Hutch great post, I was thinking along these lines the other day as well. I started to compile to some data using the likes and comments ratio from people I follow. http://friendfeed.com/e... - Mike Fruchter

I think we're in the midst of a new paradigm shift. I’m spending more time reading Lifestreams than RSS feeds and it's driven by the fact that the people I follow have become necessary filters now that I can't consume everything on my own. - Mark Krynsky

Hmm...Human filters -- laziness or genius? - Hao Chen

Hutch: You write some great posts. I could think of my communities as filters for information (with some people being especially influential - Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, Mona Nomura, Polly Roberts, Robert Patton, and Thomas Hawk on FriendFeed). However, one work I read said that our gift back to God (if you're religious) is our individual way of living life. I enjoy when other people share a part of their lives with me....and it helps shape my daily life also. Thanks everyone on FriendFeed! - Mitchell Tsai

Thoughtful and timely post, Hutch. There's lots of stuff that interests me out in the RSSsphere, really too much to keep up with on my own. However they find the time and energy to do it, filter folk like Scoble, Gray (and Hutch ;) ) lead me to more such stuff. But I also realize the value of "eating my peas" and sometimes feel I could use a little more filtering help finding that kind of information here. And, who knows, with the right amount of filtering, I might actually start to like peas. - Tom Landini

My Google Reader friends...and my FriendFeed friends, too! - Sarah Perez

That's what I was talking about ! There is a need for smart filtering aka human filtering :) - Alemsah Ozturk

Thanks Mike - I like your graphics. How'd you make those? - Hutch Carpenter

Mark - I agree. Reading lifestreams, which include a lot of blog posts and mainstream news, is a great way to keep ourselves educated. - Hutch Carpenter

Hao - a little of both. - Hutch Carpenter

Thanks Mitchell. I called out Louis in the post, but your names are others that I had in mind as well. - Hutch Carpenter

Tom - you're hitting on something that really could be its own blog post (dibs!). It's the nature of the person doing the sharing. If I share Flickr favorites, it's OK. But if Thomas Hawk does it, you know something about what makes him tick. And that makes it more engaging, even for the same content. - Hutch Carpenter

Sarah - no surprise for you. As a top-notch blogger, I'd be surprised if you relied too much on a few people for filtering. - Hutch Carpenter

I like the paradigm shift concept. A curated life. Lots of choices and more friends who I trust suggesting what they are passionate about influencing how I might spend time reading, listening or watching. - Mary Anne Davis

This is a MUST READ post. nice job! going back to re-read - Christian Anderson

more important question.. How how are capturing the most interesting infonugguts available on the Web ? Then comes the question to how do you filter that to within the the FF community ? If you look at at some of the Non related tech items that are interesting, then Louis and many other's fail- and fail badly. Lifestream is not just about latest technology ideas and convo's , there are many other facets too ! Here is a typical thread that I point out 'stale' info <http://friendfeed.com/e...> - Peter Dawson

On techmeme: http://www.techmeme.com/080728... - Thomas Hawk

Thanks Thomas - just saw that. - Hutch Carpenter

Well-put Mary Anne: "a curated life". - Hutch Carpenter

Christian - thanks for the shout-out. - Hutch Carpenter

Peter - that's a tough one. Politics, life sciences, and other good subjects aren't going to be something everyone wants to read. Louis as Information Filter works because of what he's interested in: social media. But that's not to say a really good Info Filter isn't just waiting to happen in say, life sciences. It'd be up to people to subscribe to him or her. - Hutch Carpenter

Hutch , but then again the Human Filter is akin to what can be called as the "Project Golden Sheild" -- the followes are falling into that sceanrio slowly and steadly, albiet unkowningly of both parties !! - Peter Dawson

Filters for non-tech photos & cool stuff: Mona N, edythe, RAPatton, Anna Haro, Mark Wilson, Thomas Hawk, Mrsth, Mahdi Ebrahimi, Eric (ejp1082), mhmazidi, Vincent X, Selma, Maryam Ardakani, Donato, Russellreno, shandiz, Andrew Baron, JA Castillo, Raoul Pop, Mladen Srdić, Corie Allison - Mitchell Tsai

Haven't found any filters for science stuff on FriendFeed yet. Science quality here is pretty low (aside from tech). I was thinking of going on a Del.icio.us binge through the major sciences to post hot people & articles. Check out Harvard's Lisa Randall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... hot chick & top string theorist "On Gravity, Oreos and a Theory of Everything" http://www.nytimes.com/2005... - Mitchell Tsai

My Friendfeed,Twitter,Identi.ca - Igor Poltavskiy

Hutch, I sent you a dm on twitter regarding the pie charts. - Mike Fruchter

Hutch, very interesting post thanks. Glad my random thought was able to be of some assistance :) - Michael C. Harris

Michael - your post kicked off some good thinking. Glad you like the post. - Hutch Carpenter

gregory - I like that take. Each of us serving as somewhat different information filters in a group, and how intelligence spreads within that group. - Hutch Carpenter

A really nice post, very timely. I follow many on FriendFeed such as Robert Scoble and Loic Lemeur and use Netvibes, StumbleUpon and Delicious + popurls and Mahalo (cheers Jason!). Great post! - Hayk

Friendfeed, Netvibes last RSSs(RWW,TC, Mashable, Venturebeat, TC UK), geek communions - Erhan Erdoğan

Hutch - Really try to keep things simple. I ask my wife. She usually says 'follow that Louis guy .. his kids are really cute' - Charlie Anzman