The Steve Rubel Stream

Insights on emerging technologies and trends.

Why I am Forking my Content

I have been writing a weblog for five years now - and it's been very good to me. However, my job at Edelman is to remain at the cutting edge and to advise major marketers on what's next. This means I must experiment and evolve or I will die.

Every great artist reinvents him/herself. I am not a great artist. But I admire musicians like Sting who try new genres like classical or Will Smith who dabbles in drama. I need to do the same when it comes to emerging technology, otherwise I will get stale.

So here's how I am planning to fork my content (unless you vehemently all disagree) ...

Micro Persuasion :: My existing blog will become a place for "best of" essays (weekly or a few times a month). These will be longer think pieces and essays about emerging technology trends and their impact on media, culture and marketing. Basically, it's what you get here now. Some will become AdAge columns and vice versa. (RSS feed)

The Steve Rubel Lifestream :: This site will have a lot more - and it will be daily. Content will include the full text of the essays published on my existing blog but also brief insights, observations, links, photos, videos and more about emerging technology. I may even do audio too since the Posterous feed by default is a podcast. I am inspired by the incredible flexibility of the Posterous platform and I plan to use it to the full extent with my iPhone, especially for video. I recommend you join me over there since it's going to be where I publish the most. (RSS feed)

Twitter :: I will continue to share links on Twitter (and not just links back to these sites), but begin to use it more for conversation around the links so that I get smarter. Net, expect the same here as what I do now.

Friendfeed :: This is where you can get all my stuff (and more) and talk about it too. I plan to engage here as I have been. I am on Facebook too, but I limit my network to only those who I have met face-to-face or corresponded with.

I have given this a lot of thought. A part of me just says autop-ublish everything I post to my Lifestream site to here, but that will just create two carbon copies of the same. I want to create a distinct purpose for each site. I may merge the sites and feeds eventually. And I am sure some of you will think this is crazy because of the Google Juice my blog has, but it feels like it's time to branch out.

For more on my strategy, see this interview I gave via email to Peter Himler. Also, this related thread from Louis Gray is relevant too. Of course, if you have thoughts, leave them here, there or anywhere!
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Posted 8 months ago
16 comments
Jun 25, 2009
Mike DeLuise said...
Steve, what do you do in your spare time?
Jun 25, 2009
Alan Weinkrantz said...
I like the metaphor of "forking..." I guess it's a case of certain content is ready at different degrees and for different reasons
Jun 25, 2009
Steve Rubel said...
@Mike, sleep.
Jun 25, 2009
Tish Shute said...
I am very happy to see you doing this. I like my Posterous a lot too but it is hard to give up the google juice my long form blog has (and it is just a drop compared to yours!). But I am also into cultivating the rewards of a forked content stream. I look forward to following your new directions.
Jun 25, 2009
Steve Rubel said...
@Tish, I agree but in my case it's not all about the Google Juice. I won't be imprisoned by it. What's more, Google will eventually follow me here and I am basically maintaining the other site with the same frequency of content. It was time for something new.
Jun 25, 2009
I've been thinking about this a lot myself. My solution: Use the specialized publishing channels--Flickr for Photos, twitter for thoughts and links--, collect and edit everything on the mother ship (here's the beta version: http://67.202.73.2/~informat/).

The only thing that still gives me a headache is how to deal with comments; I don't want comments on my articles anymore (after 20 comments thing usually get erratic). There is no flickr for UX discussions; disqus doesn't cut it for me. Currently I'm thinking about creating an uxforum on a separate site and place a link on each article that says: "Discuss this on xyz.com". What's your take on the whole blog-commenting problematic?

Jun 25, 2009
Hemant Puthli said...
Good move!

I came to a fork too, a month ago, and like you (and Yogi Berra) I took it - separated my less frequent essay-type content (at blogger) from my more frequent short updates (at posterous).

To paraphrase what you wrote: every great blogger reinvents him/herself. I am not a great blogger, but I admire great bloggers like you.

Please continue the good work - I wish you the very best!

Jun 25, 2009
sriks7 said...
The only problem I see is collating the comments from these mutiple places.
I think a lot of the conversation are going to get fragmented unless you specify one as the primary place (I would suggest friendfeed)
Jun 25, 2009
Steve Rubel said...
DIsqus integration could help here
Jun 25, 2009
Ken Donofrio said...
So, just to get this straight, this will be the new Lifestream link. What about "Faves?" I'm a fellow media &marketing guy and really like your feeds.
Jun 25, 2009
Steve Rubel said...
Faves are curated from my Google Reader and will stay the same.
Jun 26, 2009
Kyle said...
Hey Steve - Follow your work closely. Think you're leading the way again. I started using posterous recently after seeing you and other media (Steve Hamm and Baker) get into it. Such a useful way to share from any platform, what ever type or length of content you want to.
Jun 26, 2009
Steve Rubel said...
Thanks Kyle.
Jun 26, 2009
Bruce Winter said...
How long does it take for Posterous to respond to first post? Tried it with pics and text, nothing happening? Suggestions? Certainly not instantly as advertised. Part of this leading edge stuff that is maddening!
Jun 26, 2009
Bruce Winter said...
Hey Steve further to comment above. Posterous says email us as method to sign up, then two pages deep traditional sign up. Which is it? Real confusing, eh first step, first impression. And still no response to my inital email. Yep I'm, real impatient, which of course is not making anything proceed. However all of this needs to be better, even on the leading edge. If this were the breaks in your car, well, even Jarvis wouldn't buy a googley car like that !
Jun 27, 2009
Steve Rubel said...
Bruce email them at help@posterous.com. They are very responsive.

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