Some of you may read Robert Scoble —a smart IT blogger and podcaster. If you have been reading his blog lately, you know that he is experiencing with having many “friends” (read it: ‘online acquaintances’) with whom he shares feed items within Google Reader. I’m participating in his ‘feed ring’ —whatever you call it.

This short post is just to say that:

• If you’re not a news junkie, then stop reading this post and return to a normal Christmas activity (your spouse, your dog, your kids, cable TV, going out in the snow, whatever);
• If you want to share feed items with me, you’re welcome to join;
• To get started, send me an invite at chrisfmasse ===+++ gmail ==++ com —via Gmail (under “Chat” (on the left pane), click on “Add Contact”) or Google Talk;
• Once I have accepted your invite, use Google Reader and you’ll see my shared items and I’ll see yours;
• And if I do also mark and share the items coming from you, then my other “friends” will see them —etc.

This would be an interesting wisdom-of-crowds application for our industry —if the entire prediction market field entered the experiment (which won’t happen). If everybody were in this feed ring, then all the items related to prediction markets would be marked and shared with the others. (Unfortunately, the problem is that the prediction market topic is a minor, not a major, and most of the people will end up sharing items that have nothing to do with prediction markets.)

UPDATE: 44 “friends”, now. They are listed in this screen shot:

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UPDATE #2: The Google Reader blog gives an explainer on this sharing function. + Advanced tips on how to use Google Reader.

NEXT: Do use Google Reader.