How best to seed a feed reader?
I’ve been trying to convey the merits of the blogosphere (I still hate that word) to my girlfriend for some time, and last night, after patiently listening to me ramble on for a bit, she graciously allowed me to sit with me while I attempted cram her feed reader to the brim with all manner of interesting sources that matched her interests, from art history to archeology and back and again. It turns out the dynamics of starting from scratch and finding one really suitable blog on a given topic are a lot harder than I thought, but what the hell, there’s strength in numbers.
The main force of my argument was that if she could just find one or two good sources of compelling content, it would in time lead her to countless others. So much so that she would never be allowed to tell me how bored she was again. One day later, it appears the plan’s already starting to come together. I got an email pointing me to a post she just stumbled across that she thought would interest me. Perfect…
(It turns out I did indeed find the post interesting — only I disagreed with it so vehemently — more on that later — that it stirred up some heated debate over GTalk and I’m not sure quite if she’s talking to me right now.)
The point is, the plan is working. Another former critic of the worthiness of user-generated (like myself) just might be coming around. Not that long ago I finally came around and recognized the value in bottom-up content and the useful filters it can help you create. Thus far it’s proven exceedingly difficult to demonstrate this value to others. Ideas greatly appreciated…