How I entered the blogosphere

I like how Bud moderates the content in the center of the frame on the BIT320 homepage, but clicking the links to classmates' blogs on the left hand side of the page is time consuming; you also never know who has posted a new message, so you really have to click all of the links. In my previous post I talked about using a news aggregator to get news headlines, but I figured this was a great opportunity to get updates from the class blogosphere too.

Just like how Bud imported an OPML file in NewzCrawler, I was able to add everyone's blogs to the free open source aggregator I use, FeedReader. Now everytime there is an update to the class blogosphere I know about it without having to click through a ton of links to individual blogs. Here's a screen shot:

Now that I am able to look at the blogosphere like this, I read posts more frequently and actually know ahead of time what Bud is referencing in class. I know what's going on and what my classmates are thinking. The use of an aggregator like FeedReader versus the standard web view shows how the medium affects the message. I think I am more into the blogosphere now that I can access content better.

Comments

[F. Andy Seidl]

FYI, there are two new channels in the BIT320 Blogosphere site that help address this issue for those not yet using aggregators.

Click on the "Project Space" link in the left pane of the site and you'll see the space contains the following new channels:

Last 48 Hours: Syndicated Guest Weblogs -- Aggregation of Syndicated Guest Weblog Posting from the Past Forty-eight Hours

Last 48 Hours: Weblogs -- Aggregation of Student Weblog Posting from the Past Forty-eight Hours

You can browse these channels to see only posts from the past 48 hours. These channels also have RSS feeds so you can subscribe to these "what's new" channels in your newsreader.

For convenience, here's a link to the project space page:
http://myst-technology.com/mysmartchannels/public/space/47372?model=user/myst/user-BIT320