It’s far from perfect yet though. In this post (and more to come probably) I’m reflecting a little bit about my ‘information strategy’ – how to get the stuff I want from the big ol’ world wide web. I am mostly inspired to start on this by reading Ton’s thoughts on information strategies, as well as a vague feeling I have that while I get a lot out of the web, it comes with plenty of pitfalls and its usage can in fact to be to my detriment if unchecked and unmanaged.
As I’m more into the IndieWeb, I guess I’m kind of looking at all this through an IndieWeb lens, but the Fediverse is a bit part of it too for me. Sometimes you hear it referred to as ‘the open web’ as a catch-all.
What I want from the web
I’m totally guilty of being technology-focused (including in this post already…), but I think for reviewing my information strategy it’s better to try to start from a question of ‘where do you get your info from and what do you do with it’ rather than ‘what technology do you use’. So in a really high-level sense, what I want to get from spending time online is:
- discovery (finding out about interesting things)
- writing & reflection (producing not just consuming, posting publicly about things I’ve read or seen, and having to think about it before I do)
- discourse & learning (getting others’ perspective on things, having my horizons expanded and my views challenged)
- relationships: I think the ‘social’ part of social media should mean forming long-lasting bonds with people, not just being ephemeral blips on each others’ radars
I also want to give back and contribute to a healthy ecosystem – so I want to share helpful information with others, and contribute to others’ discussion and reflection. Good info is good praxis.
What I don’t want
I want to spend my time well, basically. With intention.
So that means avoiding:
- staring at a screen excessively, doing the zombie scroll of doom trying to get the next hit of information or interaction
- FOMO
- information overload
- filter bubbles
- feeding of corporate beasts
Discostrat
This post originally also included me delving into my discovery strategy, but with the preceding waffle it started to become a huge post, so I’ve farmed off the discovery bit into a separate post – coming soon (UPDATE: here it is).
I also hope in upcoming posts to think out loud about the other pieces – of ‘reflection’, ‘discourse’ and ‘relationships’. I’m assuming this will all evolve over time, too, so they might actually be different topics by then. Which is where personal knowledge management and a wiki comes in, but that’s also for another day…
Jamie Tanna