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17 Comments
PrintRoll Your Own Online Newspaper
News Type: Other — Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:56 PM EDT
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Why do you subscribe to a newspaper? I think many people subscribe to a newspaper in order to have news delivered to them in a timely matter to consumed at their leisure. Unlike television and radio which you have to catch and consume on their schedule. The web has improved upon the newspaper in that you can consume the news at your leisure. Unlike a newspaper it is not delivered to you. You have to visit each site in order to find out what is new there.
That is until recently. A couple of new technologies have developed that allow you to build pages that can pull news headlines from a variety of sources and present it to you in one place. The first technology is Really Simple Syndication or RSS. RSS allows a website to deliver data (headlines, stories, links, video, mp3s etc) to their users automatically in a web feed without the user having to go to their website. This brings us to the second piece of technology the feed reader or aggregator. A feed aggregator periodically checks the feeds your subscribed to and presents the data to you. There are all sorts of aggregators available. A fairly comprehensive list of aggregators can be found at the RSS Compendium.
Now the thing that I think brings these two technologies together to allow you to build your own online newspaper is the concept of the webtop. A webtop is a virtual desktop. The webtop provides an environment from which you can launch web based applications. They typically provide a number of features including displaying RSS feeds. Currently the one I use to make my newpaper is Protopage. I like the way this site allows me shape and place my feeds on the screen. Another feature I like is the ability to build multiple pages as well as place multiple feeds in a news feed widget. This is what brought me to the thought that I am building my own customized online newspaper. I've divided mine up into four pages addressing a number of topics like the sections of a newspaper. On each page I've set up a number of feed widgets that subcribe to feeds related to a subtopic of that page. For instance my first page is covers technology and science. On it I have a widget subscribing to gadget feeds from Engadget , Gizmodo , and GearLog. Another widget subscribes to technology news feeds while another subscribes to science feeds. Another page is dedicated to tracking the news sites like Fox News and Newsvine. Anyway, you can see how I've set it and what I subscribe to at http://www.protopage.com/fdbryant3.
Anyway, using these technologies you can build your own, fully customizable online newspaper that you can access anywhere you can access the web with the content you wish to read.
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- Public Discussion (17)
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12
5.7
{"commentId":336582,"authorDomain":"michaelsautter"}
I use Netvibes, you can read my review here: Netvibes, My New Start-up Page
{"commentId":336582,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"michaelsautter"}
- 3 votes
#1 - Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:18 AM EDT{"commentId":337027,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
Heck, I just use Google Reader. It's fast, and I can read the whole article. But, I do like the webtop idea.
{"commentId":337027,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 3 votes
#2 - Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:46 PM EDT{"commentId":337059,"authorDomain":"farmer"}
Just a thought as I have not really looked at the systems available. Site designers should look toward making a text only page available for easy printing. I am obsessed with on line newspapers so I will be back. Thanks.
{"commentId":337059,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"farmer"}
- 3 votes
#3 - Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:17 PM EDT{"commentId":337738,"authorDomain":"richardg"}
If you're a good site designer you can style your page differently when users print it. When you print a newsvine page you don't see the left hand menu or all the top menu. You can use print preview to check without wasting paper.
{"commentId":337738,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"richardg"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":337892,"authorDomain":"farmer"}
RichardG, I was doing this years ago. My designs were put through both IE and Netscape Communicator at the time to ensure good results for the majority. We would leave out code that would not work in both. A printer friendly version was also available. A remnant of my first effort can still be seen at www.cfen.com. I am no longer associated with that site. The printer version was meticulously typeset to prevent widows and orphans, that sort of thing. Graphics were included and the printed version came out just like any printed newspaper with columns etc.
{"commentId":337892,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"farmer"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":338598,"authorDomain":"richardg"}
I meant with style sheets you no longer need to make separate versions of your page. All your typesetting is done in your stylesheet and you have different ones for screen and for print. The browser knows which one to use and the same style sheets can be used for all the pages of your site.
I think using CSS in this way to make the same page look different depending on whether you're viewing it on screen or printing has only been possible since July 2000.
Columns on the print version that didn't occur on the screen version would be tricky with this method however. It does however make managing print friendly and screen friendly versions of pages much easier and practical.
{"commentId":338598,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"richardg"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":337080,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
How about a webtop that looks like a newspaper (b&w, several columns, etc.)
{"commentId":337080,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 4 votes
#4 - Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:33 PM EDT{"commentId":337581,"authorDomain":"fdbryant3"}
{"commentId":339856,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
Hey, I actually found one! http://www.newsinabox.com/. I promise I am not affiliated with it, and I did not bring up this subject to purposely link to it. I did have a few problems with it (read my post at http://onlineapps.newsvine.com/_news/2006/10/21/409523-newsinabox for more), but it's pretty cool. Oh, and it's offline (works on Windows 98/NT/2000/XP/2003).
{"commentId":339856,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":340168,"authorDomain":"fdbryant3"}
{"commentId":660632,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
Here (after about six months) is that online newspaper-like software:
http://simplyheadlines.com/home_6.aspx
{"commentId":660632,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":660813,"authorDomain":"farmer"}
Hey, OnlineApps, I sure like the looks of that paper. Wish I had the software to do my own. I am currently using software that automates most functions but does not allow for as great a style variance as I would like. I will email a url. Please tell me if there is something better than what I have.
{"commentId":660813,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"farmer"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":337242,"authorDomain":"aine"}
{"commentId":337250,"authorDomain":"gwenny"}
I signed up with Crayon.net years ago.
{"commentId":337250,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"gwenny"}
- 3 votes
#6 - Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:20 PM EDT{"commentId":340323,"authorDomain":"fdbryant3"}
{"commentId":338993,"authorDomain":"LAUHAL63"}
Nice article. Thanks for the information!
{"commentId":338993,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"LAUHAL63"}
- 4 votes
#7 - Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:20 PM EDT{"commentId":340255,"authorDomain":"newsaddict"}
Nice article, thanks for pointing out the "webtop" possibility, hadn't heard about it before. Worth checking!
{"commentId":340255,"threadId":"48699","contentId":"406158","authorDomain":"newsaddict"}
- 1 vote
#8 - Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:39 AM EDT{"canLink":false,"threadId":"48699","isPrivate":false}
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