Why should I buy a newsreader?
I now start my day with a quick power read of the Internet.
Since I
started blogging and acquired a newsreader (Shrook for the Mac), I
read about 90 blogs, including RSS feeds for
magazines like
Wired and newspapers like The Wall Street Journal. People are shocked
when they hear that I am reading so many things. But it takes me about
half an hour and I find that I can get the news I need for my work and
uncover morsels of valuable knowledge along the way.
I start by reading the 15 weblogs now being written by people
associated with my business. I read Pingwellesley
and a few Wellesley bloggers whom I know and like. Pre-blogging, it
would have taken me at least 10 phone calls or 50 emails to get caught
up.
I then read a collection of personal blogs from
Esther
Dyson, Wonkette, Dave Winer, Andrew Grumet, Steve
Bayle, Howard
Rheingold.
This takes me about ten minutes, as I am scanning headlines and only
clicking through to those things that I think will be interesting or
relevant to my current work. I usually find something that I end up
writing about in my blog. My blog then becomes a central digest of what
I am learning. As I make my way through my day I often refer back to
previously blog entries, so my blog also becomes a reference source.
This saves me the time of having to track down the references from
multiple locations.
I am a Mac fanatic so I read a
few Mac sites, including iPod Lounge
where I can fantasize about iPod paraphenalia. Yesterday I found a
purse/boombox combo where you plug your iPod into the purse and convert
it into a boombox.
To power read the web, you will
need a
special RSS newsreader or aggregator that will allow you to collect and
display RSS feeds. There are many newsreaders available and many are
free.
