Month: October 2005

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Is There Really A Web 2.0?

The whole Web 2.0 bit is really beginning to grate on my nerves. Rick Segal has a bit to say about getting swept up in the hpye. Give it a read.

The Post Money Value: Web 2.0 & New World Order?
1. Ignore browser vs. app debates, they are for tech people with too much time on their hands.

2. Focus on solutions. You have a problem and there are options to solve your problem. Solve the problem and the features that solved it are what you want/need. It’s a nice closed loop that gets you satisfied.

These 2 points are mentioned at the end of the piece, but they are really the take away here. The key to any app or solution is that it scratch an itch. Otherwise it’s just an answer looking for a question and there are plenty of those laying around. And it doesn’t really matter where the scratch comes from, just that it be easy enough to apply to sooth the itch without creating another one.

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BlogBridge Aggregation System

OK, BlogBridge looks like the real deal. I’ve got it running and it actually seems to work well. I imported my feed list from anther aggregator and that worked. I’ve setup a ‘SmartFeed’ that searches del.icio.us tags and that is producing results. The app is in Java, so it should run anywhere. Blogbridge offers a server-based service that will store your subscriptions so you can use them on other installs. Overall I like it. Let’s see what a couple of days of Elmer brings:)

BlogBridge: Home
Don’t know what BlogBridge is? No problems – we think it’s the best news feed and blog aggregation system – bar none! Not only will BlogBridge let you subscribe to your favorite RSS feeds, it will also help you sort through your existing feeds and help you discover new feeds.

It also comes with a server-based service that will let you synchronize all your feeds across multiple computers, and even maintain your read/unread status across those computers.

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WebConference LiveHelp Switches to GPL

The switch to GPL makes this package more interesting since the previous license limited use in a lot of ways.

freshmeat.net: Project details for WebConference LiveHelp!
WebConference LiveHelp! is a fully-featured online customer service solution. It links your support team to your customers in real-time and provides real-time one-on-one customer chat, pro-active Web site visitor tracking and engaging tools, a complete Web history, transcripts, a searchable dynamic knowledge base, and automatic feedback collection and reporting.

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Case Western Law Launches Saddam Hussein Trial Blog

The feed is here. I hope that this gets updated regularly once the trial begins or as matters warrant. From US Law Schools News Brief.

Case Western Reserve University
The trial of Saddam Hussein, scheduled to begin October 19, is expected to be among the most important trials in legal history. To help journalists, academics, and the public keep abreast of and understand developments related to the trial, the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law has launched the Saddam Hussein trial blog and interactive website at: http://www.law.case.edu/saddamtrial.

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U of Chicago Faculty Blog

Picked this up from BoleyBlogs. It is powered by Typepad, but one does wonder why they ar enot running their own software. And what about podcasting? Classcaster anyone?

The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog: Welcome
The University of Chicago School of Law has always been a place about ideas. We love talking about them, writing about them, and refining them through open, often lively conversation. This blog is just a natural extension of that tradition. Our hope is to use the blog as a forum in which to exchange nascent ideas with each other and also a wider audience, and to hear feedback about which ideas are compelling and which could use some re-tooling.

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Getting a Custom RSS Feed Via Email

ResearchBuzz: RSS Feeds to Newsletters and Specializing the Feed

This articles highlights a couple of toools that you can use to create custom RSS feeds and then have the results emailed to you. Pretty neat. The idea is to have Feedshake scan a set of feeds for you and filter on terms you select. This gives you a custom feed. Tyhen hand that feed off to RSSFwd which reads the feed and emails it to an address you provide. A possible use here would be to create a custom filtered feed that could be distributed to a mailing list: instant newsletter.