26/08 2008

Why am I Neglecting FriendFeed? The Rebirth.

Recently I wrote about my neglect of FriendFeed. I had been having issues with using the platform and spending time on the site. When I first joined I hit a firestorm of posts and comments only to explode into a sense of disenfranchisement.

After I wrote the post, I surprisingly garnered some attention from FriendFeed followers, as well as, some outside hosts. I began to realize that FriendFeed wasn’t just another social network. It wasn’t just another LinkedIn, Facebook, or Myspace. I decided to give the site another try and actually INVEST in the conversation and content in the feed.

Something happened. I would imagine it was a sense of realization, an epiphany of sorts. FriendFeed has a lot of power when it comes to the idea of collaboration. There is not a platform on the web that gives the simple and yet undeniable sophisticated arena for community thought generation. I started learning things and “meeting” people that were changing my perspective on everything from politics to art, technology to web application.

And so it went. I started spending more and more time on FriendFeed. Subscribing to individuals that have view points, opinions, and ideas similar to mine. And then it happened…

The Rebirth.

The new design for FriendFeed was launched and I had a reinvigorated interest in a platform I was already becoming obsessed with. I am not going to attempt to breakdown the new FriendFeed design. I will leave that up to FriendFeedBlog, Read/Write/Web, and AJ Batac.

Some of you reading this post have not ventured into the FriendFeed waters. To that I say: Try it.

Here are a few people you should subscribe to when joining the “feed.”

Louis Gray, Zee, Mona, Rahsheen, Hutch Carpenter, Shey, Justin Korn, Mike Fruchter, Mark Trapp, Lindsey Smith, and Alex Scoble.

There are plenty of others that bring something new to the table every minute of every hour. The list above is only a representation of the people I have spent the most time with in communication. They represent a good database of other people with the same ideas and preferences.

Jump in the water! Dive over the edge! Get inaundated with an amount of information you could never possibly comprehend. Most of all, communicate. Join the conversation and thrive.

For more tips on FriendFeed visit Louis Gray’s blog.