This is comment I posted on the Omidyar Network discussion on CompuMentor's project developments (must be a registered user):
For the past month, Marnie and I have been emailing and blog commenting about the idea of a nonprofit content aggregator (as opposed to a content creator...I will leave that discussion for another time) and its possible incarnations.
Both of us, in our different ways, have been exploring the concept of personal content aggregation. For me, in the midst of a personalized web search launch frenzy (Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, Amazon's A9) I had been looking for a multiple domain specific search mechanism - what I call a personal search builder. The idea is that I could build searches on selected domains (for example on nonprofit technology specific domains, be they forums, blogs, listserv archives or xml/databases) save those searches and be able to add/delete domains as I wished. I have yet to come across something like this.
However, a couple weeks ago I came across a site called Soople. Soople is essentially a single UI for all of Google's different search features. One of the search functions searches multiple domains at once, based on pre-selected domains under different categories. As a stop-gap measure I borrowed from the code to build my own simple npo-tech search on my blog (very thin however).
All of this is background for my emerging thoughts on the concept(s) that Richard (from CompuMentor) has laid out above. I agree with him that Rojo is very promising as an RSS/Newsfeed aggregator and social networking tool. But so much valuable content remains static at this point in time, therefore the aggregated content would be fairly thin and of limited value (I am making the presumption that there is valuable content beyond CM/TS/TSS sites).
So I've been wondering if approached (by CM/TS/NTEN/Aspiration?) whether Google would consider extending its public service search program to the donation (or partner grant) for a Google Search Appliance. The appliance could be developed to create a dynamic sector-specific and/or domain specific search content/aggregator tool. Nonprofit staff could use it to aggregate their own publishing, while both staff and the public could use it to find more relevant resources and referrals. It could possibly have different filters for different sub-sectors and perhaps even a Furl-like personal bookmark component as well (supposedly something of the like is in the works at Google labs).
Grant it, I don't have all the particulars hammered out in my head...there are many questions left unanswered (such as who decides what domains get added and how). My next step is to participate in a live demo of the application...there is much I still don't know.
While I know that most NPO techie folks are big proponents of the use of open standards to develop tech-tools, I think its worth considering a platform that more or less defines content aggregation for most of us.
Let me know what you think.
Sonny
Comments