Information Management Weblog

What do I read?

I was recently asked "what sort of RSS feeds do you read?" I follow about 250 sites (using Bloglines), so I thought I'd pick out a few high-quality favorites and highlight them. I'm going to skip the super-geeky sites, and focus on those that have a bit broader appeal. All of these are worth your attention, and I present these in no particular order.

Freakonomics Blog, written by the two authors of the bestselling book "Freakonomics." I enjoyed the book, and the blog has continued their interesting take on economics. Don't let the word "economics" scare you off. This is really about analyzing problems in a different way, and using data to get under the surface of problems.

Malcolm Gladwell is the well-known author of Blink and the Tipping Point, as well as a whole lot of really interesting New Yorker articles. He's a newcomer to blogging, but what he's written so far has been interesting.

Signal vs. Noise is written by 37signals, a web applications firm. I'm most interested in their development philosophies (captured under the title of "Getting Real"). While lots of their philosophy is specific to developing web applications, good portions of it can also be applied to non-web endeavors.

Guy Kawasaki is a former Apple evangelist, and current venture capitalist. He is also a newcomer to blogging, but has taken to it with a vengeance. He posts long, original, and very well-written content on a pretty regular basis.

O'Reilly Radar is written by the folks at O'Reilly, the computer book publisher (you've likely seen their distinctive books--with woodcuts of animals on the covers--in stores). O'Reilly's basic strategy is to keep track of what the "alpha geeks" are doing, and this blog focuses on what is new and notable in the tech world.

Joel on Software is written by Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software. His posts are infrequent, but with a high signal to noise ratio.

Tim Bray is one of the authors of the XML specification, and currently works for Sun. His blog features well-written commentary on the technology world, with the occasional photo or bit about music thrown in for fun. His "On Search" series is a must-read for anyone interested in search.

Phil Windley is the former CIO for the state of Utah, and currently teaches at BYU. He has a nice ear for what is notable in the world of information management and technology.

Conn McQuinn is the Puget Sound ESD's Ed Tech guru (note: not his actual title). I think I can take some credit for getting him started in blogging, but he's taken to it quite nicely. It helps that Conn is a great writer, too. He mostly writes on technology issues as they relate to education, but does it in a way that is accessible and interesting to non-educators, too.

Presentation Zen, written by Garr Reynolds, is perfect for anyone who every needs to speak in front of people. Shoot, even people who have to listen to others speak in public will probably get some value out of this.

43 Folders focuses on "life hacks" – hints and tips to improve personal productivity and time management. Lots of great hints on keeping things together.

Tom Peters is the well-known management guru. His blog (which also features contributions from a number of other writers) provides a fascinating window into Peter's very active mind.

Scott Berkun is the author of a great project management book. He runs a couple of great mailing lists (project management and user interface design) that I lurk on. Berkun is also the author of a bunch of well-done articles.

Seth Godin is a marketer. Only, he's different from most marketers. He's got a very different view of marketing than most, and one that is broadly applicable.

Creating Passionate Users is about, well, creating passionate users. The authors, primarily Kathy Sierra, are coming from the world of software development (they're programming book authors, in fact), but, like Seth Godin, the ideas they post about can be used in many fields.

InfoMatters is the blog of Andrew Dillon, the dean of the iSchool at the University of Texas. He's only been blogging for a few months, and is a fairly recent addition to my aggregator. So far, he's written good stuff, and I have high hopes. I wonder how many other information school deans (or professors, for that matter) are blogging. I don't know of that many. None, that I know of, at my alma mater. Too bad, as it would be nice to have more voices on this topic from academia.