If you're like most environmental activists, you probably feel that you're simultaneously drowning in information and missing out on important stuff. For example:

• Chances are you often come across new and interesting websites, but then forget to visit them again, thereby missing out on information you wish you'd known about. Or else you spend too much time visiting the same old sites looking for new information, only to be disappointed when there's nothing fresh to be found.
  
• Your email inbox is probably flooded with messages you barely have time to read, including email newsletters that tell you about new content available on still more websites.

And wouldn't it be nice if you had an easy way to share interesting websites and articles you find with your friends, colleagues and allies -- without cluttering their email inboxes?

Well, we're not into selling technological nirvana here, but there are a two tools we've been using here at ONE/Northwest the past few months that we think you might find useful:

Information mangement tool #1: Bloglines -- http://www.bloglines.com

Bloglines is a free web-based "RSS feed reader." Bloglines lets you subscribe to "feeds" of content from millions of websites and other information services that produce content in a simple, standard format known as RSS. (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary, depending on who's telling the story. For more geeky details about RSS, check out the Digital Divide Network's "What's RSS and Why Should I Care About It?" and Fagan Finder's All About RSS.)

By subscribing to RSS feeds using an RSS feed reader like Bloglines, you can quickly and easily read the newest content items from a website in a single, easy-to-skim screen without having to visit each site individually. Using Bloglines lets you quickly read (or skim) content when you want to, while keeping clutter out of your email inbox.

Using Bloglines to read RSS feeds is a great way to keep on top of what's new on the web. Tons of leading websites produce RSS feeds, including virtually every major news outlet and an increasing number of nonprofit environmental groups, too! (We'll talk more about publishing your own RSS feeds in a follow-up article.)

To get started with Bloglines, just visit: http://www.bloglines.com/register/ and create a free account.

Once you're logged in, you might want to add some feeds. We've created a "starter file" of feeds for Northwest environmental groups. Here's how to import it into Bloglines:

1. Browse to http://www.bloglines.com/export?id=onenw
2. Save this file to your hard drive. (File>Save Page As...) Put it where you can find it.
3. Go to http://www.bloglines.com/import -- log into Bloglines if you aren't already logged in
4. Hit the Browse... button, and browse to the file you just saved -- it's called export.xml, unless you renamed it.
5. Hit the Import button and voila! You've got ONE/Northwest's "starter" feeds -- you can remove, rename, rearrange and add to this list however you like!

Information management tool #2: Del.icio.us -- http://del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is a simple, easy-to-use tool for saving and sharing web bookmarks (aka "favorites"). Why might you want do to this? And doesn't your web browser do it already? Well, not quite. Here's why:

Del.icio.us makes it easy to browse, organize and annotate your bookmarks. Del.icio.us lets you quickly "tag" your bookmarks with keywords so that you can create simple, flexible categories for your bookmarks. You can also write very short desciptions of each bookmark so you can remember why it's useful or important. Del.icio.us provides a very well-crafted interface for browsing and your bookmarks by date, keyword, etc. It's way faster and easier than using your web brower's anemic bookmarks or favorites menu.

Del.icio.us lets you share your bookmarks without lifiting a finger. Because Del.icio.us is a web-based application, the information you put into isn't trapped on your computer -- it can be easily shared with others. For example, you can check out the bookmarks of Gideon Rosenblatt, ONE/Northwest's Executive Director, at http://del.icio.us/gideonro. And del.icio.us speaks RSS, so you can use Bloglines to subscribe to an RSS feed of a person's bookmarks, making it really easy to keep tabs on what your friends and colleagues are bookmarking. Over time, this leads to a greater sense of "shared situational awareness" among your network of colleagues.

Del.icio.us makes it easy to find other folks who are interested in the same stuff as you. For each bookmark you save in del.icio.us, it shows you which other del.icio.us users have already saved that bookmark. This helps you find other folks who are interested in the same things you are, which helps you...

Del.icio.us helps you find useful stuff you don't already know about. Because del.icio.us lets you browse and search other people's bookmarks, it can be a very powerful way to find useful links that you don't already know about. And because stuff is organized in reverse chronological order, del.icio.us is particularly good at helping you find interesting new stuff before it hits the mainstream.

To get started with del.icio.us, just head on over to http://del.icio.us/register. It's quick, painless and free.

Keep in touch with us!

We've just scratched the surface in this article. Bloglines and del.icio.us are powerful tools that are still growing and developing rapidly. If you decide to start using Bloglines and/or del.icio.us, and you'd like us to keep you in the loop as we think more about how to wield the full power of these tools, drop us a note at feeds@onenw.org. Let us know how you're putting these tools to work, and don't forget to tell us your del.icio.us username so we can subscribe to your bookmarks!

Parts of this article are inspired by and adapted from TechSoup's RSS for Nonprofits.