My input content streams, content management and content sharing tools

Triggered by this year’s #wolweek (Working Out Loud), I tweeted the following:

any suggestions to transition my content input/curation (Evernote/Twitter/Pocket/Instagram/Degreed) hell from chaos to order? #wolweek #wol

— Simon Fogg (@srjf) 11 November 2016

This got minimal response but one response was from David Blake (CEO, Degreed):

@srjf can connect on the topic david@degreed.com. Happy be helpful where I can

— David Blake (@davidblake) 11 November 2016

I decided to structure this post specifically for David but hopefully the post is of wider interest and will galvanise me into action to sort out my current content practices.

A bit about me and learning (given that Degreed’s tagline is “The Learning Platform”):-

• 2016: started/completed my 20th MOOC on various platforms (summary)
• 2016: started building a free-to-all project management basics MOOC as a hobby seeing what I could achieve using Teachable’s free platform and tools
  • This was after my 19th MOOC “Making MOOCs on a Budget”
  • Progress summary
• 2016: started using Degreed as a curation tool (including doing a demo for a fellow learner)
• 2013: first introduced to MOOCs via stumbling over Daphne Koller’s seminal TED talk “What we're learning from online education”

Everything below here was pre-internet …

• 1980s/90s/2000s: doing a number of technical classroom-based courses in my career field of IT and some CBT courses that were exclusively text based on a PC
• 1990s: MBA by Distance Learning at Strathclyde Graduate Business School
  • via printed materials and cassette tapes sent through the post
• 1980-1984: getting a First BA (Hons) in Business Studies and Management Science at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
  • this was the first First that the University awarded for that combined degree course
• 1973-1980: strict educational background at school including doing “O” and “A” levels at Loughborough Grammar School in the UK between 1973 and 1980 (founded in 1495, one of the oldest schools in the UK) where strong academic prowess was the main objective

Current Challenges/Issues

1. No clear process for how to handle “incoming” content. I basically make this up as I go along. There is a modus operandi but is loose.
2. Lots of buckets of input content/bookmarks stacking up and no review process (so no “Inbox Zero”-like process going on).
3. Although I get good feedback for the quality and appropriateness of content that I share proactively (where the other person has not requested specific input) and reactively (in response to tweets and other requests that I see), I know this can be even better.
4. I am a consumer and sharer of other people’s content (I am a bit of a magpie) rather than a producer or curator of content. I would like to be more of a content producer and curator.
5. I get really frustrated when I know I have seen some ideal content to address a specific issue but can’t find it!
6. I am currently reading Cal Newport’s Deep Work and being challenged, as a result, to remove the distractions and spend significantly more time doing one thing at a time deeply.
7. I am also a butterfly with lots of interests and love jumping between subjects. This needs channelling much better. For example, I find it a challenge to pick the next book I should read.
8. Definitely need to engage with content more deeply. I used to be an avid note taker as a means of remembering and understanding content.
9. No firm directory structure for files held on the laptop and then on the hard disk drives.

Content that I am Managing or Need To Manage

1. MS Office files
2. Google Docs/Sheets etc files
3. Music files (mp3s etc)
4. Podcast Files
5. Physical Books
6. E-Books (Kindle, EPUB, PDF formats)
7. Tweets
8. Web Page URLs
9. DVDs
10. Video files
11. Scanned documents
12. Photographs
13. Image files
14. etc etc

Hardware Tools That I Use and Summary of How I Use Them

1. Sony Vaio Laptop running Windows 7, MS Office 2013
   • My work laptop that is also used for personal use.
   • My main device.
   • Chrome is my browser of choice.
   • iTunes manages my music/podcast collection and syncing playlists to the iPad/iPod.
2. Samsung S7 Edge mobile phone
   • Mobile internet use.
3. iPad (3rd Generation)
   • My main e-book reader.
   • Internet use when I am in “sitting in armchair” mode.
4. iPad Nano (7th Generation)
   • Always on in the car when I am commuting to listen to podcasts.
5. 2 x External Disk Drives (both Western Digital, 1 is a Personal Cloud device)
   • Typical backup configurations with both holding identical content as 2 copies of every file

Input Content Streams and How I “Manage” Them

1. Web sites, web pages, tweets, initial info about books/music albums/films/YouTube videos/etc that are new to me are saved to Evernote
   • One main Evernote inbox folder which has never got down to zero! Currently standing at 3,441 notes
   • Some attempt at having other Evernote folders for incoming content and some classification of that content but I have never really structured Evernote folders and not used tags to date.
2. I have a number of Evernote folders that hold Tweets from specific users created by IFTTT
   • This seemed like a good idea at the time but I have rarely used them. One such folder has 4,295 notes.
3. A few RSS folders in MS Outlook for fave blogs.
4. An over-used folder on the laptop is “Downloads” which again never gets to zero.
   • This is my default location for downloads which is intended as a staging point before the files are moved to the “right” location.
5. I have used Pocket minimally. I am aware that some use Pocket as the 1st staging point for incoming content prior to passing on the content to keep to Evernote.

Content Management

1. Ebooks and pdf files of book-like content are all held in Calibre which I use for loading files onto the iPad.
2. I have a number of Pinterest boards which are collections of things that I want to keep a record of e.g. fave podcasts, books to look out for.
3. Windows Explorer for managing files in directories etc.
4. I make use of Twitter Archive which is a good way of getting access to all of your tweets via an xls file or a browser front end. I often resort to searching through this to locate content that I have or may have tweeted about.

Content Curation
I have taken some tentative steps with Degreed e.g. setting up my profile with the courses I have done and creating some pathways. I have shared some pathways via Twitter when the content has been relevant to someone. However, these have quickly become Inboxes too albeit structured by subject areas. I am a big fan of Stephen Covey’s roles view on life including the sharpen the saw role and I have used roles to structure the pathways. I know I need to spend time revisiting the pathways and getting more familiar with pathways, sections and lessons. I would then redo the pathways along these lines.

Content Creation and Sharing
For the minimal content creation I have done to date, this has been produced using Windows Live Writer for publishing on my blog on Blogger.

Closing Remarks
This was a first pass of my current process. I am sure I have missed lots of things but hopefully you have now got some understanding of how I operate.
I do intend taking time to understand Personal Knowledge Mastery in the near future.
Any feedback on this post and any suggestions for improvement would be gratefully received.