Posts tagged as: readinglist

Is there an optimal size for a reading list?

I was reading Jim Moore's blog for the first time, and I came across this recommendation in his instructions for new users of OPML reading lists:

I've seen this idea before and it's always puzzled me. Amy Bellinger makes the same point: And so does Dave Winer:One issue may be the technical problem of an aggregator not being able to load too many feeds at once. The solution to that problem is to try a different aggregator. I just tested Anne Zelenka's BlogHer reading list in BlogBridge, and it took under 60 seconds to open 129 blogs and read 1,525 posts. Waiting a minute doesn't sound excessive, and posts were visually loading the whole time, so it was clear that the program was still working. I don't think that experience would scare any user away.

I'm sure Jim, Amy and Dave have the user's best interests in mind, but saying people will be intimidated by more than a dozen feeds is rather patronizing. It's like telling students "now don't read too many books on a subject, or you'll get overwhelmed." That is a very individual preference. What is too many books to buy when you want to learn about all the new Web 2.0 technologies? I don't know, but I can count over 50 on my bookshelves. How many books should I buy to learn about philosophy? 100? 200? I'm sure I bought more than that while I was studying history of science. (You probably thought I was going to drop the H-bomb again, didn't you?)

Maybe a better solution would be to signal the user on what to expect before they open an OPML file. I support the tradition of listing the file size next to links for big files, like videos or .mp3s. It could be a good idea if links to reading lists were followed with something like: "(100 feeds)." Then the users could decide for themselves if 10 feeds was optimal.

Update: Amyloo clarifies her comments: it's not my aggregator that stumbles when it gets fed a list yielding 1,500 posts; it's my brain." Her aggregator may not choke when it sees that many feeds, but it clearly isn't giving her a presentation that augments her brain. I still think it is a problem that can be solved with software, perhaps a good feed grazing tool, when it is available. The goal should be to allow users to comprehend and manipulate more information, not to restrict the available information to our inherent limits. I couldn't write papers of any serious length during college, so I switched my major from English to Chemistry. After college there were word processors, and I started writing books.

Feed Grazing Workgroup

I've been using this term as a joke for the last week or so, but today it really seems to be coming true. Things have grown from the "isn't this cool" stage to what does it all mean, how can it work better, and what should it look like.

Reading list podcast

I did a podcast today with Josh Porter, Alex Barnett, and Danny Ayers. It was a lot of fun, especially because of the great mixture of accents. We discussed RSS, OPML, reading lists and feed grazing. We also explored the idea of OPML as a transition to the Semantic Web. It got pretty geeky, but I guess that was to be expected. All of the details are on Alex's blog.

Danny talks quite a bit about the benefits of RDF over OPML, and if you want to know more about this format after listening to the podcast, you should get the book he wrote with Andrew Watt. It's the best explanation available of the history of RSS related formats, and goes into great detail on programming with these formats in several common languages.

Grazing ON feeds versus grazing IN feeds

I can now see where the distinction lies between my original idea of a river of feeds and the notion of feed grazing by James Corbett. The difference is the target of consumption. I saw dynamic reading lists as a way of finding new feeds. Instead of searching them out, I could let a dynamic reading list bring them to me like a river flowing past my house. When a feed looked interesting, I could read the most recent posts without having to subscribe. If I wanted to subscribe to it, I could just drag and drop it into my permament subscription list. My model was using a dynamic reading list as a sampling method.

James was more interested in using reading lists as a way of finding interesting posts. The feeds in the list were branches on the tree that allowed him to reach tasty new acorns. He was thinking of a reading list as a browsing method. Joshua Porter was making the same point as James when he wrote that he was more interested in the post than the actual feed.

I visualize this difference as a matter of topology. I wanted to find new containers (feeds) of information that I could continue to look in for a changing set of information. James and Josh wanted to look inside the containers to find interesting items (posts) without having to worry about the original location (feed) in which they were found.

