RSS Wave: Good Examples Of Newsmaster Sites

As I have been introducing with increasing vigor the notion of a new professional role called the newsmaster, I have received many inquiries about how this fits into corporate information management strategies as well as into online entrepreneurial news business.

The most frequent request has been the one of showing some real, living examples, of "newsmastering" at work.

I have therefore decided to devote this article to showcase some very interesting examples of newsmastering work that are accessible on the Web and, of course, via RSS.

In them you will see how wide is the range options that one could really consider when exploring this new fascinating publishing opportunity.

This article is also intended as a public reference space to list more real-world examples of tightly-focused newsfeeds and information channels that smartly aggregate, filter and syndicate news from multiple sources.

If you are aware of other niche channels like these ones, please add them to the list via the comments area at the end of this article.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter News
http://www.hpana.com/
An Example of Content Aggregation, RSS and Community.
The Complete Harry Potter news coverage from top fan and official sources, updated automatically throughout the day.
RSS newsfeed: http://www.hpana.com/rss.cfm

Harry Potter News is probably one of the best examples of effective commercial newsmastering accessible out there. The strategy, philosophy and tools are in line with the classical newsmastering approach. Here is an excerpt from the About page:

"There are a multitude of Web sites that post news and rumors about the Harry Potter world. The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator (HPANA) was created to monitor several of the top news sources on the Web and provide near-instant alerts when new information is published.

This unique service is accomplished using custom, automated scripts that go to each source, capture data in whatever format is provided (text, HTML, or XML), parse the headlines and summaries, and finally index them in a database.

The next step is to organize the data on HPANA's Web site and to create public news feeds that can be used in RSS-compatible programs. Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a broadly supported XML-based technology that makes it possible for Web sites to distribute their content in a standard, summarized format. Desktop programs such as FeedReader and Trillian Pro (for Windows), and NetNewsWire Lite (for Mac) read RSS and display it however the reader chooses.

Using these tools, readers are essentially delivered a consolidated view of the information they want, almost as soon as it's posted, while providing credit and links back to the original source.

By indexing the news in a powerful database, many features not previously available become obvious: full-text searching, linking related stories together, and more. These are the services HPANA's Web site tries to provide."

Massimo Curatella's Newsmaster Network

• AngelMax
  Journal on Design, Arts and Technology
• StraTechnologist
  Web Design News and Resources
  Web Design and Development - Fresh news from selected sources on Web Design, Web Development, Web Standards, Web coding, XHTML, CSS, Usability, Accessibility, Web Feeds RSS and ATOM.
• 01Play.net
  Game Design: Fresh News and Links
  Fresh news from selected sources on Game Design, Game Studies, Game Research


• CGExplorer
  Computer Graphics and Animation Updates
  Latest news about 3D Computer animation and computer graphics.

All of the sites in Massimo Curatella's network are automatically updated and produce direct income through the use of Google AdSense ads.

Game News

• GameBlogs
  http://gameblogs.org/index.php
  GameBlogs is an aggregation site for blogs which discuss Games, Games Research & Theory and Game Industry Issues. GameBlogs is a 'blog community' - an aggregation site for blogs which regularly discuss Games and Games Research. The basic idea is simple: bloggers register their game-related blog, and GameBlogs simply keeps an updated register of posts - a single, aggregated, searchable view of the best game-related blogs around the web.

  A simpler, still effective newsmastering approach probably bordering into what most would call a group blog.

• Game Grene
  http://www.gamegrene.com/aggregator
  Daily news service for the world of gaming
  RSS newsfeed: http://www.gamegrene.com/node/feed

Planet Planet sites

Powered by an interesting piece of Python software called PlanetPlanet, here is a small sample of a large pool of very geeky news sites aggregating content from a multitude of bloggers working on a specific topic.

