Newsfeed Intelligence

I do not like forums because you have to poll the website to see if there is anything new posted. I prefer mailing lists because they are event-driven: when new content is posted, it is e-mailed to you.

Sometimes, though, I get overwhelmed by my mailing list subscriptions and I end up just filing the e-mail in a folder instead of actually reading it. For example, the Accelerating Intelligence News e-mail newsletter is great stuff but I often do not have time to read it when it arrives. Most of the newsletters I receive from this source sit unread in my ever-expanding "read someday" folder.

Fortunately you can also get this same e-mail newsletter via an RSS newsfeed. Whenever I have the time to do a little reading, I can simply click on an icon and my Sage newsfeed reader will immediately poll all my favorite newsfeed sites for me. It has the advantage of forums in that the content does not clog up your e-mail but it does not have the disadvantage of necessitating that you poll each of the forum websites manually.

The Yahoo Groups electronic mailing lists are great in that you can now access the content via e-mail subscription, the website, or an RSS newsfeed. Is this an example of convergence?