I find PubSub extremely useful for tracking themes and topics I’m interested in.
For instance, one of the PubSub subscriptions I have looks for blog posts that contain the phrases “organizational communication” and “corporate communication.” Every instance it finds, it sends me the posts as an RSS feed which I then see in FeedDemon.
PubSub says it tracks over 6.7 million data sources, so there’s an enormous pool to fish in for information. For the sub I mentioned, the matching is very broad on terms such as these, so I’ll get items that will include mention of these phrases when they’re someone’s job title, say, or where the topic of the news item really isn’t something I have any interest in.
But such a broad match occasionally throws up something that really is very interesting, and which I would likely never have known about otherwise, therefore making it even more worthwhile.
A great example – today I saw a post by David A. Gilbert, PhD, the Adjunct Professor of Organizational Communication (hence how I got this in my PubSub feed) in the Department of Communication Arts at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.
Prof. Gilbert writes in the SmartMobs blog:
I am conducting a project with my students that might interest you. Our “Art Mobs” team is using mobile text messaging and podcasting to allow people to experience art in a new way. Along with the Department of Art and the mobile arts organization YellowArrow, we are hosting a gallery event on Wednesday, Dec. 8, here in Manhattan to showcase our technologies. The show is open to the public, and guests can read about the event, view an instructional video, and download the podcast at http://mod.blogs.com/art_mobs.
We hope that interested folks in the area will show up with mobile phones and ipods loaded with the podcast. We’d be honored if you’d join us– if any of you are in the New York area this week–and / or blog us!
If I were in New York tomorrow, I’d be there, even without an iPod!