6. Participate in pub/sub networks as both a publisher and a subscriber
Our everyday calendar programs are, in blog parlance, both feed publishers and feed readers. Individuals and organizations can publish their own feeds to the web of calendar data while at the same time subscribing to others’ feeds. On a larger scale, an elmcity hub subscribes to a set of feeds, and in turn publishes a feed to which other individuals (or hubs) can subscribe.
Why?
The blog ecosystem is the best example of pub/sub syndication among heterogeneous endpoints through intermediary services. Similar effects can happen in social media, and they happen in ways that people find easier to understand, but they happen within silos: Facebook, Twitter. Web thinkers know that standard protocols and formats enable syndication that crosses silos and supports the most open kinds of collaboration.
(source – Jonudell’s blog)
This is Reddit. A community driven website where people participate in sub networks, both as publishers (or the so called OP’s – original posters) and subscribers.
Think of Reddit this way: If Google is where you go to search for things, then Reddit is where you go to see what people have found. Reddit is not just one list of stuff: this webpage is a beautiful fractal with sections so called “subreddits”. For instance if you are interested in movies, music, games, sports or anything really, there are subreddits that will list only stuff regarding those things. Trust me when I say that there even will be subreddits for your weirdest thoughts.
The good thing about this sweet,sweet website is that it is not featuring only the stuff that is trending at the moment. Lets say it this way… You really liked a cartoon that you used to watch as a kid, on Reddit there will be a subreddit for that specific cartoon and people will be discussing the episodes, sharing different links regarding the cartoon, interviews or they will just express how nostalgic they feel about it. In addition on the off chance you’re interested in something that doesn’t yet exist, just press a button and voilà – a new subreddit has been brought to life.
The new subreddit is born, now what? You don’t have any subscribers? Let me tell you what to do in order to get more subscribers. Don’t do anything… at all. If your subreddit is labeled correctly, by which I mean to have a memorable name or to be something easy to remember and descriptive of the community’s topic of choice, then the people who tend to share the same interests will find your subreddit (and hopefully subscribe!) On a side note remember that your subreddit’s name can be as long or as short as you like, however, as a unwritten rule of the internet, shorter is usually better. Let me give you an example: I am a student in a UK based university, I can check in Reddit if my university has its own “subreddit” and if it doesn’t I can create one. Fellow students or even lecturers in that particular university probably will have interest into subscribing to the group in order to get updates when a new feed is generated. Lecturers, students, graduates or even the general public will be able to share things in that group, which will induce as a feed and all of the subscribers will be able to see what someone has found on the web.
(Right now I am creating the subreddit for my university).
Voilà, a subreddit for the University of Salford has been created.
University of Salford’s subreddit – link
From my previous experience on Reddit I have seen couple of “redditors” (a Reddit’s member) who have submitted their short animated sequences into a subreddit, that is purposely for that matter (referenced subreddit) and be noticed from another redditor, who happens to be employee or employer in a digital studio that creates animations. On a few occasions people have been offered a position within a company just because some stranger saw your work by mistake (or intentionally) that you have submitted into a web page. No job hunting, no sleepless nights spent into looking for new positions within companies that you have targeted, no disappointments. Yes, yes I know! Not everyone will have that luck but what I mean is that if you have something really good to show, have the patience and last but not least a grain of luck… well, you might be the next lucky one.
If you have never heard of Reddit before, I’d suggest this article (Reddit 101: A beginner’s guide to the front page of the internet by Digital Trends – link). Follow the guide and in no time it will get you up and running.
At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what your interest are: video, audio, politics, sports, medicine or whatever, you can always benefit from Reddit. If you are a producer lets say and you need vocals just head up to the subreddit that is just for vocal artists and maybe you might find the right vocals for your track. Same goes for the people who write story scripts. If you don’t have the budget, well maybe you can go to the subreddit where the filmmakers are and collaborate with someone from there.
Now why don’t you try it yourself?
Dannik1 