We constantly hear the refrain that there is too much "stuff" being created on the web, that blogging is dead, that real thought is being pushed behind the noise of daily trivial conversations. So what? How is that different from how we've ever interacted? What's different now is that our localized, trivial, ephemeral conversations are no longer localized or ephemeral, but permanent, stored, logged for everyone to see, index, search. They are still trivial

I've been having a conversation close to this topic with @bryanlanders about how to present our data to other people; how do we present information and hold conversations in methods and manners preferred by the users and not the creators (site owners)?

There is no monolithic right answer and probably never will be. Some will want to dip into the stream at times, others will want to be constantly engaged in real-time, while others will want to come back to things they may have missed, and those different interaction methods create the need for different filtering tools and processes. We have different levels for "too much", "too public", "too private", "too trivial" et. al.

We each create our own filtering systems for our own lives, and while there is great scope for innovation in the area of conversational tracking and management, the key will be less about creating the "right" method but in making sure that all our filtering methods and conversational tools work together.

So that's a relatively small number of people. Call that Part 1 of my Enterprise 2.0 List.

Part 2 comes from tracking keywords. I set up a Room on FriendFeed that tracks tweets and Del.icio.us bookmarks related to Enterprise 2.0 (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/enterprise-2-0): enterprise 2.0, e2.0, social software, social computing. Now I'm tracking a much larger number of people, but only for topics I care about.

My Enterprise 2.0 List thus is…all content by a select few, select content by all.

Final touch for all this? Pop that List into its own real-time window. FriendFeed's real-time is similar to an Adobe Air client, but it's all browser based. Set to the side of your monitor and easily track the conversational flow.

It's not quite your alerts for tracking specific high value content by certain individuals (e.g. "Stowe Boyd just related Flow to SAP's efforts on collaboration"). But it's a pretty good roll-your-own system for staying on top of things.

I agree with that sense of being fractured around different communities and I too lack a certainty of how to integrate that conversation. I would tend to agree that FriendFeed, from the limited exposure I have to it, has the best chance of the tools to date, but as you say, what of the many who are not on there? I find some of the conversational aspects of FriendFeed appealing but I have a hard enough time keeping up with the Twitterstream in between bouts of deadlines.

I like this distinction between breaking news and deeper analysis. I think our participation in these communities all depends on our agendas. Figuring out why we do what we do is a help, though it doesn’t solve all the problems of which tools to use. I loved your line: “it is in the analysis that I find the meanings that matter to me. That still requires the assimilation of many sources but it also means parsing through the layers of nuance.” That’s definitely more what I shoot for in my own work, though it’s more of a vision of something I’m aiming for than something I achieve. But I have a clear enough idea of it that it dictates for me that I’m not someone who needs to break news or have Scoble’s impressive volume of contacts.

I’m having a related issue because I had been posting some more personal and social commentary on my Facebook page. I got weary of “friends” posting annoying and mean-spirited stuff on my wall. So, I stopped posting. Now a few peeps are trying to get me to resume my rants. But again, it feels fragmented as you say. How many web sites do I want to have a presence on? And does it ever come together? Especially when you have diverse interests and passions?

I don’t have an answer so I look forward to seeing other comments to your post. I haven’t decided whether to return to my Facebook stuff. Right now, strangely enough, I find the SAP commentary I’m trying to do more compelling, maybe because there are so many exceptionally bright people as part of that community right now that inspire me to continue there. The one thing I do know is that, for myself, I tend to prefer finding a few areas of focus than getting too spread out. I appreciate you inviting me onto FriendFeed and I will definitely try it more, but I do worry about getting spread too thin – especially at a point where I do have to turn in some billable work also. This type of online interaction makes my work much more informed, but then, after I point, I have to do the work. And finding time to do that focused work has become one of my biggest challenges of all.

See you online soon.

- Jon -