The Steve Rubel Stream

23 Jul 2009

Introducing the Steve Rubel Linkstream - a Social News Site

It's been about a month since I went all lifestream on you and, so far, in my view it's been a success. I have been posting daily and, thanks to the elegance of Posterous, have been experimenting in new ways. My traffic, engagement and subscribers are all way up.

When I started I promised that I would use the stream to continuously experiment with new technologies, bringing you along for the journey. This is easy since a lifestream sits between a blog and a tweet in format and approach.

With this in mind I am today rolling out The Steve Rubel Linkstream - a social news site. It's powered by Slinkset, which Posterous recently acquired.

The Linkstream initially will pull from my shared links on Google Reader and anything I have starred on Instapaper. You can vote any of these items up/down and comment on as well. As technologies and/or trends rise to the top quickly I will consider taking a deeper look at it on the lifestream site - most likely through experimenting.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. At some point I might open it up to other editorial contributors as well. (Note that some of the links might be old as the site populates my archived Google Reader items).

18 Jul 2009

Initial Impressions: Lazyfeed Discovery Engine

This morning I received an invitation to Lazyfeed, which debuted at the TechCrunch event last week. Louis Gray has been playing with it and likes what he sees. Here are my initial impressions. Screen grabs follow.

Pros:

It's a great way to discover new content to either read or eventually share with others. Just type in a tag and, boom, you're off
If you connect your various streams it will automatically surface relevant content for you, based on what you already share - such as this interview with our eBay client, RBH
I can see making this part of my lifestream workflow, right alongside Zemanta

Cons:

It lacks, however, the ability to email content directly from the app into something else like Evernote or Posterous or sharing tools that let me push stuff into Twitter, Facebook, etc
It does not have a mobile interface or iPhone app
It needs a way to integrate with other applications like Postrank or Backtype so that it surfaces new content by engagement, not just keywords. Also, I would love to see it slurp in my Google Reader OPML the way Feedly can

Overall, it's pretty strong. I found some great content such as how to get your Gmail Task list outside of Gmail and more. If you're an information junkie that's looking for more signal, less noise, sign up and give Lazyfeed a go. It's not replacing

Lifestreaming Lessons - a 90-Day Report

As many of you are aware, three months ago I did something that some considered virtual heresy. After five years and 5300 posts I shuttered my blog, Micro Persuasion, in favor of this lifestream. I set out to find a middle ground between a blog and a tweet. I longed for a new approach where I could post shorter items, more often and in more visual and creative ways. I wanted to establish a place where we could probe technology - like Da Vinci once did on his own - but do so together and daily. Posterous has done a great job on the tech side, but I want to elevate my game.

So far, I am extremely pleased with my approach, but I am never one to be satisfied. The basic formula is working well. I use this site as a launching pad to initiate many of my social streams and then I go and engage in conversations around these out in the hubs where it syndicated. Still, I am also posting content often directly into Facebook and Twitter without starting it here. I may play with the formula so that everything at least begins here.

So what's missing? Well, the content is still too text heavy. Posterous lets you do so many things with audio, video, photos and text. I keep a list of formats I want to try. However, I still resort back to text too often and, what's more, I haven't been able to post daily as I had hoped. I am close, but I can do better.

Last night on the Long Island Railroad I drew up this mindmap in Mindnode on my iPhone. I appreciate alliteration. How would you feel about a structure like this where I theme the content based on the day of the week? Monday we tackle models and/or mindmaps, Tuesday we talk trends, etc. I want to post more often and more creatively than just writing.

28 Sep 2009

A Week in the Clouds Without a Notebook

On average I travel for business about seven to 15 days a month. Sometimes it can get a bit nuts, but I love it - I never get bored. This is one of those weeks. I will literally be in the clouds all week both virtually and physically.

I am starting my journey today in Toronto. Tomorrow I am speaking at the MIXX conference and will also participate in staff, client, industry and press meetings. Wednesday I head to Atlanta for the day for another private event and then right back up to Montreal that night. Thursday I am speaking at MIXX in Montreal. I head home for one night and then do a round-trip from NY to DC on Friday for, yes, another speaking gig. (Map above. I like maps!)

Despite the travel, however, I still need to be productive. I need to stay in touch with my colleagues and clients and also do some writing. Also, I want to stay in touch with you here on my lifestream and on social networks. Mobile technology is my friend here.