Dynamic reading lists just got easier to read

BlogBridge version 2.13 has just been released, making it a lot easier to view dynamic reading lists in OPML. It is free and supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. There are plenty of RSS aggregators that allow you to import OPML files as a quick way of subscribing to a large number of feeds, but these are basically a static form of subscription. BlogBridge, on the other hand, is able to stay in synch with the original OPML. If you subscribe to an OPML file on a server, and the contents of the file changes, then the set of feeds that show up in BlogBridge also changes. This is what separates a reading list from a regular OPML file. The internal format isn't different in a reading list, it is the fact that the contents of the file changes over time that makes an OPML file into a dynamic reading list.

It isn't completely obvious how to open an OPML file as a reading list in BlogBridge, as opposed to just subscribing to all of the file's feeds, so here are the basic steps:

1. Select 'Add Guide' from the Guides menu.
2. Enter a title for the new Guide.
3. Select the 'Reading List' tab.
4. Click the '+' button.
5. Enter the URL of a reading list. If you can't find one to try, you can get started with the one I have created based on Tech Memorandum.
6. Click 'Check and Add'.
7. Click 'Add'.
8. When the new Guide appears, all of the feeds listed in the reading list will be read, and the feed items will then appear.

By default, BlogBridge only checks for new contents in the reading list when it is first run. This is fine if you tend to start the program, read some feeds, and then close it. If you keep the program open, as I do, you will probably want to tell it to recheck the contents of the OPML regularly and resynch to match. This is done by:

1. Selecting 'Preferences' from the Tools menu.
2. Clicking the 'Reading Lists' tab.
3. Changing the 'Check for changed Reading Lists' setting to 'Once per Day' or 'Once per Hour.'

My enthusiasm on this subject has prompted some emails asking if I have a financial interest in promoting BlogBridge and reading lists, and the answer is no, although I am friends with Pito Salas, BlogBridge's project leader. I am actively looking for other aggregators that support OPML reading lists, so if you know of one, let me know about it and I'll be glad to write it up. I've said before that I believe RSS is a key component of the Web's future growth, and OPML reading lists are a great way of delivering RSS.

Reading list icon

There is already an OPML icon that can be used for links to reading lists, but just as with the RSS icon, I'd prefer something with a little more meaning and a lot less geek. The Blogbridge.com site uses this icon, and Pito Salas has kindly agreed to put it into the public domain. One confusion is that there are static reading lists, which are just a list of RSS feeds that doesn't change, and also dynamic reading lists, which are generally the result of automatic scripts. We eventually need icons that differentiate the two. For now I'll use this icon solely for dynamic reading lists, since those are the type I'm most interested in. One example is Danny Ayers' Del.icio.us reading list. As I find lists like this on the Web, I'll build a link list on my navbar.

Danny Ayers builds a reading list about reading lists

Danny has created an automatically updating reading list based on the Del.icio.us tags "readinglist+tech". I wonder if any of the reading list posts in this reading list reference reading lists? If automatic inclusion gets turned on for these lists dangerous things could happen. Of course, he has to make the obligatory "RSS sucks but I'll use it anyway" comment. Yes, RSS sucks and OPML sucks even more, but reading lists are cool. I'm glad Danny doesn't let the suckage of the spec get in the way of the coolness of the app.

Meanwhile, James Corbett has thrown out a little snark bait by saying that feed grazing is really Web 3.0. Come on now, Jimmy boy, that's just asking for trouble.

Giving James Corbett proper credit

I have a feeling that 'feed grazing' is going to catch on, both the term and the underlying idea of reading feeds based on continually changing OPML files. Since the origin of common phrases is often a source of controversy, I wanted to nail this one down before everyone is using it. Danny Ayers' reported it as appearing in a comment on his blog from James Corbett on February 6th, which is true, but the better and earlier source is a post James made on his own EirePreneur blog on January 31st. I also discovered that James coined the term "river of feeds" on his blog two days before I used it on my mashup blog. Damn. I was feeling so good about coming up with that. Anyway, it is good to set the record straight. Now everyone will know where to look when the Wikipedia article is written.

