Since he launched The Inquisitr just under six months ago, Duncan Riley has taken some innovative approaches to sharing news on the Web. (See: Duncan Riley's First Week at The Inquisitr Is Inspiring) Not content to simply repeat "the news of the day" and hash over the same tired subjects, Riley has added spice to the mix, covering celebrity news, and taking new approaches to finding new ways to present hot topics outside of his own site - through QMeme, which tracks popular items on FriendFeed, and Inquisitr IQ, which, in a fashion similar to AllTop, features posts from some of Duncan's favorite blogs.

Today, Duncan took another innovative step, becoming the first to harness the new ReadBurner platform by integrating the service's top stories within his site as content - not by embedding the full content on the Inquisitr, but instead, letting his readers click out and find new sources for top tech news, at their original source.


You can see ReadBurner headlines alongside The Inquisitr news
The ReadBurner partnership is part of a new, revamped, look for The Inquisitr, which now features the tagline "a better mix", hinting at the breadth of coverage available.

Clearly, in my advisory role at ReadBurner, I was aware of Duncan's plans to incorporate the service's content, but one of the most intriguing pieces of the partnership is that Duncan proactively reached out to our team rather than us asking him if he was interested in carrying the content. Duncan, looking at the options on the Web, selected ReadBurner, and presented us with an innovative way to get the best of the Web and make it portable.

You can see the new look for the Inquisitr here: http://www.inquisitr.com/

Also, the official blog post by Adam Ostrow, ReadBurner CEO is here:
Introducing the ReadBurner Platform v0.1 with The Inquisitr!

I'm both looking forward to more innovation from The Inquisitr and, of course, more developments at ReadBurner. I bet there is more to come from both sites.

DISCLOSURE: I am an advisor to ReadBurner.

By Mona Nomura of Pixel Bits (FriendFeed/Twitter)

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira just posted a great piece about women in tech and how we shouldn't sell ourselves short. I would expand on that, but haven't been around tech bloggers and journalists long enough to give an informed two cents.

But...

I have been in IT for a while. Quickly approaching 10(!) years, to be exact. Wow. Heck back when I started, it was so uncool to be in tech -- even employed by a well known software corporation. My friends made fun of me, my work place was male dominated with the geekiest / nerdiest but brightest engineers. (Think worn out, raggedy dingy white t-shirts and too tight stone washed jeans.)

Fast forward to today, IT is definitely not what it used to be.

Geeks are no longer just white T-shirts with jeans, there's now a "scene", and even a gossip rag! Since becoming fairly active in Social Networks and especially being based in SF, I've been invited to countless Tweet-ups, and parties. Cyndy pinpoints the exact reason I choose not to go. I may be unfamiliar with the blogger / social network / entreprenuer circle, but definitely not new to partying. I've been there, done that, and very aware of what people assume upon first meeting me. I refuse to fall in the: "gaining notoriety by what I'm wearing or who I'm dating rather than gaining respect for my knowledge and insight" category. I am also 100% with Cyndy on how "we (women) don't need to sell out to make it in tech".

That said, I don't see tech turning into a mini-Hollywood a problem.

Within every subculture, there is always sub-categorizing -- just like school. I really thought once I finished schooling, the in-crowd vs nerds / geeks vs weirdos, etc., would be done with it. I don't know about you, but I still deal with all the things I hated about school on a daily basis. Think about it: from our workplaces, social circles, online communities, to even within our own families, it surrounds us everywhere! At least now as adults, it's easier to not get involved or care (at least for me), but that doesn't mean it's nonexistent.

So for the tech scene to have its own mini-Hollywood means the tech circle is growing larger. With that, comes the array of labels, sub categories, and classifications and I couldn't be happier. I love tech and everything tech related, so the expansion and growth is welcomed!

Now, it's up to us.

Us being anyone who blogs, reads blogs, or active members in Social Networks, to change with the way the industry is changing. Especially, since data is democratizing. Whether you're a blogger, a reader, a commenter, content provider -- however which way you want to participate, we have more and more choices to read who we want to read, listen to who we want to listen to, and "follow" who we want to follow. Data is no longer consolidated and centralized like it once was, and moving forward we're only going to get even more choices. Hence, it's up to us.

After all, just like Hollywood, the tech starlets, groupies, and wannabe starlets wouldn't be a part of the mini-Hollywood if it weren't for an audience, right?

Read more by Mona Nomura at Pixel Bits.