I have a couple of different laptops that I take on trips. All of them are light. But you see, I am on a quest. I want ditch my laptop on every trip and only carry a smartphone and my Iamakey for the rest. Right now I have an iPhone 3GS but I may add a Blackberry to complement it. My key files and even some portable apps are encrypted on the USB key.

The reason is simple: all of these devices are pocketable. A laptop isn't. I don't want to carry a laptop because it's mental baggage. I don't want to be thinking about where it is. Smartphones and USB keys are like appendages. I always know where they are. Plus, I know that one day soon we won't need to carry laptops on business trips because these phones - which are really pocket computers - will be able to do it all, including hook up to hotel TVs. I am trying to experience this future now.

I have gone sans laptop on business trips before but this one at three nights is the longest one yet - although I am home for one night in between trips. I have tweaked my setup so that the apps and services I use on my smartphone are identical to what I use on my Mac at home and - to a large degree - my desktop PC at work. I like the simplicity and consistency of it all.

Here's what I using... (workflow below)

Writing and To Do List - WriteRoom (which now has TextExpander support to speed up typing)
Contacts and Calendar - Address Book and iCal, which connect with our Exchange Server
Notes - WriteRoom for temporary storage, Evernote for archiving (more on this in a subsequent post on lifelogging)
Files - Documents to Go, and if necessary, my IamaKey and Box.net/Sharepoint
Mindmapping - Mindjet and Mindnode
RSS - NetNewsWire, which syncs to Google Reader
Twitter - Tweetie
Plus, of course, Posterous and Instapaper for sharing and reading

The only thing I can't do with this setup is create or edit a PowerPoint deck, although I can view them. This is one reason I am considering getting a Blackberry too - you can edit PPT. I don't anticipate I will need to on this trip. However, I will need to write, but I can actually do so on my phone quite comfortably. If some people can write books on cell phones, then I can certainly crank out shorter stuff too.

You probably think I am nuts, but I hate carrying laptops. I have done so for years. I will keep you posted on my progress. Sometimes I am on the road seven or nine days at a time. I don't think I can ditch a laptop on these trips, but this journey might convince me otherwise. Wish me luck.

21 Dec 2009

As the Decade Closes, Has RSS Faded Too?

The decade is coming to an end. And with it, so has the era of feeds too faded - though you can argue it never got off the ground. Even with real-time technologies like pubsubhubbub, RSS today feels slow and it's clear its best days are behind it. Feed reading, like blogging, feels "very 2005." I wasn't convinced until recently, however.

Until a few weeks ago, this die-hard techie was clinging to Google Reader like a disco maniac might his eight-tracks. I felt like the last hold out; the guy still dancing to the Bee Gees when everyone else had gone punk - and maybe I was.

Now, however, slowly but surely I am moving more of my consumption out of RSS and into the Twitter stream. Twitter, not blogs, long ago became the focal point for reading and conversing around news for many. So it's natural, as this report on Read Write Web indicates, that most of us who were even using RSS readers to begin with have ditched them and have moved to tracking news in the stream instead. And we're not alone. According to Forrester, eight percent of US online adults post and read updates on Twitter at least monthly.

Personally, this is something I resisted for three reasons: a) I like full text feeds, b) there was a lack of organization/lists and c) Twitter remains very dependent on "now," making saving and digesting information at a later date in a Tivo-like way all the more difficult. That all changed with the advent of Twitter lists.

Nowadays I am bringing it all into Gmail, which other than my corporate email account is my sole productivity and social Ginsu Knife. I already publish to my Posterous-powered lifestream site via email. Couple that with Twitgether, a full-blown real-time Gmail Twitter client, NutshellMail for tracking social network interactions like replies and Listimonkey to bring me Twitter lists every hour via email (pictured above), my Google Reader is starting to get lonely.

How about you? Are there any die-hard RSS users out there who have not succumb to the stream?

Introducing the Steve Rubel Linkstream - a Social News Site

Initial Impressions: Lazyfeed Discovery Engine

Lifestreaming Lessons - a 90-Day Report

A Week in the Clouds Without a Notebook

As the Decade Closes, Has RSS Faded Too?

Steve Rubel's Posterous

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