Basics Staying Informed Without Drowning in Data
By JENNA WORTHAM The New York Times December 18, 2008
I'M a reporter and I write about the Internet. I write about its culture, its latest developments and the people and companies involved. You may think this means I spend a lot of time watching videos of advice-dispensing ninjas and funny photographs of cats but that, sadly, is not the case.
What I do spend a lot of time doing is scouring the Internet for information and news. This is great because the Internet makes this easier than ever. This is also a huge pain because the Internet makes this easier than ever. There's a never-ending sea of news sources, and if I just plunge in headfirst, I'll probably get overwhelmed in minutes. And yet to be ahead of the news, I can't just read the big, mainstream publications - I have to dig deeper and find more specialized sites and blogs that are often closer to the action.
The key is to manage the information overflow. This can be done through sites and services that filter and curate the online news-scape into something I can actually digest. With a little time spent exploring and tailoring these sites, you too can get better, deeper information on subjects you care about - and it won't take you days to sort through it all.
With millions of Web sites and blogs, there's no shortage of news, so some filtering is required. Social news sites are one place to begin the culling. They rely on the wisdom of the crowds to determine which headlines are newsworthy by seeing which headlines are being read most. The community of users at sites like Digg, Reddit, Propeller and Delicious rank stories in order of importance, creating a list of stories you can refer to at will.
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It's sad to see that Usenet isn't on Mr. Wortham's list. Here again, he assumes that "someone else" is always in change of preparing material for a reader to see, instead of challenging Internauts to do it themselves.
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