Dear Randy: How Do You "Collect" All of Those Links?

Reader John in email asked this question recently, and after a followup on my part asking exactly what he meant, he mentioned my weekly Best of the Genea-Blogs posts and the bi-weekly Genealogy News Bytes posts.

For the record, this process is called "Curation."

Here is how I do it:

1)  I use the Feedly news reader, which faithfully collects every article published online by websites that I specify.  I add the URL for a specific blog or news site into Feedly and the system finds the articles and presents them to me more or less in chronological order of posting.

By using Feedly (or another news reader), I avoid having to enter a URL into my browser for every site I want to read, or by having a list of Favorites or Bookmarks in my browser and then going through them one by one every day.

I separate my selected sites into different Feeds (like a folder) that I have named - my feeds include Genealogy, News, Politics, Lifestyle, and Uncategorized.  I started out with Uncategorized and still have hundreds of sites in the feed.  The "All" feed includes all of the sub-feeds, and is what I usually use.

In the "Genealogy" feed, I currently have about 280 sites, and in the "Uncategorized" feed, I have about 480 sites that are genealogy related.  So I can "read" about 760 genealogy sites whenever I want IF they have a new article that I have not previously read.

I have other reading interests that are in my Feedly reader - Technology, Sports, Politics, Religion, Science, etc. that are in my other Feeds.

Here is a screen shot of my "Uncategorized" feed taken about 10 minutes ago:

The "Feeds" are on the left side of the screen.  The content of the "Feed" is on the right side of the screen.  I always read in "Article View" but I could choose "Title Only View," "Magazine View," or "Cards View" from the dropdown menu (shown above) if that mode appealed to me.

If I find a new web site that I want to add to my Feed, I can select the "Create New Feed" on the left, and add the URL for the new site, and I used to be able to select one of my subject Feeds but now that doesn't work for some reason.  Perhaps it's because I'm still using the FREE Feedly version - there is a monthly fee Feedly version with more useful options.

2)  I can scroll down on the article on the right side of the screen to read the entire article.  I can advance to the next article by clicking the ">" icon on the right side of the screen, or by tapping the "J" key.  I can go back to the last article by clicking the "<" icon on the left side of the screen, or by tapping the "K" key.   This makes reading very efficient.  The Feed loads many articles at one time so that I don't have to wait for an article to load.

I can click on the title of the article to go to the actual web site to see the content, make a comment, or check out other features on the web site.

3)  I read the whole set of articles on the "All" Feed early each morning, and return to that several times each day, including late at night (usually about 9 p.m.).  Sometimes, if I'm away from home, I read Feedly on my iPhone or tablet - they access my Feedly account.  I am never far away from Feedly to keep me informed about what's happening in my information world.

Although I have about 760 genealogy related feeds, not every site has one or more articles every day, or even every week.  Many of my selected sites are dormant.  My guess, based on my experience, is that I see about 400 articles a day in Feedly, of which about 120 are genealogy related.  I

I don't read every article completely - if the subject and first paragraph don't interest me, I advance to the next article.  I estimate that I spend about two hours every day reading on Feedly.

4)  So to the question at hand - how do I collect links for the Best of and News Bytes posts?

*  For the Best of the Genea-Blogs post, I start the post on Sunday afternoon for the week ahead and schedule the post for the next Sunday noon.  I copy the semi-permanent part of the post from the last post into the new post.

I open the Best Of post in the morning and leave it open on my browser all day.  When I find a target post in Feedly that I want to add to the Best Of post, I click the target post title in Feedly, copy and paste the title of the target post on the web site into the Best Of post, copy and paste the URL of the target post to the line in the Best Of post, and add the author and web site name (with the web site URL).  That takes 10 to 30  seconds to do, depending on how much typing I have to do and how many errors I make.

The key thing for me is to "touch" each post in Feedly just once and make the judgment -- should I include it in the Best Of post or not?

*  For the Genealogy News Bytes post, I use the "Genealogy" and "Uncategorized" Feeds and go back over the previous three or four days for titles and URLs to add to the list for the categories of News Articles, New or Updated Collections, and Podcasts.  I check Family Tree Webinars for Webinars, YouTube for Videos, and my Google Alerts in email for DNA Stories.   Each of these posts takes 60 to 90 minutes to write depending on how many links I have to add to the list.

5)  As you can see, Feedly is the key for me to curate lists of blog posts for my readers and me, and provides the ability to stay fairly up-to-date, which is important.  

I often use these curated posts to find past articles of interest to me.

Thank you, John, for the question, and I'm sure not many readers have read to the end of this post!  The process is boring, isn't it?

