Mapping, Mining and Viewing the Blogosphere
How do I know that RapidBI is one of the top leadership blogs? Well, it’s not just because they are in the heatmap of the top leadership blogs… Although that doesn’t hurt, and it shows that Bscopes has great taste… No, it’s because Mike Morrison took the initiative to not only check out Bscopes, but then to blog about it and tell his many readers and fans all about Bscopes and Heatmaps.
So a quick shout out across the Pond to Mike. Thanks! Let us know how we can help.
Of course, on the internet, “Is <subject> Dead?” is one of the those meme’s that always being put out on blog posts. This week, the blog Lifehacker decided to poll its readers and ask the musical question (no, not “who wrote the book of love?”) but rather “Are You Still Using RSS?”
Check out the poll results:
I’d love to think that (a) this will put an end to asking questions about if RSS is still dead, and (b) will encourage the folks who read Lifehacker to check out Bscopes to help them get through the RSS feeds they read and manage any possible Information Overload. So, why is it that I think Steve is likely to call me or text me to ask what color the sky is in my world today?
Make my dream come true… pass on the message to a Lifehacker reader or anyone else who knows that RSS is very much alive. Tell them about Bscopes.
Again, in the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen tons of upset, frustrated people complaining about Google Reader and Information Overload. A few are also trying to find ways to overcome the overload rather than just give up. In this post, we want to focus, not on the problem, but on solutions.
Most overloaded readers experience one of two kinds of problems:
Such @firstworldlife who feels like he has too much to read no matter how much time you can find:
I have 1000+ unread items on Google Reader, all of which interest me. #FirstWorldProblems
— First World Life (@FirstWorldLife) January 25, 2012
and
Such as @chachictweets who has a few minutes, but doesn’t know where to start:
164 unread items in my Google Reader. I don’t think I can go through all that tonight, hmm…
— Chachic (@chachictweets) January 24, 2012
To start to address this problem, we select a solution method based on the goal and the constraints. What do you have time for? All of a single topic? Are working on research about one single topic for a blog post, article or paper? These determine which method or tool to use and how to put them together.
There are techniques available. We used to experience the same pain, but we’ve gotten to a better place. We have built and used a combination of tools and methods to help the logical side master over the emotion of overload.
Here’s how we we get from chaos —> order. There are five main ways to turn down the heat and sift through the overload (taken from the Bscopes secret sauce):
In addition, consider if the recency matters to your goal. Research can often benefit from ideas that have been tested. In areas such as the sciences, a bit of time can help an idea prove itself. In other areas, the world moves on and leaves a post behind. If you are looking for info on web development, posts last updated in 2002 may not be the most helpful 
.
You can slice off parts of the problem using recency. Catch up on all of the posts of a single topic, or read some of a series of topics since your last visit.
You need to mix and match these techniques. By combining them in various ways, you can have the tools you need to then solve your different problem. You’ll work differently if you have only 10 minutes than you would if you need to spend several hours catching back up on the latest in a topic, such as Internet Marketing in preparation for creating your newest material.
When you feel emotionally overwhelmed, stop. Think back to your goals. Determine your constraints. Then combine the tools to be as productive as possible in your given circumstances.
Let us know, in the comments below, how this works for you and your environment.
I’ve been reading several recent blog posts and tweets — all touching on the idea that Information Overload is an emotional issue. And, of course, we both agree, and we wrote a blog post saying as much last Summer. Since that post was published, we have added many new Bscopes users and blog readers. So, while addressing the ideas raised in these recent posts, I will refer back to our original post.
I started digging through these blog posts and through the tweets. In them I find things that I both agree and disagree with, simultaneously (how illogical!) As a result, I became confused. Here… take a look:
The best way to deal with information overload is to realize that it’s an emotional problem. (R.S. Wurman )
— rubir (@rubir) January 29, 2012
Ok. Clearly I agree with the statement. But it’s a tease. It makes me feel better. But it isn’t practical. It isn’t actionable.
Talk about a meta illustration of the entire overload process… I dug through the entire original article from 1997 by Fast Company writer Mark Fischetti quoting original TED chair Richard Saul Wurman. And there, in the final paragraphs is the real useful wheat. Found inside the haystack (to badly mix a metaphor):
The best way to deal with information overload is to realize that it’s not a mental or a physical problem, it’s an emotional problem. And the only way to overcome it is to “hold on to what really interests you and make connections from there,” says Wurman. “Connecting one interest to the next is how you teach yourself and others.
