Ryan Sholin

Tag: serendipity

  • Randomer than you

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    Ryan Sholin
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    In the process of making some sort of point about “random story” buttons on news sites this morning, I added one to this blog. It’s up top in the nav for now. Look for the obviously labeled link that says “Random Post.” Or just click on this thing: But let’s be honest. This isn’t a…

  • When all I have left is my Fun folder, I win

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    Ryan Sholin
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    If you don’t use Google Reader or Bloglines or some other feed reader, you can stop reading now. OK, still here? Months ago, after at least a couple years of just throwing all my feeds in Google Reader and sorting by newest, reading from the top down and marking all as read when I felt…

  • A Newsstand for the Tablet that might work

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    Ryan Sholin
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    “Newsstand” by triin on Flickr. Mario Garcia probably believes the lifespan (halflife?) of print newspapers will stretch out ever so slightly longer than I believe, but I’m constantly inspired by his original thought about the problems associated with sustaining any version of the existing structure of journalism, assuming for the moment that it’s a good…

  • Muxtape as a model for an anti-recommendation engine

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    Ryan Sholin
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    Muxtape has my attention. It’s not terribly social. It’s not much of a network. In fact, it’s so devoid of features, there’s little to distract you from listening to music, which is what you showed up to do. The front page of the site is dead simple: A colorful list of mixtapes to listen to,…

  • Help a reporter out

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    Ryan Sholin
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    Peter Shankman launched something really, really interesting to me today at HelpAReporter.com. The premise: He works in PR and has a list of reliable and credible sources a mile long; his reporter friends are constantly asking him who they should call about [your story topic here]. Check it out, sign up, and maybe you can…

  • Real Time – WSJ.com

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    Ryan Sholin
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    Jason Fry, a newspaper columnist actually writing in support of serendipity in online news on the Web. Shocked, I tell you, I’m shocked. Seriously, it’s about time… Real Time – WSJ.com

  • Search drives serendipity, a continuing conversation

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    Ryan Sholin
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    [Ed. note: This is the text of an e-mail I sent in reply to a comment a J-School professor from the University of Florida left on a post from a couple months ago regarding Serendipity on the Web. Part of his reply is posted at the end of this post.] Hi Prof. McKeen – Thanks…

  • Serendipity on the Web

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    Ryan Sholin
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    Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You, makes an effort to do away with the vicious rumor that the Internet, Web, RSS, blogs, etc. have killed serendipity. For the uninitiated, or those who merely like words such as “ephemeral” or “paradigm” but try not to get bogged down in definitions, serendipity is…