How do you surf the firehose?
A colleague asked me how I stay on top of the constant surge of information produced by Mozilla and Firebug and whatever else I follow. The question was a good one in and of itself and I replied with my little list of things I read and said I might blog it, because it could be helpful. His reply suggested a Seven-things-style meme to find out what other people are reading and how they stay on top. At the risk of having the entire internet hate me, I conceded that this was an excellent idea.
First, a disclaimer: I don’t believe any one person can possibly stay on top of the incredible volume of information and noise produced in and around Mozilla. Especially when you start doing transitive closures on the information and pulling in data about Mozilla and ancillary projects. I am not claiming this is definitive or even remotely efficient. It sort of works for me, and it’s settled into enough of a routine that I can stick with it.
So, without further ado, the meme-ified questionnaire:
Q1: What is your reading schedule? Do you have a schedule?
I have a schedule, but I also read randomly when I’m stuck someplace with my phone and have decent wireless connectivity. I typically start the day with email and bugmail, then check important feeds. Twice per week (usually), I check digestified versions of dev.planning and platform. Usually Monday and Wednesday. I don’t have it scheduled, (though maybe I should!) but I read feeds throughout the day. I will admit that they can be a strongly seductive distraction from real work. And of course, there’s IRC competing for my attention.
Q2: What do you read daily and how often?
E-mail, naturally. Several times / day, first pass, check for urgent messages, scan subscribed lists and subfolders later.
Blogs / Planet (with coffee)
Bugmail. Check once morning, once afternoon.
Firebug Bugmail. As it comes in.
Firebug working group individual emails
Q3: What do you read more than once / week? How often?
newsgroups, dev.planning, dev.platform
Blogs, Newsfeeds
Q4: What blogs/feeds/newsgroups do you read? (list three or more)
blogs:
lifehacker
daring fireball
schneier on security
michael geist
planet.mozilla.org – this I have been reading less of late, mostly because of the noise. Highlights from About:Mozilla newsletter fill in the important gaps.
feeds:
cbc/bbc
macnn
engadget
newsgroups:
firebug discussion group
mozilla.dev.planning
mozilla.dev.platform
mozilla.dev.extensions
Q5: Lastly, name a guilty pleasure in your feedreader:
kotaku!
bonus question: What do you use to read feeds?
I use Feedly. I used to use Vienna, but found the app was stagnating somewhat. I have also tried Times, which came with this year’s MacHeist bundle and it looks good, but prefer Feedly’s integration with Firefox. I considered trying Fever which looks promising.
Now tag at least three people you want to hear from (making sure you notify them via email, twitter, or whatever means of communication you have in case they don’t actually read your blog all the time):
Deb Richardson
Mike Beltzner
Kev Needham
Curtis Bartley
Let the meming begin!
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