Kennedy-Spaien, Dot Com

“Extending the conversation” is what New Media is all about. We should be doing everything possible to facilitate this. There are interesting things being said that you may be missing! The fix is a two way street for bloggers and blog readers.

Bloggers: Do you have a comments feed? If not, get one, pronto. On WordPress it is as simple as putting up a link to:
www.yourdomain.com/yourblogdirectory/comments/feed/. You can even burn it at feedburner!

A caveat:
Chris Brogan has a WordPress blog at www.chrisbrogan.com, BUT if you really look at it, he’s using an URL redirect to:
www.grasshopperfactory.com/cbc/.
Don’t try to use the vanity address to hack this. Instead use:
http://www.grasshopperfactory.com/cbc/comments/feed/

For other blog platforms, you’re on your own, but it can’t be that hard.

Blog readers: Look for comment feeds and add them to your feed reader of choice (I still prefer Bloglines over the more newfangled Pageflakes or Google Reader). If you can’t find a comment feed listed and the site in question has the text “Powered by WordPress” in the footer, you can subscribe using the above-mentioned URL formula anyway.

So, let’s ALL extend the conversation!

A long time ago, I soured on “hosted solutions” such as Blogger/Blogspot blogs and the like. I have had content just go away magically, and that is a sad thing!

Working with Grasshopper New Media, especially in the earliest days, was all about leveraging other people’s bandwidth. Chris Brogan had us using free dropboxen, PBWiki, free groupware, etc. Chris has a great nose for trying out and adopting new services.

I’ve come around a bit thanks to this influence, chiefly because Chris changed my email account over to Gmail for Domains last fall. That actually worked out incredibly well.

So now, I try to leverage all kinds of services where appropriate… Blip.TV, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, FeedBurner, etc, etc. I suppose one advantage of using so many different (yet somewhat redundant) services is that if content disappears from one, it is still available somewhere else.

One thing I have been holding off on is implementing a GNMHealth wiki. I did set one up at PBWiki for the Health Hacks Podcast, but it isn’t in use.

So I’m now thinking about trying Ning. They offer complete social suites with forums, wiki, photo sharing, etc. You can have your own little MySpace! It seems big, though, and not to be taken on casually. Do I really want to monitor forums, for instance? Is there enough of an audience for the shows yet to support an online community? I just don’t know.

I would be interested to hear your perspectives on Ning, though. Have you seen it? If not, why not have a look.

UPDATE:

Justin Kownacki just Twittered about this same dilemma. Somehow a simple answer came to me when HE asked: It depends on the size and dedication of your audience. Ergo: No, GNMHealth is NOT ready yet.