As long as I'm pointing to James' blog, let me link to one more great post in which he compares Steve Gillmor to James Joyce.

I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more feeds!

I've been accused of being obsessive, but I can't help it. I gotta have more feeds. This whole subject of real-time feed aggregation, or feed grazing as it's now being called, has really caught my imagination. So I've been looking for something that will cure my fever. I haven't found an aggregator that will satisfy my craving completely, but there are a number of websites that demonstrate the type of interface I need. I'll list them in the hopes that someone will build an OPML capable aggregator with this type of presentation:

• AliveNews has a cool realtime display, but it must be a proof of concept rather than a real site, because it doesn't have any options for expanding the list of pre-defined feeds. Still, the fade-in of feed excerpts is sweet.
• Digg spy is really compelling for the ADD set, but it isn't a true feed aggregator, and it makes me twitch if I watch it for too long.
• LiveMarks by Alex Bosworth applies a different take on this type of presentation to Delicious bookmarks. (via ProgrammableWeb)

Grazing, Feed Jockey, Fire Hose: Is a new RSS paradigm forming?

Anne Zelenka has once again managed to consolidate a disparate group of phenomena into a coherent pattern. This time it is the idea of automated OPML reading lists like my little Memeorandum experiment. What I like is the new terms she notes that are being used to describe this practice, such as Danny Ayers' grazing, Pito Salas' feed jockey, Amy Bellinger's churning urns of burning funk and Dave Winer's virtual publications. All of this new slang indicates a new paradigm is forming around automated lists of RSS feeds.

Update: 'Grazing' is from a comment James Corbett placed on Danny Ayers' blog: "I'm actually coming to the conclusion that the whole subscriptions mindset is a problem and that in future we'll 'graze' for the most part instead of subscribing."

The ultimate fire hose

I've been having a lot of fun today watching random feeds pass through my Tech Memeorandum reading list. Wait a minute, that is kind of sad isn't it? Anyway, this type of automated aggregation from a meme hunter is the ultimate fire hose. There is something almost illicit about having all these feeds pass by. It is qualitatively different from choosing to subscribe to feeds. I never know what I'll find. Shelley Power's comment feed just passed by for some reason.

I already have over 150 feeds that I'm subscribed to, and I'd pretty much stopped adding to them, because I feel guilty when I have to flush a whole bunch of unread posts away. Using an automated reading list and an aggregator like BlogBridge allows me to read feeds I've never seen before with no guilt. I don't care if they disappear on the next hourly refresh, because new ones will take their place. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is famous for saying that you can never step into the same river twice. I think Heraclitus would have liked this new model of a river of feeds. See, I knew my History of Science education would be useful someday.

I finally grok OPML reading lists

The best way for me to understand a new software technology is to start writing code that supports it. I finally did that with OPML reading lists, and as Marc Canter would say, it is coolio! You can find all the details on my mashup blog. The short version of the story is that an OPML file based on all of the blogs cited on Tech Memeorandum is generated every hour and placed here where you can grab it and use it as a reading list. I poke fun at Dave Winer from time to time, but I can see that OPML reading lists really do take RSS to the next level. Good work Dave, and this time I'm around to see that your role doesn't get erased from history.

OPML is popping up everywhere

Now that I've started looking at OPML, I'm discovering a lot more activity all around me. When talking to Pito this morning about the next Geek Dinner, he pointed out that he's just added the ability to publish OPML reading lists to his BlogBridge aggregator. I've been using BlogBridge as my RSS aggregator for a couple of weeks, and its great for managing lots of feeds. I'll have to try out his new OPML features and report back. By the time we get to February 15th, we may have to call it an OPML Dinner.

Time to start working with OPML

Anyone reading Scripting News can see that Dave has been working overtime lately to generate momentum behind reading lists and OPML. I've been holding back until the conventions solidify around something closer to a standard, but Anne Zelenka's description of her OPML project makes me realize that the train is leaving the station. Time to get aboard everyone.