Two Percent Nation

New Year, New Media Diet

I only made it half-way through Mark Hurst's Bit Literacy book (though I did just throw it back in my backpack with the intent to finish). However I have taken one of his key messages about managing the "bits" (the sum of the digital info we consume) to heart for the new year.  That message is that one way to manage the avalanche of bits we are becoming overwhelmed by is to simply reduce the bits. I have such a voracious new media appetite that I have found myself drowning in email and blog subscriptions.  I've also noticed significant overlap in the content of many of my subscriptions . So I've begun a massive campaign to unsubscribe and it feels GOOD.  I'm not looking to cut myself off from the information that I care about so I am keeping the sources that are most valuable and comprehensive. And because of the great Viigo RSS reader for my BlackBerry, which makes it easy to keep track of what I have and haven't read and catch up on information nearly any time and anywhere, I am leaning more towards blogs and away from email newsletters (call me old-fashioned but I still like these).  So if you're feeling a little overwhelmed yourself, start thinking about that unsubscribe link.

Going Pink for October

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and in an effort to do my part I have turned my blog pink as part of the Pink for October campaign. If you've got your own blog I encourage you to do the same.  I'm working on another awareness campaign of my own which I hope to launch in the next few days.

Get this blog in your email inbox

For those of you who repeatedly find your way to this blog by Googling my name because you can't remember the URL and you don't like to use bookmarks (you know who you are) I have a new option for you! I've just added a mini-form at the top left of the blog (under the photo of my mug) to subscribe to this blog by email.  I've just set it up but theoretically you will get an email every time I post to this blog.  Pretty cool free service from Feedblitz which I saw when checking out Gotham Gal's blog. Step right up and subscribe!

AvantGo adds support for RSS

I've been a long-time user of AvantGo, one of the oldest and most useful PDA applications out there.  For those that don't know, AvantGo is essentially a free, ad-supported news clipping application.  When I sync my Treo 600 to my PC or wirelessly I get updated articles from participating content sources.  AvantGo had been dormant for quite some time but in the last few months has released an upgrade to its Palm application as well as released its first Blackberry application.

In addition to subscribing to pre-set channel feeds AvantGo has for some time allowed you to basically scrape a webpage - everytime you sync the system will grab the most recent version of that page up to a certain max KB size.  I've used this to subscribe to blogs that I read like Steve Rubel's Micropersuasion.  I've found this less than ideal because the formatting of the content is inconsistent and often hard to read.  As a result I started to consider whether to buy an RSS reader for my Treo.  There aren't many out there but I looked at Quick News but wasn't sure I was ready to give up my free app to buy this.

Then I read today that AvantGo was launching support for RSS.  It was quick and easy to sign up online for a few feeds  (Micropersuasion, A VC  and Roger Ebert Headlines).  A quick sync and I had the latest content on my Treo.  The content is well-formatted and easy to read.  I'm looking forward to using this more and am pretty sure this is my mobile RSS solution of choice.

Treonauts reviews some other Treo 650 RSS readers here.

I found my deodorant and Unilever found me!

So in a previous post I talked about how I couldn't find my favorite deodorant (Degree Sport solid) that I've been using for over 10 years. Truth be told, after trying three different Duane Reades in Manhattan I was able to finally find my Degree Sport a few days after I posted my entry. 

However ... it turns out one of the marketing folks at Unilever was monitoring the blogosphere and happened to come across my blog post. I received an email from Mike Fortner letting me know that Degree Sport was indeed still on the market and he suggested ways I might find the product at retail using the Unilever website. In addition he expressed his appreciation for my passion and loyalty for their product and offered to send me a complimentary case of Degree Sport. I have since received the package and should be set for deodorant for at least a year!

Being a product marketing person myself I recognize the value in keeping tabs on what customers are saying about your product.  Kudos to Mike for seeing what I wrote and taking action to make a loyal customer even more devoted.

Why "Two Percent Nation"?

I have this weird thing that I have been doing subconsciously for as long as I can remember where anytime I read of, hear of, or think of a name or a phrase that seems at all interesting I run it through the Potential Band Name filter in my head.  For example, I might look over at the unframed mirror leaning against the bookcase in my den and say to myself: "Unframed mirror.  Could 'Unframed Mirror' be a cool band name?"  The idea being that one day I might actually start a band and so therefore should have a catalog of potentially cool, and of course very original, band names.

So as I've been reading more and more blogs over the last 12 months and thinking about starting my own blog this Potential Band Name filter has become a Potential Blog Name filter.  Once I realized that what I would probably be writing about is the same stuff I read about (web, wireless & gadgets . . . with some entertainment stuff mixed in) I started to think about a name that could describe this narrow area of topics that I was interested in . . . and that I thought a small fraction of the known internet-reading universe might be interested in.  Then one day I was listening to Casiotone Nation by Soul Coughing, one of my favorite bands.  The frontman M. Doughty sings/speaks these lyrics "The five percent Nation of corduroy . . . The five percent Nation of Casiotone."  The Potential Blog Name filter goes off in my head and I said hmmm . . . "Five Percent Nation" . . . not a bad blog name.

A little research into the phrase revealed that Five Percent Nation was actually the name of an African-American social/religious movement . . . so that wasn't going to work.  I really liked the phrase though and settled on the smaller, more humble "Two Percent Nation" (why the number 2 specifically is another story).  It also didn't hurt that there were only 7 Google results for this phrase search - so no chance of confusion.

There you have it.  First real post to come very shortly.