One of the best ways to learn about new and emerging technologies is to ask people who are using technologies in the work what they are using and why. David Boevers is an Associate Professor in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University in Production Technology. When not at CMU, he works with myriad companies across the country, from Cirque de Soliel’s ‘O’ to Maine State Music Festival. He is also the project manager for the USITT’s Commercial Theatre Outreach project. To support the field, he runs News From the Real World and Greenpage. I was curious how he keeps his online work organized and up-to-date.
1. What are 3 - 4 technology software or apps that you use every day and why do you like them?
My workflow for the News From the Real World page has become about two applications. The first is Feedly (feedly.com). Years ago I used to bring up page after page of material directly on the source site. Eventually, I discovered RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Google Reader. Google Reader brought all that content into one place for me, and I no longer had to page through dozens of individual web pages every day, all the content was in one place. Google went on to phase out Reader, but Feedly stepped in and ported everything over, so now I do all that material gathering in Feedly.
feedly.com homepage
Feedly has functionality that allows a user to tag articles and I created a tag “Greenpage” for articles that I was considering for the Newspage (which is called “Greenpage” amongst my students because it is green). Those tags lead me to the next app: IFTTT – If This Then That (ifttt.com). IFTTT is a procedure for connecting things online that don’t have in-built connectivity. I run an applet in IFTTT that has the Feedly tag as a trigger. When I tag an article it automatically creates a blog post on a Blogger page: the “Greenpage Source Page” which I use as a place to park articles I winnow down for the actual Newspage. IFTTT has been great for me. There are scripts there I use for Twitter posts and for automated information distribution through email as well.
Obviously I am also using Blogger (www.blogger.com), and there’s Buffer (buffer.com) for managing a Twitter feed.
IFTTT Home Page
· 2. Is there one that surprised you with its usefulness?
I lean pretty hard on IFTTT – harder than I would have thought before I had it. Really I’ve only begun to play with it. The functionality goes way beyond my current use.
· 3. Is there something you think developers should be working on?
There are bits and pieces of all the processes I use I wish I could tweak. Mostly though I wish website managers would to a robust RSS implementation. I am constantly discovering sources through other channels and when I go to add them to my RSS I discover there is no feed to add (or that I have to subscribe to a much larger set of posts than I need). There are workarounds to that on my end, but they make my life more complicated. I would much rather subscribe to an RSS than to an email newsletter. I get way too many emails already.
· 4. If you could recommend one technology to arts professionals, what would it be?
I guess my answer to this one is the same as the last.
For more information about David and his work, check out the following:
http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NFTRW_Feed
https://www.tumblr.com/carnegiescenic
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidboevers/