Page 37 – Hello, I'm DK – creative producer and speaker coach

Time To Create | Assorted Exotic Wood Blanks

wood blanks small

Oh the wonderful possibilities.

Here’s a bigger version to get a sense of the fabulous grains in some of them.

Fascinating Stuff #3 | March 2013

fascinating tweeting defence

Tweeting defence, stores tracking shoppers, Bitcoin currency, buying YouTube views, Reader pollinators, Google sneaker ads.

Stuff which has fascinated me this past month.

Tom Waits 1978 TV Performance | This Romeo Is Bleeding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGFAyZtI-YM

Seminal.

You got to bleed a little while you sing
Lest the words don’t mean nothing
The Cult – Heart Of Soul (lyric)

OOooooohhhh Vienna | A Google Reader Substitute

A kick-ass replacement for the doomed Google Reader.

The smiles:

open source: no more Google indexing your feeds and using your data against ads to make money;
social channels integration: Faceache, Tweetmails, Buffermeup etc all covered (can even route the article content directly into whatever blog creation software you’re using);
integrated browser: basically allowing the user to surf the sources of the content without leaving the app (via tabs)
a plethora of keyboard shortcuts: current favourite is the space bar navigation function. Clicking it will not only scroll you through the article that’s open but when it reaches the end the app will direct you to the next unread article (nice);
free: *head-nods.

The frowns (kind of):

desktop / Mac only: not an issue for me but could be for some;
no sync to the cloud: currently syncs with Google Reader but obviously that will die in the coming months (would be great to have a Dropbox option for your subscriptions file so they are kept safe);
‘mail link’ option: will probably work if you have an external mail client although not integrated with gmail (the only piece of the puzzle in terms of my workflow from Google Reader that I’ll miss).

Want to give it a go?

Grab your feeds from the Googles takeout page, download Vienna RSS Reader, import feeds (it’s just the “subscriptions.xml file”), play around with the preferences and ensure you customise the toolbar to feature all the social sharing / navigational stuff you need (see options below), then smile and carry on with your rss feasting.

If you want it to do anything else check out the forums for help.

Have a go and let me know what you think. Maybe you’ve already found a replacement, what is it?

Long live RSS!

Addendum

As Reader wasn’t going to be shut till 1st July I thought I had plenty of time to find an alternative and flirted with a few online options discuss in my previous post. The idea was to write a blog post closer to the closure time as by then lots of these other platforms would have tightened up their offerings. Then again, why wait when you got something that works…

Why Closing Google Reader Is A Good Thing | A Retrospective

An open letter.

Thank you Google.

Thank you for giving us a simple, wonderful, effective (and free) RSS aggregator in Google Reader.

The news you are now going to retire the service is sad but not surprising.

Personally, been honoured to have introduced thousands upon thousands of individuals to the platform through my seven years as a social media trainer / masterclass take / speaker. Even a couple of days ago was enabling a group of librarians here in Wellington, NZ to the power of filtering the web and creating your own social media menu.

Of course I’ve tried other services like Yahoo RSS and Netvibes plus also dabbled with a few desktop readers, but you always got me coming back with your minimalist approach and deep integration with other platforms (not to mention a direct distribution channel through email).

Understand you’ll now be focussing your efforts on other services and although we’ll all miss and have to find another RSS aggregator, the closure will spark new players into the game, and for those already providing services, an opportunity to tighten up their offerings. This will be a good thing (although feel for those folks who created apps like Reeder and thers which sync the reader data in to make it work).

It will also move me further away from all my data being routed through you guys—as you and I both know, it’s getting a little creepy nowadays how we used to be users and are now the products being packaged and sold on (without full disclosure of the parties involved).

Thanks again Google for the memories, making me look awesome and keep in touch.

For those who are looking for alternatives, check out these:

Newsblur

Netvibes

Feedreader

Feedly

Pulse

Taptu

…anyone use any of the above? Which are the best? What do you think about this announcement?

American Embassy Wellington Digital Studio | An Opening / Opportunity

digital-studio-launch-attendees

Today I attended the opening of a new in-house digital studio at the American Embassy, Wellington, NZ.

We had a special live stream via Washington, (which showed off some of the tech) from Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Tara Sonenshine:

And the ambassador, David Huebner spoke about the history of the room (a once traditional library) and how it now houses the capacity to:

“…to facilitate a range of digital engagement activities to further enhance the eDiplomatic outreach of the US Embassy in Wellington.”

It’s probably both the size and location of the Embassy here in NZ which affords it the opportunity to be innovative (it was the first embassy to have a Pinterest plus Instagram account), and this new investment is also a first of its kind; thus illustrating the changing commitment and understanding of traditional institutions towards the shifting landscape of [digital] engagement.