Keeping up to date
March 2, 2015 9:58 AM   Subscribe

Where online do you get news or stay in touch with what's happening in your field?

In the spirit of this question, basically, but with something active and ongoing instead of a book. What is the single best blog/website/information aggregator for your field? Politico, for example, would be for D.C. politics.
posted by Ndwright to Media & Arts (8 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
For my field (urban planning) I check in on the American Planning Association website periodically, but I actually find Cyburbia, City-Data, Planetizen, and several groups on LinkedIn more useful than the APA.

I am a recent graduate from a bachelor's program with two years of internship experience in my field. I am not considered much more than a student at this point - most people don't enter the field without either a master's degree, or enter after becoming established in another field like civil engineering, regional economics, or architecture.
posted by Urban Winter at 10:20 AM on March 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


For general leftist politics, it's hard not to recommend Henry Krinkle's newslinks archive. Unfortunately, it's the work of one man, and as far as I know, a non-professional. He doesn't update it much. Fortunately, his links page provides his sources.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:30 AM on March 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


JavaScript Weekly and to a lesser extent a couple of the other newsletters linked at the bottom.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:38 AM on March 2, 2015


I teach professionals how to find information in their field, and whenever someone asks me if an expensive online current awareness subscription is worth the price, I compare a few issues to what would come up in a well-crafted Talkwalker Alert during the same time period. Most folks who are on a budget at all will go with the free alert because it comes surprisingly close to covering their needs.

Talkwalker still lets you aggregate your results via RSS feed. Google Alerts' RSS option has come and gone, and appears to currently be gone. As the query, type in the name of your field or subfield. If that's too broad, narrow it geographically or based on a topic of ongoing interest in your field. Maybe set up a few alerts with broader or narrower topics until you get a feel for how much information it will dig up, then delete any that give you too much information or that range too far outside your interests. I recommend sticking with "only the best results" rather than "all results" because Talkwalker tends to pull a lot more than you get from a Google Alert, if that's what you're used to.
posted by Bentobox Humperdinck at 11:00 AM on March 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


I have a Google Scholar profile and it alerts me to new research that is related to my past publications. It is amazing.
posted by sockermom at 11:11 AM on March 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


JimRomenesko.com is a good one for print journalism.
posted by Clustercuss at 11:16 AM on March 2, 2015


What is the single best blog/website/information aggregator for your field?

I work in the riveting world of federal procurement, specifically defense acquisition.

Anyone who wants to stay up-to-date on the ins and outs of procurement news should hie themselves to WIFCON post-haste, where they will find in-depth reporting on DCAA and DCMA audits, bid protests large and small, proposed changes and final rules for the FAR and all of its equally fascinating supplements, and details on state and federal legislation affecting government contracting and contractors. All of this and more is arranged in a deeply confusing way on a positively archaic front page that has not changed since the site's inception in 1998, which is basically the story of our entire industry in a nutshell.

And if they're looking for a more top-down/10,000-foot view, they'd do well to check out Defense Industry Daily (spotlights and briefs on procurement for domestic and international defense programs) and/or GovConWire (contract awards, M&A) as well.
posted by divined by radio at 11:38 AM on March 2, 2015


I think carefully curated Twitter lists are the best way to stay in touch with what's happening in any field. You can get conference highlights and blog posts and links to whitepapers, and the best part is that you can instantly interact with any of the authors.
posted by desjardins at 12:21 PM on March 2, 2015


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