I am always wanting to punch through the guardrails of my personal knowledge system. I don’t think of this as making my echo chamber bigger, but as poking my head into another dimension of domains that are largely new to me.
For example, I recently found a post about “README” composition (https://github.com/hackergrrl/art-of-readme#cognitive-funneling) in my RSS feed reader, Inoreader. (I have grown a wide variety of sources here and can share my feed with you should you wish it.)
The post was about something tangential to my career as a teacher and composition instructor. It also brushed up against an interest I have in the new writing forms that might be driving the future. Writing alt-text and READMEs are two examples of this future technical writing.
As often happens, a good article opens up this domain with new folks for your network. In this case I learned more from hackergrrrl and her network. I found her website where she shared among other interests her love of bamboo gears, her twitter account (http://blog.eight45.net/links.html) .
I also asked to join her Mastodon account, I gathered a cool quote, and, sadly, found out her Twitter account had been cancelled.
You can do this work and you must do this work in order to keep your networks fresh. Some folks call this “rewilding” and it is one way to bring diversity to your knowledge ecosystem.
Here is my checklist for rewilding:
- 1. Grow an ever-expanding network of people using a Feedreader like Inoreader.
- 2. Work that feedreader network by visiting it on the regular.
- 3. Note if something gives you a special “that’s interesting” tingle.
- 4. Follow your nose and
- a. Read the article/view images or video/listen to podcast
- b. Look for other connections and share
- c. Connect by following
- d. Send thanks and introductions
- e. Return on occasion and continue to be grateful
Do this once a week and I guarantee you will rewild not only your network feeds but also your imagination which will be revived by regular pokes to the system. Do it more often and live on the wild side.
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Thanks, Terry. My process is somewhat similar. My daily stroll through the Internet leads me to many interesting sites and articles. Some are important enough to me that I add them to the web library which I started building in the 1990s.
This library has two main sections. 1) one is my list of Chicago youth tutor and/or mentor programs; 2) a 3 part section shows a) research papers, articles and websites that show where and why these programs are needed in some places more than others; b) resources leaders can use to help non profits grow and thrive; and c) process improvement, innovation, collaboration, knowledge management, etc articles and websites.
The first section visit every summer before school starts to make sure all the links are working and to update myself on work being done by various programs. As I go through this update I often Tweet out messages pointing to websites of various programs.
The second section is much larger and I only go through the entire library about once every two years, with the same purpose of updating links, refreshing myself, Tweeting out messages highlighting resources.
As I look at these websites I look for their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram icons, then go to those sites. I add each to one of the many lists on my Twitter feed, and update my list of Facebook and Instagram pages for Chicago tutor/mentor programs. This enables me to see posts as they come across my feed. Using lists enables me to narrow my viewing to organizations and people with more specific focus.
While this enriches me I hope it also stirs the pot, and encourages others to look at the same links I’m looking at, to build their own connections, and to draw ideas that help them in their own efforts to help kids or solve other important local and global problems.
I’ve not learned to use some of the automated tools that might help me keep my library updated, eg by pointing out broken links, etc.
When I first launched this library the website hosting it enabled searches that revealed specific websites, along with most recent additions. Last January I had to move the library to the current site, and these features are limited. Thus, recently I added a new page to the site with “new additions to the library”. https://tutormentorexchange.net/resource-links/new-articles
I hope that helps people “down the rabbit hole”.
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Q-Heads unite and “Get Rhythm” and pay homage to Al Anderson’s freaking awesome guitar and vocals in this “better than a cover” version of Johnny Cash’s original:
https://youtu.be/1u8UmdH_CM4
The fact that these guys are not in the RockNRoll Hall says more about that org than it does about NRBQ.
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I need to spend a lot more time with this because it is one of those comments that pays big dividends!
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Thanks for reminding us to stay wild, and explore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zokikFd5dBg
Kevin
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Q-Heads unite and “Get Rhythm” and pay homage to Al Anderson’s freaking awesome guitar and vocals in this “better than a cover” version of Johnny Cash’s original:
https://youtu.be/1u8UmdH_CM4
The fact that these guys are not in the RockNRoll Hall says more about that org than it does about NRBQ.