Gillmor Gang: Zoomhouse - Tech Podcast Discussion

Daily News Consumption and the Feedly Outage

I routinely utilize Feedly to navigate the daily influx of political, technological, and media news. Today, I encountered an image related to something termed Feedly Cloud, accompanied by the following notification:

Scheduled Maintenance Feedly will be back in less than 30 minutes.

Despite this message, a full sixty minutes elapsed before the service was restored. Feedly functions by aggregating RSS feeds from my preferred news outlets, including sources such as The New York Times, Washington Post, TechCrunch, Protocol, Deadline, and Techmeme. I also follow individual writers like Om Malik and Benedict Evans. It’s noteworthy that few newsletter creators appear on this list, largely due to their reliance on email distribution.

I question whether this is a deliberate strategy by platforms like Substack and Revue to prioritize their subscription services, though such an approach may be short-sighted. The core element isn’t the subscription itself, but rather the established connection.

Utilizing Feedly for Content Management

I remit a monthly payment to Feedly, granting me a personalized segment of the web. When I discover content I wish to revisit, I save it to a “read later” folder. Content potentially suitable for inclusion in my newsletter is directed to a Feedly board, which can then be imported into Revue via the screen’s right-hand side.

Stories intended for immediate publication to a Telegram channel are placed on a board, from which a series of automated programs then post them to various locations, ultimately culminating with the @gillmorgang Twitter account. After nearly 90 minutes since the initial notification, Feedly remained unavailable.

Fortunately, Revue features a “My Items” section on the right-hand side, where I had previously linked a Rolling Stone article titled:

Hear How Beck Turned Paul McCartney’s ‘Find My Way’ Into a Funky Dance Number

Rolling Stone now employs a metered paywall, but graciously provides access to the Vevo promotional video embedded within the Gillmor Gang newsletter link. A user on the YouTube page has replicated a portion of the text from the Rolling Stone article, in a manner akin to Wikipedia, within the comments section, as shown below (Beck’s statement):

The track has a duration of 4:56, leading me to estimate approximately 80 minutes remaining until the service is operational.

Exploring the Economics of Content Creation

I began to consider whether a more fundamental issue was at play. Is there a flaw in the current business model? McCartney receives compensation. Beck receives compensation. However, Steely Dan does not receive royalties for that exceptional chord progression, the one where the keyboard extends and merges with the rhythm section. I, too, am compensated. Feel free to click the link again.

I revisited the original song, found on an album called McCartney III, which the artist composed, performed, and recorded independently during the pandemic. It’s an enjoyable work, echoing his first solo album released in 1970 to coincide with the breakup of The Beatles. However, I find Beck’s reimagining significantly more appealing. While Paul McCartney was often perceived as the more approachable Beatle, he consistently resonated with John Lennon.

“It’s getting better all the time… Can’t get much worse.” Beck lacks Lennon’s sharp wit, but he introduces a cynical edge that feels appropriate in the current post-vaccination era.

The Future of Work and Collaboration

As Joe Biden quipped during his recent press conference regarding his predecessor, “Oh God, I miss him.” This was, of course, a rhetorical statement. We are currently redefining how we approach work, and I suspect the solution will be more aligned with a “life +” model than a traditional hybrid approach. During a recent episode of the Gillmor Gang, Denis Pombriant effectively utilized Zoom’s “Stop Video” function to disengage from discussions concerning non-fungible tokens. Now he is visible, now he is not. However, he remains able to hear the conversation. This is akin to Zoom’s new Instant Clubhouse feature – a simple on/off switch.

I doubt we will readily relinquish this capability as a collaborative tool. Clap back on.

At that moment, Feedly was restored.

from the Gillmor Gang Newsletter

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The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant, Brent Leary and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, March 26, 2021.

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

@fradice, @mickeleh, @denispombriant, @kteare, @brentleary, @stevegillmor, @gillmorgang

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