“It’s worthless to read something you’re not interested in, because you won’t remember it anyway. Nothing occurs during that experience that helps your insight and understanding. Once you realize this, you’ll free yourself from the guilt of not paying attention to most of the news and information that’s out there.”
Fine. Brad is Jewish and Steve is Catholic. So I don’t think either of us is really going to “free ourselves from the guilt”. But, aside from that I now have something that can be turned into practical advice.
The Bscopes methodology is clear. Separate wheat from chaff. Rank. Sort. Label. Read what is hot for you. Ignore what is not.
This leads directly back to why we built Bscopes. To implement exactly such a method. To automate a task that is nearly insurmountable when you try it manually. And to help you focus on your inner Vulcan.
Comforting – Psychology behind digital information overload. Not overwhelmed… part of the revolution! wp.me/p25u9C-nf via @pandodaily — Sandy Glickman (@sandyglickman) January 23, 2012
she points to this Brian Solis blog article:
The challenge lies not in the realization that we are empowered to curate our social streams and relationships, but in the consciousness of what is and what could be. Meaning, that we must first understand that how we’re connecting, consuming, and creating today is either part of the problem or part of the solution. We, and only we, are in control of information overload and everything begins with acceptance. … Information overload is a real phenomenon, but it is I believe, by design. It either works for us or against us and it is our choice as to which way the stream flows.
Brian gets some of it right. He describes the problem and the emotional impact. He describes some folks attempts to treat it like an addiction and go cold turkey. He describes some folks attempts to treat it like a diet. He even regurgitates Clay Shirkey’s “Filter Failure” quote. What Brian doesn’t do is offer any practical advice. He says it is up to us. But he neither tells you how to cope with the emotion nor how to manage the actual information.
If Brian were a psychologist, he’d likely be the kind that tells the addict “you just have to try harder”. Or care less.
He leads you right to the edge. He points the way to the promised land. But people need a map. They need a guide. They need tools.
Look at these tweets:
@anib it is more information overload leading to emotion overload. A week off leads to introspecton. — Yvette Wray (@magependragon) January 23, 2012
and
Calm down, information overload is a good thing bit.ly/ySCAbT via @simplyzesty #socialmedia #li #yam — Dick Foster (@Dick_Foster) January 22, 2012
Yvette can only cope by periodic by periodic withdrawal. And Dick’s tweet telling people to calm down points to this article by @laurenfisher. She, like others, deals with emotions, telling everyone to “calm down”. As if just being told to stay calm can stave off the emotions and panic.
And again tries to make information overload into a disease. In this case, calling it “social media fatigue”.
While there may be some evidence to suggest social media fatigue – a result of information overload – is a real thing, these results seem questionable.
Fatigue, of course, leads to burnout. She falls back on the, everyone has been overloaded ever since they invented the printing press cliche. Get over it, she says, You’ll just need to develop better skills. And perhaps loose that appendix and grow a third eye while you are at it:
The problem is in the very term ‘overload’. It is not overload of information at all, but simply more information circulating around that we have to navigate through. And with this comes a new set of skills that we are increasingly adept at developing. Of course, more information is going to lead to more material for us to sift through, which can seem an arduous task. But these are the skills of modern society that are increasingly required to succeed. It’s not so much about what knowledge you happen to contain in your head, but how quickly you can sift through and navigate to that information that you need. Information overload is not new and it is not bad. It is a necessary condition of the advancement of society and equal access to knowledge.
As if “more information” and “overload of information” weren’t obviously two connected points on a continuum.
Worst of all, she doesn’t actually tell you how to quickly sift and navigate. She says it’s an essential skill of modern society. Did I miss where they taught it in High School or College?
She doesn’t offer any tools. She hasn’t built any, nor does she have some you could buy or rent. It’s as if our ancestors had determined that they needed to farm more and more land to survive, but no one had built a plow and no one was talking about hooking up oxen.
And I’m not alone here…
The problem with information overload is not that there’s so much to know. It’s that there’s so much more that I think I *should* know… — Melonie Fullick (@qui_oui) January 20, 2012
and
@hoodiesnheels @iamproverbs @HeatherLLove whoa whoa information overload LOL okay *breathe* lol
— Jenelle Thompson (@jenellethemodel) January 23, 2012
Clearly @qui_oui and @jenellethemodel are feeling stressed. Having an emotional response to this illogical problem. In fact, in a Digital Brand Marketing blog post, Bill Corbett Jr. is writing about the stress caused by Information Overload:
Information overload is a form of stress.
