One of my favorite columns for quite a while has been the Download a la Mode series. In case you’re not familiar with it, it features a list of questions addressing questions of how to accomplish stuff on your computer (e.g. Mac, Windows, GNU/Linux, web stuff) and then suggests a few programs that are available at no cost–for download–that you can use to meet your need. It’s had a long run and there are about 14-15 articles in the entire series.

I’m thinking about letting it slip into the ocean, like Leonardo DiCaprio in the death scene in Titanic. Honestly, the whole Download a la Mode thing feels like it’s been frozen out by the wealth of easy to find, free content that addresses the exact same questions I bring up. In a lot of ways, I feel like I’ve reached the end of my Download a la Mode column at the same time that it’s become obvious that you can find a lot of great resources–doing the exact same thing–online.

For example, some of my favorite helpful tips web sites include the following:

1. MakeUseOf.com
2. LifeHacker.com
3. UbuntuGeek.com
4. Ask Dave Taylor

What’s more, most of these blog sites have teams of contributors. Even if I wanted to, I can’t sustain the quantity and quality of content to compete online. In considering the challenges newspapers are facing with bloggers scooping them on timeliness and content, I’m definitely in the same boat with articles for my print publications. Of course, the wealth of online content should make creation easier…but I’m starting to find myself feeling the way I did when reading Alexander Pope and Shakespeare as an English major. How the heck can I write well enough to ever catch up to these guys? The feeling is one I have from time to time…fortunately, those folks are one in a few thousand. The problem is, the Internet has made it easier for them to be found!

Online social networks are essential tools for journalists. They make it possible to build extended networks, search for story ideas, build contacts and dig up information. But even more important, they help to shake up the relationship between the individual journalist and the people formerly known as the audience…There is one fundamental question for journalists in social networks: Who is it you want to reach? Or to put it another way, what kind of conversation do you want to engage in?
Source: MediaShift

I find myself having to really focus on specific applications (e.g. Moodle) and combine that with real stories from my own experience or those of others.

And, to top it off, print magazine/journals appear to be doing anything they can–including swiping content from blogs–to lower their overall cost. Why pay a writer for an original article when you can reprint a bloggers’ work for the “honor” and “experience” that goes to the author?

Still, the fun is in learning something new and sharing it…so, in the spirit of remembrance and celebration, stay tuned for my download a la mode series shared again!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure