…in celebrating its sixth birthday James Joyner on his blog “Outside the Beltway” writes:
The rise of RSS readers and aggregators like Memeorandum mean that fewer of us are using our blogrolls or just keeping a log of interesting things we’re finding on the Web; instead, we’re much more apt to write about what everyone else is writing about.
One also wonders about RSS feeds and serendipity. If “we” are all using RSS feeds, if we are all using one of any number of technologies to deliver microcontent about an interest, or point of view, or time of day what possibility is there of making the chance encounter with information. What becomes of positively judging a book by its cover, and thus meeting a new writer, style of writing, or idea. This is the trade off in customizing…that with the ability to take only what one wants from the information hog-wallow otherwise known as the Internet, we mish the chance to stumble, to stumble upon something we didn’t know existed but, once discovered, proves useful.
The answer? Browse shelves…the browsing collection between the computer labs and the faculty carrols…