes effective only after reaching some critical mass. I have not reached the critical mass yet, and that is why I am writing this entry.

Bringing my connectivity up a notch...Many thanks to one James and one Benjamin for directing me to Google Reader.

Online Community

I picked up a print edition of the New York Times today. It was a refreshing change from reading the Internet version. Its flimsy, cumbersome pages so tactile, so present in my hands. Needless to say, browsing a print edition is decidedly different from browsing a web page. With a hard copy, you are forced to see an article in visual context, which in turn directs your attention to articles you wouldn't otherwise notice, whereas you are only able to read a full article online in isolation of other stories. The experience is substantively different.

It got me thinking, though. Ever since graduating from college, I have spent a ton more time online than ever before. Why?

1) Community. At a small residential college like Swarthmore, you are much more a member of your immediate community. Now, deprived of that tight-knit and physically-bounded community, I use the Internet to leapfrog my more immediate physical surroundings. I don't know the names of any of my neighbors sadly enough.

2) Information consumption. In an academic setting, information tends to flow in the context of human-to-human interactions. In the classroom. In the dormitory lounge or hallway. Now, information streams to me overwhelmingly via digital signal. Online periodicals. Recorded lectures. Blogs.

3) Increasingly sedentary life. If you are working any kind of white-collar, entry-level job, then your circumstances almost certainly dictate that you spend more time sitting in one place than ever before. The Internet provides a convenient way to feign hard work.

I can't quite pinpoint what I want to say in this entry, but I think I am beginning to see the Internet and connectivity in a different way. Web 2.0?

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I spend a lot of time on NYTimes.com. I used to be a big fan of their feature that allowed you to save a page under "My Saved Pages." It was like a scrapbook of my favorite news clippings, making it super easy to pull up old articles and also to see what other people had deemed worthy of saving. Recently, the website eliminated this feature. WHY? How do other people archive or flag articles that they want to store away for some reason or another? (Seriously, I want to hear answers.)

The other feature I really like on NYTimes.com is looking at the articles under their "Most E-mailed" or "Most Discussed" tabs. These tabs help differentiate the overwhelming amount of information in a self-sorting way. Essentially, they crowd-source the arbitration of quality, which is no easy task. Not really a novel thing at all, but when I think critically about the way I surf the Internet, I think that my methods are lacking. I don't think I use the Internet to its full potential. E-mail. Online Banking. NYTimes.com. Wikipedia. Amazon. Various blogs. Pretty much, that is the extent of my Internet use.

It seems like differentiating quality through a crowd-sourcing mechanism is exactly what Digg does. Cool idea that I am currently looking into. Seriously, I need to reconsider my surfing methods and bring my connectivity to a new level. Especially considering the amount of time I spend online. Yeah, I'm ready to elevate things.