By Cyndy Aleo-Carreira of Shakespeare I Ain't (E-mail / Twitter)

More than a few friends sent me a link to one of Loren Feldman's videos, assuming, I suppose, that I would be set to grab my torch and pitchfork and go after him yet again. I can't remember a video that he's done that I've agreed with, and have, on many occasions, found his videos in poor taste, yet his commentary on the now-infamous "Cypress" video was, while still a bit over the top, dead on the money.

There are several journalists and bloggers I look up to, and Kara Swisher is usually at the top of my list. Kara is who I'd like to be when I grow up, mixing an irreverance with an unflinching eye. I've mentioned her code of ethics statement in posts on more than one occasion, because she manages to walk the fine line of socializing in the industry with grace. Her commentary on the video, however, seemed to shy away from the issue of ethics, and whether that was because the journalist in question worked for her employer or not, I'm unsure. It left me disappointed.

In the echo chamber of the tech industry, impressions are everything. While the Silicon Valley crowd meet and greet all the time, and most of the big players interact at conferences, for many of us, the only interaction we will ever have with each other is online, and without that in-person interaction to base personalities on, those impressions left online are crucial. Even my writing here on the occasional basis is a shock. I told Louis, when I met him at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this year, I like him a lot better in person than I did based on the impression I had of him online.

The problem that we are running into is that tech has attempted, in nearly every way, to reimagine itself as a mini-Hollywood. The companies who have gained a lot of press are the ones being run by young, attractive people. It's become just as, if not more, important to look good than it does to be running a company that actually makes money in this climate.

In that same vein, it's become important to throw young, attractive reporters at those entrepreneurs. Tech still hasn't lost its male-dominated culture, and let's face it, when wooing young male entrepreneurs to spill their inside secrets, nothing works better than a pretty face. In some (but not all) cases, that young, pretty girl doesn't have the background or the experience necessary to really work the beat and remain objective. I'm in no way saying this is the case based on the Cypress video, but impressions are in the eye of the beholder, not the people who know the actual people involved.

It's disappointed me, time and time again, to see the parties and the groupies (for want of a better word). It's easier for girls (I just can't bring myself to call them women) to cozy up to an entrepreneur than a Hollywood star, and sites like Valleywag have made them famous in this tiny little realm. It's the wannabe Hollywood, complete with wannabe starlets.

But every time a story like this one comes out, with people questioning the principles of a journalist making silly videos with friends whose company she covers, or someone makes the front page of Valleywag as she climbs the social echelon of Silicon Valley, it reflects badly on all of us. For every woman in tech I respect like Kara or Orli Yakuel, there are more who are happy to skate by, regardless of the disrespect they receive. I can't imagine taking pride in gaining notoriety by what I'm wearing or who I'm dating rather than gaining respect for my knowledge and insight, and I wish that the women who do would think better of themselves than they do. We don't need to sell out to make it in tech.

Read more by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira at Shakespeare I Ain't.

Part Eight In a Monthly Series

Just because there is a slowdown in the economy, and quite possibly, a slowdown in innovation in some arenas doesn't mean there is a slowdown in new, interesting bloggers who write good quality pieces that make you think. With this month's installment, forty separate blogs will have been highlighted as having a high content to subscriber ratio. A good number of those people have catapulted to new jobs and gained visibility. Others, have fallen away. How will this month's fare?

Each of the bloggers highlighted in the last eight months has been added to my Google Reader list, via Toluu, and has, to date, been consistently informative, interesting or entertaining. Prior months' entries can be found for March, April, May, June, July, August and September.

1) Bwana McCall / Bwana.org (www.bwana.org)

Focus: Podcasting, Gaming, Social Media
Recent Highlight: Twitter 2008: Get Used To It (Goodbye IM/Track)
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

2) Ken Stewart / ChangeForge (www.changeforge.com)

Focus: Technology, Business
Recent Highlight: The Heart Of A Technologist.
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

3) Kipp Bodnar/ Digital Capitalism (www.digitalcapitalism.com)

Focus: Marketing, Internet, Social Media
Recent Highlight:
How to Be Successful in Social Media: Take Action and Hustle
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

4) Daniel Pritchett / Sharing At Work (www.sharingatwork.com)

Focus: Business, Technology, Human Factors
Recent Highlight: Getting Better All The Time
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

5) 14 sandwiches (www.14sandwiches.com)

Focus: Technology, Video, Media
Recent Highlight:
From Homing Pigeons to Micro-Blogging: Regional Media Strides Forward
RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

To see even more new blogs I'm adding to my reader, or get a sneak peek for November's highlighted blogs, follow my activity on Toluu. If you don't have a login to Toluu, send me an e-mail to [email protected] and I'll get that set up right away.