Library clips

Planet Web. 2.0 is an example of a public RSS aggregator using Chumpologica…via Read/Write Web.

Similar tools:

PlanetPlanet…see Planet IM
SimpleAggregator…see LISfeeds
FeedWordpress…see rss tools

NOTE: the name of the Public RSS aggregator “rss tools” has changed to “gas” (doesn’t make sense to me, the variation in the blogroll seems a bit odd).

More manual ways:

Blogdigger groups
Superblog
Bloglines public
Remix some feeds and present them on a blog via Feed Digest (then list all the blogs [contributors] on the sidebar)

Related posts:

More than one way to curate a blog!
Public RSS aggregator: make your own!
RSS: transport topics

As I mentioned in a comment on IncSub, I’m yet to see a Public RSS aggregator where the blogroll or source blogs open within the aggregator, ie. when you click on a source blog it shows the latest posts…Blogdigger groups is the only tool that does this (only excerpts)!
…the other tools only show the lastest posts from the source blogs.

Although one thing I noticed about FeedWordpress is that all posts also carry over the categories from the source blogs, so you can search within the Public RSS Aggregator by category (the category heading lists the total of all categories from all the source blogs)

….so this uses the source blog categories, it doesn’t make a category up, like tools such as K-Collector.

We need the best of these two tools to come together…ie. we need Public RSS aggregators such as FeedWordpress, Planet Planet, etc… to work like a Bloglines Public RSS reader where each feed (listed on the blogroll) opens within the tool itself.

…here is a comparison

• Blogdigger groups - simple log-in set up, hosted site, don’t need expertise, easy enough for the lay person

  FeedWordpress - need some expertise to install a system

• Blogdigger groups - usually the blogs (and feeds) that make up the content of this public aggregator are listed on the sidebar, clicking on one will limit the results to just that feed (it would be good to select multiple feeds)
  …this is unique as you can view content from any of the source blogs anytime you like all within the Blogdigger Group (kind of like a Bloglines Public Reader).

  FeedWordpress - clicking on one of these will launch to the native site, you can’t see the latest content within FeedWordpress manually (unless you use the categories)

• Blogdigger groups - search RSS feed, as well at the per feed level

  FeedWordpress - n/a

• FeedWordpress - RSS comments

  Blogdigger groups - n/a

• FeedWordpress - post looks virtually the same as the native blog

  Blogdigger groups - post isn’t a replicate version, and it is only an excerpt

• FeedWordpress - optimum customisation and presentation, total control

  Blogdigger groups - limited presentation, can only choose the content

• FeedWordpress - also displays the categories of every source blog

  Blogdigger groups - no categories

Copyright

The Read/Write post goes on to mention infringement issues with this new automated newsmastering process, and whether there are copyright issues on re-constituting content word for word…check out the comments.

I guess as long as you respect the copyright notice on the blog you are re-syndicating, and as long as you reference mark the source at the end of the post (as reblog does, and the other Public RSS Aggregators mentioned above), and the post links back to the source I don’t see a problem…as long as people are aware they are reading a compilation of content and the owner of the website is a curator and not an author.
The editor of the website could add a note explaining that the contents from this aggregated blog is not original but compiled from the blogs on the blogroll.

How are these sites different from a Bloglines public account or a Blogdigger group at first glance?

I guess it is in the presentation and purpose…whereas with the 2 above you are always aware it’s part of a service…whereas with PlanetPlanet and the others a layperson may not know the editor is not authoring the content.

What if you re-syndicate the content from a Technorati search on a blog (not on the sidebar, but in the actual body contents of the blog)…all posts will be from other people, you will be presenting an aggregated view of a topic without authoring anything and obviously the content is coming from a myrid of blogs so you can’t keep up with the copyright of each blog…how is automated newsmastering different than search engine results…I suppose automated newsmastering has one purpose, but in the end they are both publishing the work of others without asking them.

I suppose search engines aren’t designed with a re-publishing purpose, they are designed more for findability, so you can click to the site, whereas automated newsmastering has only one purpose and that is re-publishing content to form your own topic portal (maybe automated newsmastering is more fair if it is excerpts and not full-text as the authors at least have a chance for click-through’s.

• you could specifiy the search engine bots to not index your site
• you could have a copyright notice, disallowing people to re-syndicate your feed unless given permission (or protect your feed somehow)

For more see these 2 articles:
The Copyright Debate & RSS
Protecting RSS Feeds From Commercial Republication

The newsmastering blog, rss tools (via FeedWordpress), is a prime example of a Public RSS aggregator.

The content is made up of 15 blogs (mine is featured) that are all listed in the blogroll, it also collects the category a post belongs to from the native blog, so the category list has every category from all 15 blogs…this makes it a long list.

NOTE: “rss tools” now called “gas”, actually has added more than 15 source blogs recently.

As mentioned before an alternative to this is using a method such as K-Collector, or even using a tool such as TagCloud….you could splice together all 15 blogs into one RSS feed, then put the javascript code into your sidebar…so now instead of categories, you have computer generated hot keywords.
Only problem is that when you click on a keyword you will be taken to the TagCloud website to see the contents, whereas the way rss tools is currently set up you can view the content by category within the rss tools blog.

Actually I found that Planet IM, LISfeeds, and Planet Web 2.0 lack archives like a calendar or categories…if a post drops off the front page, it is gone (unless you have the RSS contents cached in your RSS reader). Whereas FeedWordpress, eg. rss tools, is more of a content archive as it archives all posts, and they are findable via a search box, a calendar and by categories.

