Five days later since my last post…

…as I continue my current immersion, eyeballs glued to my connected screen, exploring the very wide and deep world of web-building resources; seeking those solutions that best fit my intention for my social site.

Now coming up for air here to report on the development journey — more in the line of the traditional personal blog where I have the luxury to be subjective like this. Although I will strive to express a ‘voice’ in the curated content on the social Howard site, it won’t be a space, a place for this kind of tone.

Making good progress on the curation track. While curation-as-product may be obvious on popular sites such as mashable and lifehacker, I did not appreciate the power and attractiveness of this process until I decided to step into the curation arena myself.

I have amassed a serious whack of social media sources for news, views and trends. There sure ain’t no lack of ’em in this historic phase of the web’s emergence, in these early days of mobile and the Internet of Things.

The intensive inter-connectivity we are enjoying amongst each other today, as individuals, groups and as cyber-commmunities — first on our desktops since the mid-nineties and rapidly exploding in this 21st century out onto smartphones and tablets — will continue to expand enormously in the months and years ahead.

Information ‘hubs‘ on the web will grow in value in our frenetic world, where readers can visit selected sites to catch up on the news about their particular interests.

Relevance, Consistency and Trust

I like to compare our present times to the wild frontier one hundred years ago when newspaper advertising was an unregulated, anything-goes approach to the publishing of display ads back then.

Not wanting to go off on that tangent in this post, however there are definite comparisons between the (literally!) snake oil patent medicine ads in those days gone by and the plethora of get-rich-quick-schemes in today’s wooly world of Internet marketing.

I guess the point I am making is the vital importance of reputation. To build enough trust where my readers keep returning cuz the stuff you are reading resonates with you. To establish trust in the choices that I make on what is relevant and important.

And of course consistency is paramount. Good food well prepared just like the restaurants we keep returning to…

So, until my next post, I will disappear again down the rabbit hole of discovery.

Next tunnel is the visual element — finding sources for copyright-compliant pictures to add to the prose.

I really do look forward to getting the social Howard site up and running soon, so that I can start using this here blog to muse on other topics as well — to decrease the devJournal obsession that owns me now.

Although, upon reflection, I must surrender to the reality that development, in all of its forms — as an integral part of learning — is a constant, never-ending activity in life.

Would really like to think that perpetual learning helps to keep us young — well, keeping the mind fresh, anyway…