This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: BloggerCon Aggregators Discussion Feed Title: Richard Demers Blog Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rademers-rss.xml Feed Description: Richard Demers on Smalltalk Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Richard Demers Blog

James pointed to this discussion of aggregators at BloggerCon by Jon Udell. There were a number of interesting points to ponder as we evolve BottomFeeder. Here are some items that caught my attention:

1. "a click per item is a non starter; too many clicks "
   BF's zoom mode lets you see a full screen display of an item, with navigation to other items by hitting the up arrow and down arrow keys. Is that still too much keying? Should we be looking at a simple scrolled display of all the previously selected items (eg. new items or alert items)?
2. "How can readers publish their subscription list?"
   More generally, any list of feeds? BF supports feedlists gotten as OPML from Syndic8, but should BF users be able to assemble and "publish" or "export" their own feedlists.
3. "how about an API for aggregators so people can write plugins?"
   This has come up before. It's one of the reasons I'm working on a new domain model for BF - one with a well-defined API so that people can write their own Smalltalk scripts against it - not just plugins. Lots of work to do before that happens, though. Someone needs to do some thinking about how to include Smalltalk scripts into a program like BF.
4. "how to explain RSS to your parents? Hard!"
   I've struggled with this problem with several friends and relatives. It's one of the reasons I wrote the BF Tutorial, but I've never had ny feedback on my write up.

Lots of other interesting stuff, too.