RSS

Do you think that RSS feeds ask the user, How can I help you? Or is the user asking RSS, How can you help me?

Feeds that I subscribed to:

Music reviewers who dig up buried treasures: KEXP album reviews and Global Hit on Public Radio International's The World. I've had both sites bookmarked and on Music Selection Resources on the WWW for a while; I'll be comparing links to feeds for ease-of-use.

To locate library-related content, I used Bloglines and Google blog search. Picks: Librarian's Index to the Internet (like Yahoo, but without the commercials) and Union Librarian.

A good test of anything is to use it for something that is difficult to do. So, I used Bloglines, Google blog search, Syndic8 and Feedster to look for content related to the singer Misora Hibari (who was bigger-than-Elvis-huge in Japan--160 films, etc, and astonishing technical mastery, but virtually unknown in the U. S. ...so which country is the island, again?).

What I settled on was adding an RSS feed from YouTube-- looking specifically for the tags Misora Hibari or 美空ひばり. That way, I'll know when new clips with those tags are available. That's genuinely useful to me.

Last of all, I added Bloglines to del.icio.us for a convenient one-stop info shop.

What Would Flickr Do?

Here's one definition of a library (it's from Indiana state law)
"Library" means a collection of a variety of books or other printed matter, audiovisual materials or other items in which knowledge is recorded; kept in a centralized place; for which a person who has knowledge of the materials, their arrangement, their use and of library skills is responsible; and which are for the use of individuals or groups in meeting their recreational, informational, educational, research or cultural needs.

How does this look in relation to Flickr? Obviously Flickr is ideal for recreational browsing. (Bet you can't view just one...) Other kinds of seeking?

People following a craft would love it--it's equally good for topics where you're visually curious or even actively creative. For me, a topic is handweaving.

Threads, Scott Wills

For you or your patron it might be handcarved stamps. Or, hand-carved stamps (they aren't the same...) Or Bulgarian bagpipes--which are also known as the gaida (different results again). Trying to think like the people who post things you'd like to find--what words would they use?

Handcarved stamp, James Allenspach

Concerning Flickr's many hybrids, RSS--which brings to your attention new content about your interests-- is one I'm most likely to use. Also, Macro Maven has written very entertainingly about the FindbyClick coffee finder, a mashup of Starbucks locations in map form. The world may be ready for a FindbyClick yarn finder. (I could work on it sometime when I'm not weaving, maybe.)

What's a killer app, you say?

Electricity was around for a while before people really knew what to do with it, or even thought they'd use it. For rich people maybe...but what would they do with it, exactly? or factories...Until the light bulb was invented...then people got it.

That's one example. For home electricity, the light bulb was the killer app.

For the web, music is a killer app: an ideal use of a new technology that makes it into a must-have: Hear music, watch it, read about it, share it. The distance between information modes (sound--vision--word) vanishes. You're also free from location (the distance between people vanishes) and free from the physical object.

Not just that--but huge helpings of user-contributed content are yours for the seeking, eventually outnumbering everything else...

Is Flickr a killer app? Let's go see.

Youtube's Killer App: Music

Aretha Franklin: Don't Play That Song (You Lied) Outlast the 20 seconds of Officially Wacky Intro and claim your reward: the singer on keyboards; the most acrobatic bass line ever; and (is it?) her sisters singing backup, in a high-water mark of emotional intelligence in song.

Misora Hibari - Omatsuri Mambo Think Japanese Mardi Gras. From the great Japanese singer Misora Hibari's 35th Anniversary concert--the command of technique, presentation, and imagery all equally unrivalled. You don't often find this much visual and vocal power together with this much nuance.

Misora Hibari in Tokyo Kid An early film appearance, 1950. Postwar optimism--what else can you do?--on the same lines as de Sica's 1951 film, Miracle in Milan. And--at age 13, what a voice.

Misora Hibari 美空ひばり - Yawara 柔 In 1965, at age 28. And cross-dressing, no less--check the sideburns with those soul-sister 'lashes.

Have you read?

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog
by Margaret Mason