Ryan Has El ノート, Blog Lensing

Posted by - September 21, 08

How many of bloggers read other blogs in abundance, totali I know? I’m not sure where “reading other blogs more than writing your own” stands in the sphere, but I don’t find it negative, other than being extremely time-consuming.

Presumably, most who do are of the nu-school bloggers or writers of highly-meta blogs, such as the infamous アニ・ノート. While some of the big names (RC, Memento, Hop Step Jump!) may read here and there, I don’t think they have a large feed list (do they read their blogroll?).

Get Meta, with Google Reader

The great thing about アニ・ノート is that it acts as a [meta] filter for the otakuken. By paying attention to Author’s posts, a wide variety of the community is put into context, and much of the hassle about checking the reader for articles is taken away. Still, Author is one man, and the variety keeps growing.

I surely do not know the weight of Google Reader, it seems fine, but I definitely prefer software applications [opposed to cloud]. What interests me is the noting portal、or clippings; yes this is similar to Google Notebook, but more applicable for what I’m aiming at. For the bloggers who read blogs, it’s time for Notes.

RyanAround

This is Space Meta

What Google Reader enables one to do is make noise notes on entries, cut up the entries, and share them into a public feed. O_O! Think about that, reading and noting (not blogging). If there was a group of 5-10 people, each subscribed to 50 feeds, with 20% overlap, they can cover anywhere from 200-400 feeds. Mixing in the notes, if one were to subscribe to their note feeds, how much ground would they be covering, or filtering?

This is a meta-step back from commenting, I think that’s important, because a comment is a conversation within the context, and a note is more like a reflection about the context. In the case of finding what [and possibly more important] to read, with less effort, the outer-context is much more useful.

Implementation

Being feed crazy on Aloe, Dream, I decided to pin my own note-feed to things. Hopefully, those who read blogs may start noting as well, because I’d really like to see how condensed the information and variety can get.

13 Comments on Ryan Has El ノート, Blog Lensing

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  1. Author says:

    I do not understand the last paragraph: “I decided to pin my own note-feed to things. Hopefully, those who read blogs may start noting as well, because I’d really like to see how condensed the information and variety can get.” You cannot know that anyone shared anything, except by watching Referrer: in server logs for pictures they hotlink, assuming someone actually visits what’s shared. But there’s no other, more direct indicator, as far as I can tell.

  2. Ryan A says:

    This is true, in that way, but the idea is to share your note feeds, almost as if it was the blog’s feed (optional feed). At the time, there is no way the google’s system notifies the original blog source, which is terrible. For now, the feed is nearly a one-way mirror.

    I don’t know the ins-and-outs of WordPress, or the way trackbacks are implemented, but I’m sure there is a way bloggers can be notified when someone makes a note in Google Reader.

    Google will likely implement it, but a 3rd party app would also work.

  3. omo says:

    That would rock. Actually use google reader extensively but when I “share with note” it’s with a very specific audience in mind (RL friends) so I’m not sure how well it works out.

    The bigger issue is that there is still no standardization with this kind of information sharing, and too few people don’t even use feeds to keep up on things.

    And of course there’s still a matter of time and effort. I’m basically at a threshold that I can care less or I don’t have the time to keep up with everything. Partly why I use something like google reader in the first place.

  4. Ryan A says:

    omo, ^^ overload compensation is part of the idea. By having a group of people reading a few different blogs, then noting stuff, the load is shared and relevance should become more precise. Of course, it would be nice if the group had similar tastes, or at least knew others well enough to Share with Note for a reason.

    Author’s blog is truly important for that fact. If I only subscribed to his blog, I’d still have a large slice of the picture, because it is meta.

  5. omo says:

    To pick on Author for a bit; I too subscribe to his blog but maybe 1 out of 10 posts I find his note + entry relevant to the degree that validates the notes bit, as a way to put different entries together. About 5 out of 10 times I will read or have read the same blog entries he makes a note of regardless if I read his notes. Maybe 2 or 3 out of 10 times he refers to a blog I don’t keep track of and I read it, but it’s only because I’ve never heard of that blog before. 1 out of 20 or 30 times is when he covers a blog I would see from a feed listing but I didn’t bother to click on it and get at least the microcontent beyond the post title.

    I guess what I am saying is there’s a thin line between a comment and pulling out a blog post for further passing-it-along. If you all you do is the latter then it’s like subscribing to another person’s feed. And to some extent, why not? Just make your comment at the blogger who wrote the actual post worth talking about.

  6. Ryan A says:

    Valid argument, I think it has to do with style. There is a line in which these notes I speak of, or Author’s posts, could be better as a comment “in the conversation.” It’s tough to judge, but I think it will ultimately take adjusting.

    I’m not saying abandon the blogroll for a few feeds of individuals blog-lenses, at least not yet. In a way, these notes are more like micro sales-pitches on why the entry should be noted (good or bad); it’s highly subjective. So meta, it hurts.

    There is no reason to avoid the comment, but I will look into a system which enables a pingback to the content, when a note is made. My initial thought was that these meta-feeds could stand as their own gateway to an array of blogs, for those who do not actually subscribe or read those blogs. Feed aggregators do just this, but without the human filtering/bias/opinion and they accumulate every feed by default.

  7. Michael says:

    This is just my two cents, but I simply comment on the post I’ve read. :S

  8. Ryan says:

    Michael, that’s the idea, but just up one level. It is a metafeed of what a blogger reads (in my case). So if I read something that has a useful/interesting perspective, I hope to note it after reading. It’s like a pitch, so maybe someone else might read it. Not saying that I won’t comment as well, but sometimes we don’t have responses in conversation with the author, so I’ve coded a pingback that can notify them.

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