Rootswire for Bloggers

June 20, 2008 by Steve Hanson

The first RootsWire project is to build a syndicated platform for bloggers covering the Democratic National Convention 2008 in Denver. Our plans include the following:

• Build a blog aggregation platform for other blogs.  This will import the RSS feeds from the blogs, automatically tag the posts in a consistent manner, filter out posts that are not about the convention (this still needs work) and present the posts in  a number of innovative ways. This portion of the platform is currently working fairly well, and we'll be opening up to more bloggers around 6/25/2008.
• Aggregate together photo streams from the convention from several sources.  We're working on that right now.
• Setting up a couple ways for the bloggers to benefit both financially and from a publicity viewpoint.  We're incorporating TipJoy technology into the site, so that you can receive small tips from readers who like your stuff.  Soon we will also be sponsoring a RootsWire Advertising Network for member sites.
• Video Aggregation - we'd like to make it possible for you to include your own videos on the site - you can do this now by putting them into your own blog posts, but we'd also like to build a video gallery - this is still in the works, and we're not completely sure this portion will be built in time for the convention.
• Podcasts - we'd love to put in podcasts.  This falls in the same category as the videos - I'm pretty sure it'll be there in some form, but I can't promise anything.