Are RSS readers too hard to use?
Peterme says yes, but he thinks it can be fixed. The Shifted Librarian says no, not necessarily, and she is happy with things the way they are. This just illustrates a basic problem we have right now with incorporating new technology into existing processes.
If an entrepreneur is going to use a weblog/RSS feed to publish a newsletter, this is a problem that must be considered. Until Yahoo!/AOL/MSN/Google get something RSS-compatible built into their tool bars, a subscriber must:
1. Find a reader/aggregator, download it and install it;
2. Learn how to use the reader/aggregator;
3. Remember to check the reader/aggregator just like email is/used to be checked frequently.
It is simple for early adopters to go 1-2-3, not so simple for regular people, not so convenient for really busy people.
If you are going to add an RSS feed or replace email newsletters with RSS, remember that there is some subscriber education/change management to be done first.
Consider making it really easy to find, download, and install a reader, or to use one of the online services (always remembering that what is free today may not be free tomorrow).
It may be more effective to set up the newsletter temporarily on a web page with password-controlled access, then go to RSS.
It all depends on how important it is to your business to be able to collect opt-in contact information.
12:02:23 PM 
|
Timothy Wilken, MD writes: Human intelligence science has revealed that our enormous intelligence is the result of possessing dual minds. These dual minds create pictures of a dual world in which we live. Most of us don’t know we have dual minds and almost all of us don’t know we live in a dual world. We live in two worlds all of the time. ... The time-mind is concerned about becoming. To become somebody, I need to understand. And, if I understand something I know what it means. So understanding, allows me to develop meaning in my life. Meaning and becoming are tied integrally to understanding. Understanding leads us to predict what will happen and with accurate prediction, I can control. We humans judge our lives by how the events in our world compare to our predictions. So if nothing is going the way I predict it should—If nothing is the way it ought to be, I feel depressed. Depression results when our lives are not working as we predict they should. I predict a well deserved raise in my salary, but instead I get fired. I predict the pleasure and enjoyment of a brand new car, but I buy a lemon. I predict my wife will throw me a surprise birthday party, but she doesn’t even remember my birthday. When life does not occur as I predict it should, I am disappointed. When my experiences do not become what I expect they should, I am depressed. And, just the opposite, when things go the way I predict they should, I am satisfied and excited. I predicted I would win the award as an outstanding employee, and I won the award. I predicted I should get a new car, and I did and its even nicer than I imagined. I wanted my spouse to celebrate my birthday, and she threw me a marvelous party with all my friends.The space-mind makes a picture of the world as it "is". The space-mind’s purpose is to secure survival for the body. When it’s decisions produce high survival it feels pleasure. When its decisions produce low survival it feels pain. The space-mind tries to guide the organism towards pleasure and away from pain. ... The time-mind is in charge of understanding the world around it. The time-mind forms opinions of how the world could be or ought to be. It thinks in words and forms its words into opinions and predictations. We can have very low prediction accuracy—very low meaning. Life can be depressing. We can have low prediction accuracy—low meaning. Life can be disappointing. We can have high predictive accuracy—high meaning. Life can be satisfying. We can have very high predictive accuracy—very high meaning. Life can be exciting. Things are going the way I predict they should be going. My life is meaningful. I am becoming a success. I feel in control. (09/05/03) 