Thought Stream

Like most information junkies, I’ve regularly added feeds to my Google Reader simply because the author may have had one, or two, interesting posts that managed to catch my eye. Adding a couple every month, while not removing any, has led to total information overload. At last count, I had nearly 300 feeds plugged into my Google Reader. Most of those feeds aren’t very active, but the volume of information that arrived throughout the day eventually got to be so much that I had to take the decision to assess the real value of each feed. As a result, I’ve begun to pare down my feeds by using certain rules. One rule that has worked effectively for me is consolidating to one ‘master’ feed on certain topics. A good example is the gadget space. Engadget is the undisputed king. While the other gadget sites do cover the space slightly differently, I couldn’t see the reason to be plugged into Gizmodo, CrunchGear, and the others in this area. On an average day Engadget floods my reader with posts about most everything I would want to know about. On good days Peter, Ryan and Co. give us the best coverage of events on the web. That’s good enough for my gadget fix. So, I’ve dropped the other gadget sites, and reduced my gadget load substantially. I have kept extraneous gadget sites like Gear Diary and The Gadgeteer because they cover the space from a totally different perspective.

Another rule that I’ve adopted is that, although I’m a quick subscriber to a blog, I will quickly unsubscribe if the topics venture way off base. The exception to this rule are those blogs that are truly personal. Many of those personal blogs are the most fascinating ones in the blogosphere. And, since my own blog tends to meander a bit, I figured I should allow other personal bloggers the same latitude that I give myself.

I’ve also dropped almost all of my Getting Things Done (GTD) based subscriptions. Reading about the latest quasi-GTD tool, or some oddball hacked version of GTD has gotten to be really boring. Now true lifehack sites, like Merlin Mann’s 43Folders and Lifehack are keepers. There is always a nugget of wisdom or two on these feeds.

The last two months have been quite busy, as some substantial changes are underway both personally and professionally. Unfortunately, I’ve neglected this blog somewhat, a situation that is about to dramatically change. When I first started to write my thoughts online, I tried to stay away from posts that covered issues that were closely tied to me professionally. I’ve mostly focused on interesting technologies and gadgets that were on the periphery, but were cool or interesting things to write about. All fun stuff, but not really the thought leadership focus that I wanted this space to reflect. The blog’s intended voice hasn’t truly been reflected in the last two years. Going forward, that will change. While I will still write about those ‘geeky’ things, I will increase my focus on a wide range of subjects from public policy and international affairs, to core professional subjects like organizational strategy and my observations on the major technology trends that are reshaping our lives.

Several things you’ll notice in the coming days include the three ‘visual’ changes listed here:

First, the header. After much hesitation, and pushed by a lot of encouragement from colleagues and friends, I’ve decided to elevate my presence by changing the header. If you’re reading this through a feed reader, visit the site and you’ll see the difference.

Second, I will be adding a ‘Featured Posts’ tab on the menu as soon as I upgrade Wordpress. Longer and more substantive entries will be easily accessible from this new tab. For those of you who are interested, the Wordpress module that enables this feature can be accessed at Alex King’s site.

Third, I’ve temporarily removed the link to a photo section. This is due to some compatibility issues with Wordpress and the gallery module that I was using. I hope to have that link back up soon.

Fourth, I’ve integrated my twitter feed into the navigation area of the blog. I haven’t really twitter’ed that much, and since tweets are often inane and pointless, I’ve not integrated them into my RSS feed.

Finally, the changes to this blog aren’t just cosmetic. While I still plan to write about some of the most interesting trends in technology, the breadth of my posts is about to dramatically expand. Hopefully, you’ll find the topics interesting.

It’s been awfully busy over the last month, but I’ll be back online in a few days…