Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Mourning the Untimely Death of Gigaom

Since mid-2013, the website Gigaom has been one of my primary “go-to” sources for technology news and trends. The only other technology website I’ve visited directly, on a regular basis, is Ars Technica. Both Gigaom and Ars Technica are among the 118 technology blog feeds I’m subscribed to and check periodically via a feed reader.  About a week ago, however, Gigaom’s board of directors decided to fire all the staff because of financial difficulties. Gigaom’s former writer, Mathew Ingram (@mathewi), wrote a good post on Medium (“Gigaom is dead. Long live Gigaom”) summarizing his perspective on the abrupt announcement and end to all of Gigaom’s publications. Mathew’s May 2011 post, “Shhh! Don’t Tell Google News You’re a Blog!” was the first Gigaom article I ever read, tweeted or re-tweeted, and used a Creative Commons licensed photo I’d taken of my own Oklahoma “Blogger” license plate.

Oklahoma Blogger by Wesley Fryer, on Flickr
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License   by  Wesley Fryer 

My high valuation of Gigaom’s content is reflected most clearly in the frequency of tweets mentioning @Gigaom in my Tweet Nest archive. It’s also visible on my iPhone. The Gigaom app has been the fourth most accessed news app on my phone, following Feedly, Nuzzel, and Flipboard. (The first two warrant spots on my homescreen.)

Mourning GigaOm by Wesley Fryer, on Flickr
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License   by  Wesley Fryer 

The Gigaom podcast has been one of my favorite technology podcasts as well, ranking up with TwiT and Security Now. The “Chrome Show” podcast by Kevin C. Tofel (@KevinCTofel) and Janko Roettgers (@jank0) has been one of my “go to” tech podcasts for over a year, and was my favorite among all the Gigaom podcast programs.

Mourning GigaOm by Wesley Fryer, on Flickr
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License   by  Wesley Fryer 

I am thankful that Gigaom articles, as a rule, included links to each author’s Twitter ID. I always try to thoroughly provide attribution for links and ideas I share on Twitter, so this evening I was able to use my Tweet Nest archive of @gigaom mentions to build a Twitter list of 19 Gigaom Vets. I’ve subscribed to this Twitter list in FlipBoard, so now I’ll still be able to be updated by these awesome, former Gigaom writers, even though the Gigaom feed and app is (for now) empty and stagnant.

Gigaom Vets Twitter List on Flipboard by Wesley Fryer, on Flickr
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License   by  Wesley Fryer 

And you can add that Twitter list to Flipboard too! See my conference breakout session resource page for “Discovering New Ideas” for that link and others.

I will miss you, Gigaom! Farewell.

Thankfully, my own journey of learning (and that of others) with the fantastic staff Gigaom no longer employs will continue! I hope each of these fantastic writers will find rewarding employment with even better compensation and amenities than that offered by Gigaom soon!

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