If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’m piloting RSS within my organization. I started by setting nine co-workers up on Bloglines, and provided them with the following:
- A starter set of feeds
- A spiel about the value of RSS
- Methods to find feeds on sites
- My expectations for people in the pilot
- A reference sheet about RSS and where to find help
Here’s what I heard from the three folks who said no to RSS:
- Feeds aren’t engaging. I’d rather browse sites.
- Too much information. I hit “mark all read” so I don’t feel the need to read everything.
- I don’t follow particular topics on the Web. I only read the Onion and CNN.
- I like getting news alerts (from Google) better.
- I didn’t have time to do this.
Here’s what I observed from the people who say they used RSS and liked it:
- They didn’t stray too far from the starter set that I provided them with.
- But they also said that finding new feeds wasn’t hard
- Like the other group, they felt overwhelmed by the amount of information delivered in the feeds
- They agreed that it was a good way to keep track of sites that don’t update very frequently.
I’m seeing a couple of things 1) a desire for content — six out of the nine liked this form of content delivery, and 2) a request for guidance and vetting of feeds. I’m concerned that people aren’t willing to junk feeds that don’t deliver the value they expect, or to curious enough to find feeds that will capture the value they need. I provided feed hunting and pruning techniques, but it’s obviously not good enough.
Hmmm. Has anyone else piloted RSS in their organization? I’d love to hear from you.
