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Threads > 2012 > October
Thread started by Dave Winer on Tuesday, October 16, 2012.

The new River tab on Scripting

spacer Today there is a new tab on the Scripting News home page. Screen shot.

spacer I've felt for a long time that every serious news organization and blog should have a river associated with their publication. The river would include the news sources that the publication "reads" -- to give their readers a sense of the community they both belong to and the community they define.

spacer spacer For example, a blog about a town would include a river of all the bloggers who are active in that town. This is a vital resource for the editorial people who write for the pub, but it also gives access to everyone. The readers get to read all the news sources, and the news sources get to read each other. Very quickly, probably instantaneously, all these different boxes, sources, readers, reporters merge into one, because truthfully it's more like that every day. The imaginary line that separates a columnist from a voter from a mayor is more or less non-existent, in a day when mayors have blogs, and citizens become mayors.

spacer This is the world envisioned by at least some of the founders of the United States. That the people would form the government, and that the press would cover everything, without regard to status. The tendency of cliques and ladders to form would be counteracted by new entrants in all the fields, and lower barriers to entry. This is what democratization of media looks like. It's why I put my collection of rivers on a site called Media Hackers. Because that's what all this is doing, hacking media, and turning it into something new, given the new realities of the technology we now use to publish and to read.

spacer Rivers are revolutionary because they are flat. The ideal level playing field. I read NakedJen and Doc Searls along with the New York Times and whitehouse.gov. And Jon Chait, David Frum, Felix Salmon and Matt Taibbi. I love them all because they send me fresh ideas that get me thinking. And I love that I can share all that with you, the lovely people who read my humble blog.

spacer The river on Scripting News home page is a collection of feeds that I read to be inspired and to keep informed. They reflect my interests, which is appropriate because it is my blog. It helps you know who influences me, and I'm always open to adding more feeds to my river.

spacer My feeling is that if you read my blog you should also read my river.

spacer I think the more innovative sites should get on board right away. I have pitched FastCompany and Wired on doing this. Technology Review at MIT has written glowingly of the idea of rivers of news, how about putting one together for your community? BerkeleySide, why not put a river of Berkeley bloggers on your site?

spacer I am available to help any serious publication get started. We have the software, and the interest. And the community of users gathered around my site, ever-more-active, are zealots when it comes to spreading the gospel! :-)

spacer PS: Thanks to Dody Gunawinata, a developer in Cairo, for helping get the flash out of my rivers. I'm still very much a Javascript newbie, and need help getting stuff like this to work smoothly.

Vince Outlaw spacer

spacer With the prominent River tab, I would imagine folks will begin reading your river more and seeing that RT (just like I just did). From the prompt when I hit the RT link, it looks like it's tied in with your Linkblog software. I'm wondering if there is a way for non-Linkblog users to use your RT to post to their own linkblog...like Twitter, just for an example ;)?

Adam Curry spacer

spacer An excellent addition to scripting.com!

spacer As a companion to the No Agenda Podcast I have a river that is a community river. Listeners (who we call producers) can add their own personal feeds, or feeds they like as sources for the content of the show.

spacer About 80% of each episode's content is derived from these sources in one way or another.

spacer I already use a tabbed layout for each episode's shownotes, I never thought to add the river as well.

spacer I'm attemptig to do this here

spacer As you can see, once the river tab loads, it screws up all the other tab formatting

spacer Any chance of an opml file that contains the source of scripting.com?

spacer That would be very helpful in understanding how to build this type of layout/interface

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