I've known this was coming, Matt told me about their RSS aggregator when he told me they were supporting rssCloud.

So theoretically, I should see this update over there immediately because I'm subscribed, and of course scripting.com supports rssCloud.

A couple of problems off the bat.

1. I tried subscribing to my linkblog feed, which is valid RSS, but got an error saying it couldn't find a valid feed.

2. I don't see any way to import or export an OPML subscription list. Not saying they don't have it, I just didn't find it.

And of course it's good news that Wordpress is embracing RSS fully, as a way to connect reading and writing. It's what I wish Twitter and Facebook had done from the beginning. They said it wasn't possible. It's good to see that Matt & Co didn't fall for that.

Also interesting to see that they subscribed me to some stuff before I had ever been there. They are blogs I'm interested in. How did they know?

Update: Apparently you can only subscribe to a blog, not to a feed. I have quite a few feeds that don't have blogs. No reason to. Here are a couple of examples: NYT firehose, Hacker News firehose. Thee are two of my most-used feeds.

Update: I tricked it into subscribing to Hacker News by creating a pseudo-blog "wrapper" for it and asking Wordpress to subscribe to it. However, it did not like the wrapper for my linkblog. Weird and frustrating.

 1/19/2012; 10:32:32 PM.   .

Matt Waite, a professor at University of Nebraska, has written a very timely post about the dearth of student developers to work in newsrooms and j-schools. I wrote a comment, but my browser crashed as it was submitting it. Then I posted another comment, but I put it under the wrong post. Serves me right. I should have made my rather longish comment a blog post, as I so often recommend to others. So here goes.

First read Mr. Waite's post. If you're a regular here, you will find it on-topic, in many ways.

Now, my observations.

Lots to say on this subject, but most to the point -- I have lots of working code that's relevant to journalism, and lots more ideas. Also have a track record at getting ideas adopted. Not only am I available to work with academics who want to get stuff done, I have experience at it. Just finished a two-year fellowship at NYU J-school, and also worked as a fellow at Harvard Law School to get blogging adopted across the campus.

However -- it's been over 30 years since I was a student.

There are plenty of 50-somethings like me, with lots of relevant experience who are looking for ways to contribute.

Based on my experience at NYU, I think what the young folk are mostly distracted by are the VCs, who believe the way to riches in software is through people in their early 20s. It's hard to keep them interested in school, or anyhting other than being "the next Zuck."

One more thing I wrote a piece last year about educating the journo-programmer. To summarize, I think the one skill we should be teaching all journalists is how to manage their own infrastructure. And we should help compsci students learn how to make that easier and more powerful for the journos. And the ones who have talent at the intersection will be fairly obvious.

 1/19/2012; 12:09:24 PM.   .

Now that the big blackout is behind us, does it make sense for us to be buying the products of corporate media here in the US? No, in fact it doesn't. That's where the pain really makes sense. Let Hollywood have their share.

Don't just write or call your Congressperson. They're the employees, hired help. And the people who pull the strings aren't just the entertainment execs either. They're hired to play the bad guys. The ones who want to somehow stay above the rape of the net are the stars. If they get an idea that their reps are suffering because of SOPA, they're going to act fast. That's how they make their money. It's their images that belong on this campaign, not the ones no one has heard of. Congressmen come and go. But Matt Damon wants to be making movies for decades. Same with George Clooney, Kate Winslet, Ryan Gosling, Meryl Streep.

Go through the list of actors nominated for Oscars this year. Go to actors featured at Sundance right now. That's who we ought to be contacting. And if they don't respond, make them famous for that.

Where's OccupySaltLake? Could you guys make a trip up to Park City this weekend? It might be worth it.

 1/19/2012; 10:03:22 AM.   .

Now that the big blackout is behind us, does it make sense for us to be buying the products of corporate media here in the US?

No, in fact it doesn't. That's where the pain will really make sense. Let Hollywood have their share.

And by the way, don't just write to your Congressperson. They're just the employees. The people who pull the strings aren't just the entertainment execs either. They're hired to play the bad guys. The ones who want to somehow stay above the rape of the net are the stars. If they get an idea that their reps are suffering because of SOPA, they're going to act fast. That's how they make their money. It's their images that belong on this campaign, not the ones no one has heard of. Congressmen come and go. But Matt Damon wants to be making movies for decades to come.

Go through the list of actors nominated for Oscars this year. Go to actors featured at Sundance right now. That's who we ought to be contacting. And if they don't respond, let's make them famous for that.

 1/19/2012; 10:03:18 AM.   .