Top Ten Blogs Informing Steve…

People who think in a different way, have a different perspective, and have a vision on why something is important are those I seek out and aggregate in my news reader. I’m now up to several hundred RSS feeds and scan 700-900 feeds every day (note I said “scan” vs. read in full…people think I’m nuts for even scanning that many!).

Choosing just ten blogs out of the nearly 100 I follow is no small task. Just like the Technorati Top 100, my list changes based on where I am along my path at any given point so I thought I’d put a stake in the ground today and list ten that are affecting me right now and why (in alphabetical order):

• 3PointD: Like many, I happen to believe that we are quickly moving toward virtual environments vs. 2D (two dimensional) web pages and this blog follows what’s going on. The resolution of sites like Second Life are amazing right now, and make your own virtual world platforms like Multiverse will continue to accelerate. As bandwidth, CPU power and graphics performance continue to evolve, worlds that resemble the quality of The Incredibles will exist. Next up when that occurs? Amazing replacements for collaborative and community software offerings.

• BoingBoing: Eclectic, liberal, bizarre but always interesting, I just like going here and being surprised, bugged, delighted and intellectually stimulated.

• The Bumble Bee: I’ve only been reading this blog for a few short weeks, but damn…is this Ken Thompson ever going at collaboration, community and social from an intriguing perspective! He uses natural biological systems — with examples and an emphasis on bioteams — to inform his thinking about how all this stuff works.

• GigaOM: Om Malik’s blog about what’s happenin’ in broadband. This writer for Business 2.0 magazine has his finger on the pulse of what’s going on. In my view, broadband=use-of-the-internet-and-innovation so I’m always interested in what’s going on to accelerate its use.

• Information Aesthetics: If design and clear communication didn’t matter — and especially increasingly complex concepts and ideas — then blogs like this wouldn’t matter either.

• Mashable: Pete Cashmore’s site tracking what’s going on with “mashups” or Web applications that are combinations of discrete functionality pulled from other apps. This whole category is fun, cool, and pointing the way toward web services in ways that mainstream tech publications never could.

• OpenBusiness: No question in my mind that the fundamental economics driving value globally are shifting but I’m no economist nor am I certain what will replace capitalism, how to value the contributions of those, say, creating open source software, or how value is moving beyond money, barter or other traditional means of exchange. This blog is simply looking at open source business models in new ways that I find incredibly intriguing.

• ThreeMinds@Organic: Looking at “experience” in new ways and what makes things exceptional.  I like reading them and watching-what-they-watch and think about. Again, it’s all about viewing through a different lens than mine.

• Treehugger: Regardless of your feelings on sustainability, global warming, or humankinds acceleration of the consumption of natural resources, this site is cool. It makes you think of alternatives, gives a sense of the thoughts of those aware (vs. unconscious) and is just a well done, good read.

• Wired: Had to put them in…not a blog I know. Was at a trade show in the Nineties when someone walked by with their free copy of the premiere issue. I raced to the bin and they were gone…but some guy handed me one of the several he had grabbed (I still have it). Though the magazine and this sister site have waxed-n-waned in relevancy over the years, it still is one of the only places that I actually read in-depth articles about any given topic.