Not long after I started building Newsbobber, I knew I would have to tackle Twitter someday. My feeling is that any aggregator site aiming to become a go-to source for news, information, buzz and entertainment must have a Twitter component.
That's more true today than it was even a year ago, when launching a Minnesota news aggregator was just a gleam in my eye. The fact is that anyone who wants to be truly plugged into a city's news, politics and civic life needs to know what's happening on Twitter.
In the past few weeks I finally tackled Twitter. My goal has not been to replace anyone's Twitter app of choice, but rather to help filter and organize Minnesota-related tweets -- for Twitter veterans and newbies alike. One model I used for inspiration was Muck Rack, which streams tweets from national media personalities. I like the idea of giving people a place to monitor the chatter from notable people in certain fields or professions. If you've been offline for a bit, or if you haven't even created a Twitter profile, you can duck in to quickly catch up and see what's going on.
So far, I've built three Twitter streams, including politics, news media and social media. Each stream features a day's worth of tweets from people in those fields.
Another feature are the Twitter bios, which let you find out who some of the tweeters are. You can sort the Twitter users by name, number of followers and number of times they've tweeted.
At this point, I'm limiting the streams to Twitter users who have a proven track record in their field. In politics, that means elected officials, political reporters, lobbyists, party hacks and activists, for example. I know I've created a gate-keeping function that runs counter to some of the openness of Twitter and the Web overall. But I figure that many users already get the anything-goes streams via their own Twitter page or application. The whole point of the Newsbobber streams is to organize tweets into groups that have some meaning and value.
Some people may say that hashtags already accomplish what I'm trying to do. That's true, up to a point. In fact, I'm streaming some Minnesota politics hashtags on my politics page. But while hashtags are a valuable tool for organizing tweets, they also are susceptible to abuse, spammers and fools. So by limiting entry to my streams, I'm keeping the noise to a minimum.
I'm also committed to an open-door policy. If someone pings me and wants to be included in one of the streams, great. Just show that you're involved in the pertinent profession and you're in.
A recently launched site called Twin Cities Twitter takes a different approach. The guys behind that site (and its related sites) have done a good job in creating a sort of Twitter town hall for the Twin Cities. It appears they're accepting most comers. My only knock is that frequent tweeters and commercial-type users tend to dominate the stream.
The Newsbobber Twitter streams are an initial stab at aggregating Twitter. My goal is to create a "Login in with Twitter" feature that will let you tweet, retweet, follow and send direct messages without having to leave Newsbobber.
A quick technical note of thanks to Matt Williams and Arc90. Matt, who I've never met, created a great client to interact with Twitter's API in PHP. Arc90 shared its code for free with the world and that's a wonderful thing.
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