AidSource

(The Humanitarian Social Network)

What aid blogs are you reading?

Recently A View From the Cave's Tom Murphy has been posting on the top blogs, tweets, etc of the past year. One notable award was for Best Blog Series in which More Altitude was listed for a 5 part series on Becoming an Aid Worker. It's a good read for students who are seriously considering the field.

Another notable award was for Best New Blog of 2011. Development Crossroads took the prize for her advice to aid workers and development professional. You can read Tom's explanation here.

So what aid blogs do students find the most helpful in learning about aid and development? What's on your daily or weekly reading list? What do you find most useful about the blog? Note: If you aren't already using this, Google Reader is a great tool to aggregate and keep track of blogs.

Also, if you're new to aid blogs, here's a good long list to get you going.

Tags: aid blogs

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom Murphy on February 22, 2012 at 8:22am

This is a great idea and exactly why I run the contest.

I have a list of what I am reading that goes well beyond the ABBAs nominees: http://www.aviewfromthecave.com/p/blogs-i-find-interesting.html. The best resource going right now is Hii Dunia's blog listing found here: http://www.hiidunia.com/directory/ It is about as comprehensive as it gets for listing blogs in the aid and development space.

Permalink Reply by Grace Bahng on February 22, 2012 at 8:34am

Thanks, Tom. Yes, Hi Dunnia's listing is great. It has other online resources listed as well.

Also, it'd be great to hear if people have tips for newcomers to aid blogs about how to approach navigating, organizing, and keeping up to date with the aid blogosphere. Like I said above for me, Google Reader is a great tool. For my iPad/iPhone, Mobile RSS has been great as well.

Permalink Reply by Tom Murphy on February 22, 2012 at 9:02am

Google Reader is my choice tool right now. The lack of sharing function is disappointing, but it is the best tool I have used so far. Second to that is twitter. People share great blogs and news articles on twitter that help me to find things I would not have seen on my own.

Permalink Reply by Dave Algoso on February 27, 2012 at 8:08am

I want to make a plug for switching away from Google Reader, at least for your actual reading. I use FeedDemon instead. Its big advantage over GR is that FeedDemon downloads content for offline reading -- which is pretty darn useful on an iffy internet connection. Also, I like the layout of FeedDemon. Less wasted screen space.

I still use Google Reader as my sync point: FeedDemon syncs with it, and so does my Android RSS app. Which means GR helps me keep everything together, even though I never open it anymore.

Permalink Reply by Tom Murphy on February 27, 2012 at 1:38pm

What do you use for your Android RSS app? I am gonna give FeedDemon a try on your rec.

Permalink Reply by Dave Algoso on February 27, 2012 at 1:48pm

I actually have two RSS readers on my phone. I like the layout/functions on the official Google Reader app, so I use it to read whenever I'm connected. But again, no offline reading. There's another app called gReader that caches posts for offline reading, and then syncs back up to your Google account.

Permalink Reply by Chris Watkins on March 3, 2012 at 1:11pm

I've just discovered Taptu for Android, and really liking it. Very nice interface. Lets you filter RSS feeds for keywords (and Boolean search works) - especially useful for busy blogs, where you just want to catch certain subjects.

Permalink Reply by Grace Bahng on February 27, 2012 at 9:42pm

Thanks for the suggestion, Dave. Definitely helpful to have tools that are more compatible offline.

Anyone know of a way to include Google+ into an aggregating program (like Hootesuite) with Twitter and FB?

Permalink Reply by Tom Murphy on February 28, 2012 at 4:24am

I don't think any allow for that right now. I did just learn of an RSS that will gather Google+ posts: GPlussRSS

Permalink Reply by Grace Bahng on March 3, 2012 at 12:12am

Thanks for the tip, Tom.

I found an article that explains how to have your G+ feeds (with a tool like GPlussRSS) sent to your Twitter/FB/LinkedPlus accounts through Hootsuite. Still can't send messages to G+ but at least can receive them. So far seems to be working for me.

Permalink Reply by Svenja Qu on February 22, 2012 at 8:37am

I would also include http://chrisblattman.com/ Articles are not only informative and helpful (particularly for students) but I also simply like his writing.
And then of course http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com/ because it is so very true ;)

Another good plattform imho is http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development The section on student resources and the blogosphere are really good starting points i think.

Cheers,
Svenja

Permalink Reply by Sian Cowman on February 23, 2012 at 11:29am

The Guardian was my first introduction to development blogs, and I still read it. Then I found the View from the Cave listing (Thanks!) and started reading a few more. Reader is certainly useful.

I think this is a good guide for students: http://findwhatworks.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/a-grad-students-guide...

This is one about how to find work I like http://humanitarianjobs.wordpress.com/

I like Chris Blattman as well. And Duncan Green - http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=8827

I also like this one http://www.theroadtothehorizon.org/2006/01/news-cutting-agricultura...