• Planet HCI
  http://planethci.org/
  Planet HCI is a web aggregator of feeds from HCI-related blogs, i.e., of those who care about how computers can serve users better.
  RSS newsfeed: http://planethci.org/rss20.xml
• Planet Sun
  http://planetsun.org/
  Planet Sun is an aggregation of public weblogs written by employees of Sun Microsystems.
  RSS newsfeed: http://planetsun.org/rss20.xml
• Planet Mozilla
  http://planet.mozilla.org/
  All about Mozilla development
  RSS newsfeed: http://planet.mozilla.org/rss20.xml

Miscellanous

• Blog Around The World
  http://www.blogaroundtheworld.com/
  Weblogs from people engaged in around-the-world (or very long distance) travel are aggregated for easy centralized reading. It's a constantly updated multi-author travelogue from around the world!
  RSS newsfeed: http://www.blogaroundtheworld.com/rss.xml
• Democracies Online
  http://dowire.org/drupal/?q=aggregator/feeds

Education - Learning - Technology

Edu RSS
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/xml/edu_rss.cgi
One-stop source for today's top writers in educational technology. Edu RSS retrieves weblog RSS feeds from across the Web and stores them here.
RSS newsfeed: http://www.downes.ca/edu_rss.rss

One of the earliest and most effective newsmastering resource available online. Created by Stephen Downes it offers multiple views, a search facility and the ability to filter and select only selected content categories.

Health - Alternative Medicine

The NewsTarget network utilizes a different approach to newsmastering by "pre-aggregating" selected news content from a great number of different news sources and focusing on quality opinionated news commentary.

Something worthwhile reading is this excerpt written by Mike Adams, the mind and hand behind the NewsTarget Network. He writes in the About page of the Newstarget Network:

"For each story selected for the Newstarget Network, editors introduce the basic facts of the news (a new study was released, an event took place, etc.) and then devote the majority of the page to commentary and analysis on what the news really means. What's the story behind the news? Who benefits from the news publicity? What fundamental problems in society does the news highlight? How might we use this information to be healthier or happier?

No Spammy Ads
In addition, NTN seeks to provide this information in a non-spammy format, with no animated banner ads, no pop-ups, no pop-unders, and no screen spam.
...NewsTarget Network presents a fresh, clean interface that focuses on content, not advertising.

No Advertiser Influence
Today, the nation's most respected newspapers (USA Today, the New York Times, etc.) are embroiled in credibility scandals involving journalists who simply invented "facts" and interviews in order to meet a deadline. Those are the scandals that have made the front page news, but the real (untold) scandal is the advertiser influence on newspapers, magazines, and cable networks. Advertisers supply the financial lifeline for these news organizations, and behind closed doors, they also heavily influence the nature and content of stories published by those organizations. At the NewsTarget Network, we accept no advertising directly from advertisers. Our ads are posted and selected by Google, outside of our control or influence. In this way, advertisers have no influence over our content, and by reading a NewsTarget Network site, the difference is immediately obvious: we're not afraid to tell the truth about what's happening in this country and around the world, no matter what potential advertisers it might annoy."

Here the sites:

• The NewsTarget Network
  http://www.newstarget.com/
  The NewsTarget Network (NTN) brings you the real story behind the news on a variety of topics from business and technology to science, health and medicine.
  Each site on the network offers a specific focus, such as nutrition, hydrogen energy, or disease prevention. And rather than simply bringing you each day's most important headlines on those topics, NTN editor Mike Adams brings you the story behind the headlines. It's opinionated, intelligent, and real.
• PharmaWatch
  http://www.pharmawatch.info/
  RSS newsfeed: http://www.pharmawatch.info/rss.xml


• ReformTheFDA
  http://www.reformthefda.org/
  RSS newsfeed: http://www.reformthefda.org/rss.xml
• Health|Factor
  http://healthfactor.info/
  RSS newsfeed: http://www.healthfactor.info/rss.xml

One of the most interesting services (still in alpha) to experiment with some newsmastering is Frassle at http://frassle.rura.org/.

But, stay tuned, as in the next RSS Wave article I will share exactly this. Some of the best newsmastering tools and services you can start using now.