Crowd SourcingToday we are faced with many social-info options. Gathering interesting news items has never been easier. With a little effort, you can build a dynamic web of information based on your interests. You no longer have to follow the crowd.

Many of us start with seeding our RSS Readers with hand-picked writers, blogs and news networks that meet our personal interests. The next step is joining social-net sites that thrive on compelling conversation though info-bulletins and posts. As communities grow it can get harder to sift through noise and find the articles that matter to you. It takes some work to keep the flow of data from becoming too wide (unless that's your goal.) At first, I love seeing everything that members are sharing. I start trimming back and tuning more intently on voices that appeal to me within a couple of months of monitoring the fire hose.

FriendFeed is still my favorite gathering place for interesting discoveries and engaged conversation. After tweaking the stream through the use of various filters, FriendFeed can be an invaluable resource. I understand that I'm the only person in the world looking for exactly the same thing as me. I tend not to look at what was most popular on FriendFeed as a way of discovering new items. The most "liked" items favor funny posts. If you need a good chuckle, you really can't beat some of the hilarious pictures, memes or videos that the crowd votes for. Mona N's ESC Key post made me laugh-out loud! The humor trend of FriendFeed is geeky-techy which I'm a big fan of. I rely on the people I've chosen to follow for feeds of the most interesting items (to me.)

The top items on Digg tend to be a cross between National Enquirer and Cracked Magazine. Digg has a younger crowd and I understand that. I'm not going there to learn anything deep. I take it at face value when venturing over there. Popular social sites are not unlike talk-radio- the vast majority of listeners never call-in. Some of the hyper-active users on Digg, like talk-radio participants, lean towards conspiracy. I can't always trust the "crowd" at Digg. This is not to say that everything on Digg is outrageous. I've often been pleasantly shocked by the items that the Diggnation has made popular.

I've been a long time subscriber of the Popular Bookmarks on Delicious. Delicious users are heavy tech users, designers and researchers. I usually find something intriguing in that stack. I'm a fan of the tagging and quick-load interface of Delicious. Here are the items I've bookmarked on Delicious.

Really exciting developments are being made in the area of the Semantic Web. Services like Twine learn my interests and bring back spot-on articles. Twine is not for the faint of heart though. They are still working on load time. The first time I logged into Twine I found Twines (subject groupings) on Ontology, Astro-Physics, A.I. and Future Tech. If you're interested in Twine, a good place to start is their overview.

If you want to go even deeper with your research, new tools like DeepDyve will help you. The options to find smart info are increasing every day. I'm just glad to be living in these times where we all have access to great knowledge.

I like to mingle with many types of crowds. I gain insights from everyone. Crowds tend to be driven by people who are passionate about their interests. Get in there and mix it up a bit but know that crowds can also lead you astray. Stay focused, adjust your feeds, try different social gatherings.

If you've discovered a hidden gem or care to recommend a smart-gathering, please let me know. I'm always on the hunt for brain tingling fun.

msw




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