Michael Koby

Robert Scoble recently said that he was moving away from TechMeme as his homepage in favor of FriendFeed.  He has also stated on several occasions that he goes where the conversation is and that everyone he follows on Twitter (which is everyone that follows him) is relevent and interesting.

This is a new approach to social media.  Everyone is a friend (both onine and offline), and everyone has something interesting to say.  This is a far cry from the tech/bloging elite that used to be in the game (and which many consider Scoble to be a part of).  It is interesting that someone on Scoble’s level would take such a drastic step away from that blogging elite in search of the smaller voice.  But he might be onto something.

You see lately, I’ve moved away from sites like Digg, where I used to get a nice chunk of my daily news (both tech and other kinds) to sites like FriendFeed (via AlertThingy or Twhirl) to get my news.  Sure I subscribe to a lot of the more “famous” bloggers on FriendFeed, but I’ve taken the outlook of subscribing to everyone that subscribes to me (assuming it doesn’t look like spam when i look at the account) on FriendFeed and Twitter in hopes of finding new and more interesting content.

I think part of the idea behind this is the concept that not everyone thinks like you do.  If you only listen to like-minded people you never really learn anything.  The search to learn more and gain more knowledge about all areas of a subject, be it tech, parenting, or even personal finance can lead to a better understanding of the world around you.  As an “on record” republican, I like having discussions with democrats and other more liberal than me.  Because I learn things.  This is much of the same reason for following so many people on various social sites.  The more input you have, the more you are likely to be able to output because you understand so much more.  Occasionally though, you will get a person who just wants to be rude.  Fortunately, you can decide whom to follow and unfollow at your convenience.  This makes it easy to control the input you receive.

Of course I’m not suggesting that constant input is the road to complete understanding or enlightenment.  And just because you read something does not mean you understand it.  But there is some benefit to listening to a constant flow of opinions both agreeable and not.  It also brings you more voices.  As more people subscribe to you, you can subscribe back and hear what they have to say on things.  This is a great way to keep up with both the A-Listers and the new listers.

Yep, that’s right.  Yours truly has won Chris Garrett’s "Follow Me Friday" contest today.  Every week Chris picks a random Twitter follower for a prize.  This weeks’ prize was three free months of training from SEOBook.com (a $300 value).  I’m very excited to have won, mainly because I usually don’t win these kinds of things.

If you are a blogger and don’t know who Chris Garrett is, run and don’t walk to check out his site for some top rate blogging tips.

So thanks to Chris for an awesome prize.  Can’t wait to start my SEO training.

I have tried a lot of blog editing software.  There is a lot of great free software available for Windows bloggers out there.  Some highlights include BlogDesk and w.Blogger.  This weekend however, I installed Windows Live Writer on a whim.  I had read that it was a great piece of software and that it even posted to Wordpress powered blogs.  So I decided to give it whirl.

I am so glad I did.  This is one fantastic piece of software.  It really does make blogging easier.  At least for me.  It grabs my blogs style so that when I edit posts, I see what they will look like in real time.  No more guessing on those photo dimensions to make sure everything lines up right.  I can post-date posts, which is a big deal for me since I (try to) write posts in advance.  I can edit categories, tags, and even my excerpts without ever having to log into Wordpress’s administration page.  Pretty slick stuff.

No, I wasn’t paid by anyone to say this stuff.  I really do enjoy the product and I’ve only had it installed for a couple of days.  It really seems to fill my needs quite nicely.  So, if you haven’t tried it yet, download Windows Live Writer, and give it a try.

My good friend Rachel over at the website, Thrifty Domestica got into a discussion about micro-blogging today.  When I asked her if she was going to start micro-blogging, she told me that she was going to write a post about how ridiculous micro-blogging was.  I told her “if you write it, I’ll link it” and so here we are.  Rachel’s thoughts on micro-blogging.

Micro-blogging is for Nerds

In response, I think that she understands the point, but doesn’t understand the conversation aspect of it.  When you record those little thoughts that one can’t always pan out into a full fledge 500-ish word blog post, someone might become inspired and make that post for you.  That person might have a perspective that you don’t have.  I know that there are a lot of wasted ideas out there, heck there are several a day that don’t make it to here from my end.

Either way, it’s interesting food for thought.  Check out the post, leave a comment your two.