This is my stream (wide because I use both laptop and cinema displays)
As a blogger it is absolutely crucial for me to be exposed to a huge stream of information and quickly sift through it to find the gold: valuable articles, people, and ideas that relate to my niche.
I use three tools to find new information: Techmeme to find the big stories; Twitter to find fresh ideas, stories, and people; and RSS to keep up with hundreds of blogs from which I have uncovered nuggets in the past.
The Optimal Layout
I have struggled with organizing these tools to maximize the signal amidst the avalanche of noise. I finally found a half-decent solution. Click the screenshot and see what you think.
The break down:
- Left: NetNewsWire (which I also use on my iPhone). I have organized hundreds of valuable blogs into sections. I search for nuggets by clicking a section (say, “iPhone”) and scanning it for interesting titles, double clicking the interesting ones to open them as tabs in NetNewsWire’s built-in browser. After scanning all thew new stuff, I mark all as read (this makes scanning hundreds of blogs a breeze).
- Middle: Tweetie. As my favorite Twitter client, I use Tweetie to check for Twitter replies, direct messages, and to see my unfiltered tweetstream. I also use it to post new tweets.
- Right: Yes, I use two Twitter clients. Tweetdeck has one major feature I cannot live without: groups. As I notice valuable folks in my niche, I add them to a group (Tapity Contacts, Interesting People, iPhone, and UX). This way, I can make sure I am catching valuable tweets from the Tweeters most likely to tweet gold. I also have another column (invisible in the pic) keeping track of the #iphonedev keyword.
By the way, all of these windows are in a single “space.”
You have to find what works for you but for me, this layout has proved quite effective. What is your stream layout?
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I don't use tweetdeck, but do use Tweetie and NetNewsWire – and I like the fact that they now sync with Google Reader!
I just noticed you have the tweets in your RSS reader. Thanks for that!
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What an excellent write-up! No idea how you wrote this report..it’d take me days. Well worth it though, I’d suspect. Have you considered selling banners on your website?
I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They’re very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are very short for starters. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.