I'm a big RSS user - 20 feeds or so

I just found this comment on a post about free desktop readers and it made me chuckle.

bardicknowledge Says:
December 11th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Hey, I’m a big RSS user, with 20 or so feeds that I keep an eye on regularly and there are two others options (the two I use ) that I would like to point out.

I guess I should not tell him about the 170 I'm subscribed to. And I know others with many more than that :)

FYI: I currently have about 12,000 unread items in my feed reader.

Blog Highlights of 2006

Hi everyone - I hope you had a great 2006. I know we certainly have. In just one year, Touchstone has gone from the back of a napkin to a funded, flying company with a number of great staff, friends, advisors and testers. We wish to thank you all very much for your efforts this year - we literally could not be doing this without you.

Here are the highlights from the blog over the last year in reverse order (most recent at the top).

Hitting the Mainstream 2
Information Overload hits the mainstream media for a second time - in a big way.

Hitting the Mainstream 1
Information Overload hits the mainstream media for the first time (or there abouts)

Democracy Now!
Web 2.0 has barley hit and people are talking about Web 3.0. We discuss how absurd that is and why YouTube is NOT Web 2.0.

Show me the money (or pain!)
Some people (read:head in the sand) think there is no information overload problem. This post explains why there is.

Filtering vs. Ranking
Some people are still talking about filtering RSS. Filtering is so 5 years ago.

Aggregation is King
Content used to be king. If that's true, then Aggregation is now master of the universe.

Desktop vs. Web-based
Web 2.0 implies that stuff is on the web. Not true. This post talks about the value of desktop applications in a web world. By the way - did you know the Browser is a desktop application? Shock/Horror.

What is Attention Data?
And no - it is not just OPML or Attention.XML.

Personalized Content
Some claim that the battle for 'People Powered News' is over. Digg and others have won. I make the argument that People Powered News MIGHT be done, but Personalized Content is just getting started.

There is no more audience
Participants have killed the audience. Media outlets that treat their audience like eyeballs are doomed to fail in a Media 2.0 world. This is a short rant about the death of the Audience.

Touchstone funded by Angel
Touchstone get's funded by an Angel Investor. What more do we need to say about that!

The Long Tail of Attention
Chris Anderson describes the three factors that have made the Long Tail a viable market. I then explain why a Tool like Touchstone empowers the 'Long Tail' (that's you and me) to take advantage.

Personal Relevancy
What is Personal Relevancy exactly? It's when your interests and personality become the basis for choosing content, rather than the whims of one editor who decides what 'the mainstream' should care about.

Tune Out the Noise
Touchstone is not about alerting - it is about NOT alerting. Think about that.

Attention, Scarcity and Demand
Markets work on Supply and Demand. Price is dictated by Scarcity. So in an era of abundance, the scarcest resource is our Attention.

Power Back in your hands
Amazon Recommendations are great... for them. They help cross-sell and up-sell their customers. But what if you could use the same technology to take control of your information across all the sites you visit?

Anti-Web 2.0
Touchstone is a desktop application. Does this make it Anti-Web 2.0?

Not a Gadget Engine
Touchstone compared to the current rash of Gadget/Widget engines out there.

RSS is not just about News
Imagine using RSS for something other than News. Feed readers fail for most of those other applications. Touchstone picks up the slack.


Thanks again for sticking with us. The best is yet to come!

Chris, Ash and the whole Touchstone Crew.

Is Attention Finite?

Over on David Henderson's blog he has posed (and in some ways answered) the question "Is Attention Finite".

I have always considered it finite. As you can see from our Manifesto (written almost a year ago now):

"Attention is what you care about. It is a resource that is quickly evaporating as an avalanche of information sources clamor for your time."

David also quotes John Hagel's post "the economics of attention" which is Amazing.

I dare not quote any one part of it here because it is, in its entirety, a wonderful summary of the relationship between Attention and Economics and future Markets which itself pulls from quotes and summaries from other definitive sources.

Our Manifesto, by comparison, looks simplistic at best. The key for us, however, is not how Attention may affect markets on a macro scale. Nor is it about how companies can get, keep and leverage your attention. Our/my interest is in the individual. Me.

How can I, during my ordinary, everyday life, maximize my time by filtering out the noise and receiving information, products and services that meet my needs and expectations at any given time.

How can I, in an increasingly Attention Savvy marketplace (where companies are mining and using my Attention Data), take control of my Attention rather than ceding control to others.

From this perspective, I think the issue becomes far more manageable. And the value to the user becomes far more practical.

This is not a fight the system proposition however. On the contrary. It is a commercial exercise. The user has an urgent and growing need to take back control in order to bring balance to the system. And when there is a need, there is demand; and where there is demand there must be a supply.