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/10/dear-randy-how-do-you-collect-all-of.html

Copyright (c) 2019, Randall J. Seaver

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Three Days of Genealogy Blogging Statistics

I read James Tanner's post What is the Future of Genealogical Blogs on 3 November and pondered how to respond.  One of James main concerns was that "Almost all the blog posts I now see now are created by commercial enterprises."

I decided that if I was going to discuss that issue, I had better have some statistics.  So, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week I have been compiling statistics about "Personal genealogy" blogs, "Corporate genealogy" blogs, and "Non-genealogy blogs" that I read with Feedly.

I have over 1,600 blogs in my Feedly reader, but only about 1,500 are for genealogy.  I have news, technology, humor, science, sports and other blog genres in my Feedly list.

Here are my statistics:

1)  Wednesday, 4 November:

*  Personal genealogy blogs - 79 posts
*  Corporate genealogy blogs - 34 posts
*  Non-genealogy blogs - I didn't count them.

2)  Thursday, 5 November:

*  Personal genealogy blogs - 95 posts
*  Corporate genealogy blogs - 34 posts
*  Non-genealogy blogs - 228 posts

3)  Friday, 6 November:

*  Personal genealogy blogs - 87 posts
*  Corporate genealogy blogs - 35 posts
*  Non-genealogy blogs - 197 posts

So, from the genealogy-related blogs - there are 261 that I classified as "personal," and 103 that I classified as "corporate."  So about 70% of the genealogy blog posts were personal.

I tried to note different types of "corporate genealogy" blog posts - examples are press releases, corporate blog posts (e.g., Ancestry, Findmypast, FamilySearch, GenealogyBank, Legacy Family Tree, etc.), organization blog posts (e.g., NEHGS, TNA, NIGS, NGS, SCGS), and professional blogger posts (e.g., Dick Eastman, Lisa Cooke, Leland Meitzler, etc.).

Now, James may be reading (or not reading) the same genealogy blogs that I read.  I don't have his list and he doesn't have mine.  My guess is he reads all of the corporate blogs I do, but few of the personal blogs.

So it all comes down to "what blogs do you read."  I was surprised by some of my statistics:

*  I think the number of personal genealogy blog posts has gone down over the past year.

*  I think the number of corporate blog posts has gone up over the past year.

*  Very few genealogy bloggers post each day (less than 10%).

*  I was shocked that genealogy blog posts are only 36% of all of the blog posts I receive in my Feedly reader.  I know where I can save some time!

I will do a similar statistics dump sometime next year to see if the trends continue.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/11/three-days-of-genealogy-blogging.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Top Ten Tools I Use For Genealogy Every Day

Cyndi Ingle recently asked a question on Facebook for discussion: 

"One of the new lectures is "Ten Resources I Use Every Day." Top 10 lists seem to be a popular thing. I remember being asked on many occasions to create top 10 lists of sites to present in lectures at conferences. Thus, this lecture idea was born. I've been adding to an outline for a while now. It is all the things I do and all the things I use during the day that make me more efficient, organized, and a better researcher. I have a lot more than 10 of them. It's 55 so far. So, I organized them into 10 categories. Ha! What are your favorite 10 resources?"

I responded on Facebook, but now I can't find Cyndi's post (Facebook doesn't show us everything a person posts!).  So this list may be a bit different from my Facebook answer.

Previously, I have written these other Top 10 posts:

*  My Top 10 Online Genealogy Research Resources (23 February 2015)

*  My Top 10 Genealogy Family Tree Resources (25 February 2015)

*  My Top 10 Genealogy Education Resources (6 March 2015)

This is my list of the Top 10 Tools I use every day to pursue my genealogy addiction obsession hobby:

1)  My Dell desktop computer with Windows 7, now four+ years old and almost full of stuff.  It's running slower and slower.  It is indispensable with thousands of documents, images, videos and more that support doing my genealogy research, reporting and education.  I count the external hard rive as part of this system.  I couldn't do it without it.

2)  The RootsMagic genealogy software program.  I have all of my research conclusions, plus record images, sources, notes, to-do list, research log, and more in this program.  I can add and edit content on the FamilySearch Family Tree from within RootsMagic.

3)  Blogger.  I write several posts almost every day using Blogger, which is part of Google.  It is easy to use, and using it consumes a major part of my day - 1 to 3 hours at least.

4)  Google.  I use Google for Chrome (web browser), Mail, Drive, Search, Translate, Images, Books, Maps, Calendar, and more.  It makes my online life organized.  

5)  Feedly news reader.  I read content from over 1,500 blogs on my Feedly news reader.  It is indispensable for me for what I do with my blog.

