3 x FEEDS

Last night finally watched a video somewhere – think it was on Google, about what a RSS reader is and the penny has sunk and settled in the (listening to the cricket test match between SA and England and the English, especially our own ex-player Pietersen, are doing way too well for my liking) murky depths of my understanding. Turns out I have enlisted the help of 3 RSS readers which are feeding away hungrily on blogs I’ve zapped on my web meanderings! I’ve got a Netvibe page from the Teacher’s Toolkit workshop I created while on the Emerge Conference, very much on the fly; I’ve inadvertently organized myself a Bloglines reader and now subsequently Google reader!!

RSS reader feeding on blogs

Now somehow I thought a RRS reader would be bringing content to MY blog page – thought Netvibe and such were like virtual offices where you could plonk a whole lot of widgets and go there every now and then to play (guess that says a lot about what I think an office is for . Have in fact reread Wiki’s RSS reader description and don’t get a clear cut picture where the zapped blogs go to!

Well now I can have a real meal of it with Netvibe crispies for breakfast, Blogline burger for lunch and Google reader for soup at supper time!! Actually I think Google reader is proving to be the most popular of the three as I’ve managed to make it my default webpage, but do like the Image wall on Bloglines – truly mesmerizing (have gone back there and seen some rather risque’ pic.s so you’d better be over 18 years old!).

SOME ANSWERS

I’ve belonged to a yahoo group for some time now, and it’s always been a very quiet list with the moderators and originators of this group being the most voluble. As soon as I found my feet I started posting on an almost daily basis and this got the owners really excited!! They were so excited they started giving me freebie stuff, which was lovely but also a little daunting.

I’ve been wondering what the problem is – as there are 63 members that belong to the group and of those only 3-4 members, excluding myself and owners – post messages, and that is only every other day. Then following a thread some where in the FOC08 material I came upon this article in the Wikipedia about the 1 percent rule and that offers some interesting light on the problem – in fact having 3-4 members posting even if infrequently is quite an accomplishment it would seem!!

FOC08 HOMEWORK

Still from week one I am sitting with the thought “What do I hope to get from doing this course?”.

• I am a non-academic, so this course is going to stretch my capabilities.
• I’ve already learnt what a RSS reader is and am using this application full tilt!!!
• Managing a group of individuals at any time is a challenge and online is no different, but with the right understanding of the dynamics I will be more effective at creating and managing an even more congenial platform for members to meet on. Maybe facilitators should be called “Hosts” or “Hostesses”?