I Like To Watch Feed

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Today I discovered Cityzenjane's blog and her i_like_to_watch tag/delicious rss feed via a comment to one of my blog posts. At first, I thought it was comment spam promoting a porno site but far from it.

The I LIKE TO WATCH tag (and feed) identifies provocative, proactive, or practical videos that feature sustainability leaders talking about solutions or what she describes as "Viral video and the bright green future." Cityzenjane's goal for this feed is to provide you with content that will inspire you to make a great green future. (She's just the type of nonprofit tagger we're looking for over at the NP Tagovates Affinity Group at N-TEN.)

I suspected she might be nonprofit techie and a quick look at her "about page" confirms it. "By trade I'm a web developer for a non-profit focused on sustainabilty." Her blog is not focused on one topic "because that is a basic impossibility for me an extremely curious generalist with interests in: technology, social history, change, progress, politics, economics, current affairs, biology, evolutionary biology, civil society, soveriegnty, botany, literature, music(s), ethnomusicology, enthobotany, NYC, urban life, art, participatory culture, the gift economy, community building, innovation, science fiction, gardening, and very broadly - environmentalism - for starters."

Here's my interview with her:

I am curious as to whether or not you work for a nonprofit organization?

Yes, I do work for an environmental non-profit. I started my blog as a test bed for theories I have about blogging and it's growing impact. I started something I call The Show Me Experiments. For my non-web, non-technical managers who needed to see something more than my enthusiasm for technology. It's a given that the geek in the corner office, me - would get excited about web 2.0 for instance, but why should my managers? Concrete examples were needed.

What results?

I am still in the process of convincing our board and the managers that we need to be more responsive, but this requires much more than technology. It requires the ability to change our internal culture. That is proving to be the real challenge. But I'm making progress and my personal blog and The Show Me Experiments have been a huge part of that progress! (Here's one of her experiments)

Tell me more about your blog?

My blog is only a few months out the gate. I am still finding my way. I am a very classic generalist -- very broad with a few deep pools of knowledge. My blog is partially a place for me to make sense of the rush of information coming at me. For me to see where my own true interests lie. I understand that to have a well read blog most bloggers are working very hard to specialize and target a subject area and become an expert. I don't really have commercial aims for my blog so it is more a playground and archive for my brain, which I hope will be useful to whoever happens by.

What is your interest in viral video and why did you start that feed?

I did happen on the idea that providing a valuable service would be a worthwhile thing to do. As I am an avid viral video fan and spend way too much of my own time seeking and sorting out great video and audio about sustainability, science and activism (primarily) I started two tagged feeds called "I Like To Watch" for video and "Juicy Pods" for audio.

Juicy Pods is not really running yet. I'm still working out the kinks on the video feed.

Who is the audience for your feed?

I have about 20 regular subscribers now. Mostly people who run green blogs I suspect. I'd love some feedback on how it could be more useful.

What is your favorite viral video find?

Robert Newman: On the History of Oil
(Robert if you are listening - I want to adopt ten babies to help run our idyllic post apocalyptic farmstead. A girl can dream can't she?)

Tell me about your experience with tagging. Why do you tag? What are the values of tagging for you and your audience? What advice would you offer to nonprofits who want to use tagging?

Well, I just really started getting into it. I find it helps me to concentrate since I can unburden my brain by tagging something for easy retrieval-later should that topic become pressing. I stumbled upon the RSS feed idea when I noticed it was available at the bottom of my del.i.cio.us page.

I can't think of any specific recomendations for non-profits specifically with regard to tagging alone but I would suggest more broadly the techies pay attention to what Tim Berners Lee is saying about the semantic web. Data interoperability is the thing that is going to take the entire global research community to the next stage of information navigation and retrieval. Tagging is a small part of that.

I would love it if my i_like_to_watch tag was adopted widely so that the collaborative filtering aspect of tags could help me separate wheat from chaff. Even with tagging I spend about ten hours a weekend viewing and tagging videos. It's a bit of an obsession at this point I'm afraid.

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