Coming back to the discussion I only found out about my blog being a contributor (or as now labelled as an associate) on this site, as it appeared on my incoming links. It felt a bit weird to discover that my contents was being re-syndicated without being asked…it could seem to look like a group blog to some people, and it is really, but the contributors don’t even know they are contributing.
In the end I don’t mind being under the banner, presentation, and purpose of “rss tools” (I don’t mind its theme, but if I did mind???)

Weird thing about the web 2.0 re-mix culture is that it is too easy to re-syndicate content without asking the owner of the content…is this an issue…but what about the exposure….do you want to be affiliated…these questions are even more prominent with native feeds compared to remix or search engine feeds (3rd party).

Maybe an email could be sent to blog owners asking permission to include the feed contents of your blog onto their aggregated feed topic portal (Public RSS aggregator)…it would be different if you were re-syndicating search feeds from an RSS engine as the content is made up from various blogs, and it is only excerpts (if you are OK with your feed being indexed by a search engine, than you should be OK being re-syndicated into a Public RSS aggregator).
But then again you can limit the search in an RSS engine to just the content of one feed, via a site search…see here.

So besides not having the chance to decide whether you want to be affiliated on a Public RSS aggregator (because of the openness of RSS content) there is also the issue of whether your blog posts are annotated correctly with you as the author and if the post title links back to your site…so far all the Public RSS aggregators I have seen do this well.

But of late I’ve realised that “rss tools” no longer does this…each post mentions the source blog it came from but is not hyperlinked to the source blog, it also has the date-mark, and category via the source blog, but the category link opens within “rss tools” itself…and the title of the post also opens within “rss tools” itself.
The only thing that links back to the source blog is on the blogroll.

The main problem I have is that the title of the post doesn’t link to the source blog, unlike reading the post in an RSS reader like Bloglines and clicking on the title to go to the native feed.

Also the issue of clicking on a source blog in the blogroll and having it show the contents within the Public RSS aggregator, and not launch to the native site still isn’t solved.
The blog roll could have 3 links for each blog/source:
1. link to the blog home page
2. link to the native feed
3. link to the blog contents within the Public RSS aggregator

There is also the issue of comments…should a Public RSS aggregator allow comments?
Reason I ask is that if someone leaves a comment on the Public RSS aggregator version of my post, how will I know or respond…people will be commenting on my posts and I wouldn’t know, I’d rather they comment on my blog.

In the examples at the start of this post Planet IM, LISfeeds, and Planet Web 2.0 all list the source blogs in the blog roll with the feeds (displaying the feeds is important for visibility). It would be also good to augment this by displaying the source feed next to each post as well…this way the source blogs are getting more exposure
…the Public RSS aggregator my blog is featured on (rss tools) doesn’t display feeds on the blogroll.

Another issue is that a Public RSS aggregator has an RSS feed (the one in question, rss tools, re-syndicates 15 blogs, so the RSS feed is spliced with all these 15 blogs).
So if people subscribe to this feed, they don’t need to subscribe to my native feed, so now I have competition from my own content.

What is stopping someone from making a Public RSS aggregator based on just re-syndicating one feed (kind of defeats the purpose)…this would be a replica of someone’s blog.

Extra

Just came across this portal for the nptech community…it is a public RSS aggregator and more…we will just look at the aspects related to this post.
…it doesn’t hint at the software used, but it seems you’d need to be a techie.

On the sidebar there is a heading called “Navigation”, under it you can click on the News Aggregator link (same as the “news feeds” heading on the top), this shows a list of posts:

-Title of each post goes to the native site (so there are no permalinks within the nptech Public News aggregator…so I’m still yet to find a tool that does this)
-Also has a source link
-It seems a moderator must scan posts and categorise them

Back to the sidebar if you click on Categories this shows a list of categories:

-Brief title of latest posts within each category…all link to the native site

Click on more, or on the sidebar choose a category in full view, I’ll choose nptech watch, this shows:

-Latest posts by one category…so the display is similar to the “News Aggregator” page, except it is by one category (all titles link to the native site)

Also note on the right sidebar always shows latest posts for each categories (in the usual javascript type boxes)

Back to the sidebar if you click on Sources, it reveals the sidebar blogroll…in the body it lists:

-Brief title of latest posts within each source…all link to the native site

Click on more, or on the sidebar choose a source in full view, I’ll choose Beth’s Blog, this shows:

- Latest posts by one source… so the display is similar to the “News Aggregator” page, and viewing posts within just one “Category”, except now it is by one source (all titles link to the native site)

The top of the page displays the blog source name, description of the blog, URL, and feed.

Now if you go to the top of the page there is a link called Blogs, this isn’t really part of the automated Public RSS aggregator from what I can tell, I think it is a space for people to submit blog posts…well actually it seems like it is set up as in-house generic blogs (like a multi-user blog system)…there is also an RSS feed (but lacks an OPML)

If you click on the title of a post, or the “read more” link it goes to a permalink

If you click on the source of the post it goes to a user page..I’ll click on a post with the source being eweinb04

This page displays some history, if you click on “view recent blog entries” it goes to an actual in-house blog, with a feed, and permalinks for each post.

It would be good for these in-house blogs to be listed in the sidebar as a blogroll, and maybe an OPML to boot.

So it seems this is a multi-user blog system, as well as a Public RSS aggregator, amongst other features in this portal.