Joel,

Nice idea. There's one hidden feature of the tagging mechanism that you might be interested in.

You can subscribe to a feed of all the items tagged with a tag... so for instance, you could start tagging different comments on the site as ned-news. Anyone who subscribes to the feed would see the newly tagged content.

This way, it gives you control over which comments show up in the news.

To try it out, go to the home page (or a group page) and click on a tag. Next, use the rss link at the bottom of the left column to subscribe to all content tagged with that tag. It will update as that tag is applied in the future.

What do you think, would this help?

Hi Jim,

Now thats what I'm talking about! Thanks Jim, thats why I like this place its full of smart people! With the RSS to PDF application you could print out and read all the updates in a pleasant format over a cup of coffee. Also, we could have groups dedicated to an indiviual feeds in order to produce "publishable" content for those outside of NED. Of course this would require some sort of NED editors to keep the content targeted and useful.

Hey Jim,

My Brother went to College in Vermont, The School of International Training in Battleboro, VT.

>>Of course this would require some sort of NED editors to keep the content targeted and useful.<<

This is what I am hoping will happen weekly on the front Ned index page...so there may be some interesting things that can happen here.

Mark,

Without a doubt. I envision NED becoming a think tank type of CONTENT Provider through its RSS feed who's voice is solutions oriented, somewhat apolitical, heard and valued in the Public Discourse on various well defined issues.

Well defined issues such as:

"Stop Genocide in Darfur"

"Microfinance Solutions for _________"

"Water Solutions for _________"

"Ideas for the Working poor in Chicago"

"How to Start a Pre-School Coop"

"Top Microsolution Projects of the Year"

ETC.

Love this idea, and excited to know that some accessible technology is available to experiment with.

For years I've dreamed of something called "internet4change magazine" which would put webcontent and link descriptions related to well-defined and locally relevant topics into a print format for free distribution at webcafes in Africa... the idea would be to give more people an opportunity to "pre-surf" for topic oriented resources before they have to start paying for their online time.

You mean <Ned>itors ?

Mark Grimes said:

>>Of course this would require some sort of NED editors to keep the content targeted and useful.<<

This is what I am hoping will happen weekly on the front Ned index page...so there may be some interesting things that can happen here.

Dude it works!

Check it out here:

NED NEWS

Your Seeing the Evolution of Online News before your very Eyes. Ned can harness this application to publish a quarterly newspaper.

Check out the the Feedjournal here:

http://www.feedjournal.com/webse rvice.html

I would be interested in a discussion of how newsletters impact a community's collaboration dynamics and overall usability etc

As far as I am aware a human editor has to make some choices but these can be towards various useful goals - a different style of newsletter arising from each

for example: a weekly newsletter that suggests where to go and participate if you can urgently help with XXX - this has value if some threads invole action and team forming projects

a different newsletter would be best of the month or quarter; this would both be useful in interfacing with new members or prospecting members as well as potentially provide archives of what was commually valued most

there are probaly lots of varieties - but as far as I am aware they need goal specification and a person doing the editing towards that end

Wow wow wow!

I definitely want to play with that toy!

Now the Feedjournal has a widget we can add to this site:

www.feedjournal.com

I'll talk to Mark.

Check it out:

http://www.ned.com/group/pfo/new s/0/atom.xml

Great ideas, all. Joel, that's a fantastic application of a cool idea - kudos for highlighting it!

Christine, I really like your internet4change magazine concept - a pre-printed newspaper that features items folks who use telecentres might be interested in. One that saves them money in access fees by pinpointing things they might only stumble on themselves after spending many hours online.

And presumably edited by local folks, who would understand local interests and priorities. It's making my wheels turn...!

[Edited by Jon A. - clarity and spelling]