…
That Tweet dream Sunday I reached the breaking point where I needed to make a commitment to myself and my family. I suggest you consider making this same commitment to yourself and your family – disconnect and go off the grid. For many this will be very difficult to do. For me, after my recent “Tweet dream” I am making the commitment to go off the grid not just once but periodically.
…
I can report that I am slowly attacking my “addiction” to being connected. I have been able to take several full days off the grid and I am looking for a vacation spot where I will have no option.
Bill can do nothing but try and do a cold-turkey detox. Incredibly radical. Others have written about declaring RSS bankruptcy.
He isn’t dealing with or mastering the emotion. Working through it. There’s no solutions. No tools. None of them are dealing with it. And taking a vacation and thinking the problem will not be there when you get back. Well, that’s Einstein’s definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Someone to tell the to breathe. To take a vacation. But more than that. Someone to help them live day in and day out and cope with their overload.
But now I feel the need to warn them, warn all of you. That as in many industries, there are a lot of people out there peddling an answer. Some are legitimate. But others… well, they are somewhere between consultants, doctors and snake-oil peddlers of old.
I’m going to need to write another blog post just to try and separate out the characteristics of the ones that can help from the ones that only want to sell you something.
Be logical. No one, not even Bscopes, has a magic bullet. But you can look for tools to empower you. To make you more able to find what you love or need and ignore the rest. And when you find those tools, share them with the rest of the world.
We are branching out! We want to let other folks take advantage of some of the things we’ve learned building Bscopes. We have learned an amazing amount about cutting edge web technologies in the past few years. Plus we’ve created a few specific pieces of specialized software as part of Bscopes that we think might be useful to others as well. We have been asked to supply this knowledge to other folks.
As a result, we’ve created a new set of new services that we are offering:
Kicking off our regular all-day Friday marathon working session with the usual coffee at Starbucks.
As we left, we were greeted by this large raptor in a nearby tree. We assume he’s yet another RSS Power User scanning separate wheat from chaff. Or mice from rats.
Anyone who knows exactly what type of bird this is, please leave a comment below.
– Steve and Brad
Ok, not all of Google. Just AdSense ads. There is still lots to love about Google. Including Google Reader and our additional integration to it.
But Google AdSense is gone. Even on the free Bscopes plans.
Copyblogger was right! We’ve read their pages for years now. A while back, Johnny B. Truant wrote that there are better ways to make money than AdSense. But we didn’t believe him. We do now.
The real-estate on Bscopes is just too valuable. The pages seemed just too crowded. We’ve heard this from a number of folks looking at the site. And we just keep debating it back and forth. So now it’s gone.
The idea was that the ads would supplement the paid subscriptions. And we knew that the click through rate on Google Ads is low. Not 1% low, not even 0.1% low. But, over the last couple of years the rate, for us, has dropped through the floor. Frankly, the ads weren’t bringing in revenue. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Bupkis.
Steve finally left the dark side. He’s got a new lightsaber and is willing to admit that the space could be put to better use.
Now it is all up to you all buying Bscopes subscriptions. We need to pay our mortgage and buy some food and one of us still has kids to send to college.
Tell your friends. Click on the Subscribe button today. Don’t delay. While supplies last. Operators are standing by. (Ok, they aren’t but I’ve wanted to say that for a while now.)
Today is the third annual Information Overload Awareness Day.
This, of course, is what Bscopes is all about. And so we certainly want to throw our support behind this effort.
The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that people seem to passively accept the fact that the noise grows worse over time. There’s no recognition that we can fight the trend. Only a sense of inevitability. Of the idea that we’ll never find the wheat we need under all the chaff floating around. But it is not true.
Here’s a quick list of some of the others who are talking about this today:
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We encourage you to share Bscopes with everyone you know.
New Feature: Heatmap Comments
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Now anytime you place a comment on a users heatmap, an email will be automatically sent to the owner.
We want to encourage social interaction in the Bscopes community. Now by notifying a heatmap owner of a comment, like minded users can communicate directly.
Thanks for requesting this feature!
The Bscopes Team