6)  My iPhone.  I read my email, and sometimes Feedly, and Facebook, and much more on my iPhone.  I use the RootsMagic and Ancestry.com mobile apps when I'm in a repository to see what I already have.  I use the conference mobile apps when I'm at a conference.  I use it as my main camera, and photos sync to iPhoto on my desktop computer.

7)  Facebook.  My blog posts go automatically to Facebook so that my 1,600 friends can see what I've written recently.  I keep track of what my daughters and their families are doing, plus extended family.  My Facebook friends are mainly genealogy related, so I get lots of news, and photos, and stories, from them every day.  Facebook also has many interest Groups that serve as message boards.

8)  Google+.  This is a social media platform, and I have a significant number of genealogists in circles.  I post information about my blog posts, and occasionally other tidbits, on Google+.  I love the Hangouts and Hangouts On Air where I can talk to, collaborate, or expound upon genealogy topics.  I try to participate in DearMYRTLE's Mondays With Myrt almost every week.

9)  OpenOffice program with Writer (word processor), Impress (presentation), and Calc (spreadsheet).  I use Write and Impress almost every day.  Many of my screen shots on the blog are copied into Impress to be saved and then imported into blog posts.

10)  Dropbox.  I save important computer files (RootsMagic database, presentations, family photos, reference books, conference syllabi, website backup, and research articles) to a free Dropbox account.  
I didn't list my Dell Laptop computer in my top 10 because I only use it to give presentations and classes, or when I'm away from home on a trip.  It has almost all of my major tools accessible on it.

I didn't list my all-in-one HP printer/scanner/copier machine because I use it infrequently now.  Most of my old family photos have been scanned, and the rest are digital photos.  I do print things out occasionally (e.g., syllabus articles) but it often sits idle all day.

I have many more tools that I use, but they aren't as important to me as the ones above, and I don't use them as often.  

We all have different tools that we use to pursue our genealogy and family history.  What do you use?  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/03/top-ten-genealogy-resources-i-use-every.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

I've Switched to Feedly for My Blog Reading

When I heard that Google Reader was shutting down on 30 June 2013, my reaction was "oh no, how will I be able to read the 1,4xx blogs that I am subscribed to on Google Reader?"

I decided to wait for someone smarter than me to figure out what RSS reader feeds were available to use as a substitute, and the consensus, at least among bloggers that I read, is that Feedly (www.feedly.com) works nearly the same as Google Reader.  There are differences, however.

So I registered (for FREE) for Feedly last month, and have been using it all of this week.  Here are some screen shots, with some of the features of Feedly:

1)  My default screen shows All of the unread posts in Full post mode under the "My Feedly" column in the left-hand column:

At the top of the left-hand column is a link for "Add content" - you can add a feed by clicking that button.

I'm also showing the complete list of the blogs in my feed (there is a small icon to the left of the "Uncategorized" word in the left column - click that and all of your blog titles will appear).  There are link items in the left-hand column for:

*  Today
*  Saved for Later
*  All
*  Uncategorized

and below the list of blogs on my page above, there are link items for:

*  Index
*  Recently Read
*  Preferences
*  Themes
*  Feedly Blog
*  Help

Here is the bottom of one of the posts:

Further down the right-hand column, at the bottom of each post, there are icons for:

*  Google+1
*  Twitter
*  LinkedIn
*  Facebook
*  Buffer (?)
*  M.416 (?)
*  Save for Later
*  Tag
*  Other social Media
*  Remove from the list

2)  At the top of the right-hand column, are the headings for the list type (in my case, the category "All"), a link for "keyboard shortcuts," and on the right side of the top line are icons for:

*  title only view,
*  magazine view,
*  cards view
*  full article view
* mark as read,
* change layout and filtering
*  refresh
*  jump to next (the next category when in a category list)

2)  Here is the "Cards View:"

3)  Here is the "Magazine View:"

4)  Here is the "Titles View:"

5)  If I switch to read a specific blog, by clicking on the blog name in the blog list in the left-hand column), the latest post for that blog shows up:

The information at the top of the right-hand column changes to include the blog title, an "Edit" button and a "Remove" button.

6)  I was curious about the "keyboard shortcuts" so I clicked on it, and a popup window lists the keyboard shortcuts available to the user:

Those shortcuts have at least some of the keystrokes I'm used to on Google Reader (I've only used the J and K keys...I guess I missed the others!).

One thing that I don't like about Feedly (and maybe it's there and I haven't found it yet) is that it doesn't list previously read items on the "All" list in the right-hand column.  I often read past the end of the "unread" list on Google Reader (mainly because I've read some on the iPhone app but haven't been able to add them to a Best Of post), and I would like that capability.  I cannot remember everything these days...

The URL for this post is:

copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver