16 August 2009
Written by Jonathan Walker
Website: http://walkerjon.com
email:
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As I have stated many times on this blog, I am in favour of aggregators which make it easier for people to find content from across the web, although I think there are some limits on what they should do.
I have begun work on an aggregator for Birmingham blogs, to replace the rather poor "blogroll" on this site.
If anyone has any thoughts on whether this is a good idea or not, I would be very grateful for their input.
Work on it has only just begun, and it will be a long time before it is anything close to comprehensive (I'm sure it will never be complete).
Take a look at http://birmingham.localbounce.com and leave a comment, either at the "about" page on that site, or right here.
Comments
(7)
I'll be honest and say that I don't aggregators are very useful in almost all cases, people build their own "aggregators" by subscribing to the feeds content that that like in whatever reading system they wish.
If one becomes useful by taking out the content that the creator deems not to be useful, then it's a filter mechanism not an aggregator — and a different thing.
Aggregators in themselves are quite an old fashioned way of thinking about content from different places, there's more value in creating mechanisms (search, sorting, filter, recommendation) to help people select only the relevant parts from different sources than there is collecting content together. We've not yet seen the breakthrough in technology that will make this simple and automatic (maybe attention profiling - & APML - will, but it's not there yet), we still need to rely on a human factor.
While it may work for some people, it's unlikely that your selection of feeds is the exact right one for many other people (as mine isn't, I wouldn't think btw my feed reader's list of Brum blogs is at http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/links) - at the very most pulling together an OPML of feeds allows people to conveniently subscribe to the lot and then add/remove as they wish.
http://www.jonbounds.co.uk
If one becomes useful by taking out the content that the creator deems not to be useful, then it's a filter mechanism not an aggregator — and a different thing.
Aggregators in themselves are quite an old fashioned way of thinking about content from different places, there's more value in creating mechanisms (search, sorting, filter, recommendation) to help people select only the relevant parts from different sources than there is collecting content together. We've not yet seen the breakthrough in technology that will make this simple and automatic (maybe attention profiling - & APML - will, but it's not there yet), we still need to rely on a human factor.
While it may work for some people, it's unlikely that your selection of feeds is the exact right one for many other people (as mine isn't, I wouldn't think btw my feed reader's list of Brum blogs is at http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/links) - at the very most pulling together an OPML of feeds allows people to conveniently subscribe to the lot and then add/remove as they wish.
Hi Have you checked out Jon Bounds' hyperlocal news wire for Bham on http://www.jonbounds.co.uk/blo...news-wire/? His attempt to 'marshal the content from hyperlocal blogging in Birmingham and allow people only to subscribe to feeds that interest them' using Yahoo pipes.
http://talkaboutlocal.org
I have seen Jon's news wire, which not only does what it says on the tin re: Birmingham(ish) blogs but is a useful lesson in how to make a filtered pipe feed for any purpose. Certainly, I didn't know how to do that before, so I agree it's well worth checking out for that, as well as for the immediate functionality.
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Jon, thanks for your comment and you're probably right. I'm going to think about it.
I suspect that even if it is of very limited to use to many people, the ability to call up latest posts from local blogs (one person's selection of blogs, as you say) on a given topic (eg Acock's Green, cinema) will be of use to at least one person, ie me, so perhaps I'll just do it and not make a fuss about it. It does have a search function, which will allow me to see what's been posted on a given topic lately. I had hoped other people would find it useful too though so maybe not. As I said, I'll consider what you said.
Many thanks.
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I suspect that even if it is of very limited to use to many people, the ability to call up latest posts from local blogs (one person's selection of blogs, as you say) on a given topic (eg Acock's Green, cinema) will be of use to at least one person, ie me, so perhaps I'll just do it and not make a fuss about it. It does have a search function, which will allow me to see what's been posted on a given topic lately. I had hoped other people would find it useful too though so maybe not. As I said, I'll consider what you said.
Many thanks.
4 days ago