Eco-Responsibility...e-Subscriptions...
While cleaning out my office (see previous blog) I came across a stack of periodicals that I haven't gotten around to, nor will ever get around to, reading. It was pretty clear to me that from an eco-responsibility perspective that it didn't make sense for me to get "hard copy" versions of these because I had clearly demonstrated that I wasn't going to read them. Additionally they are a relatively inefficient (e.g. low signal to noise ratio) way to get the information that I am interested in. So instead it makes much more sense to get e-subscriptions via RSS/XML feeds (see previous blog) to stop wasting paper while tailoring the information to my needs. Network World is a great example of a weekly periodical (fortunately they went to smaller magazine size) that also has a robust set of available RSS feeds to select from. Channel Reseller News is another example of a weekly magazine that has very good selection of RSS/XML feeds at http://crn.com/rss/rssSignup.jhtml. The updside is less clutter, less wasted paper, and better tailored information. The downside though is that diameter of the information fire hose only gets bigger.
