How I Use An Aggregator

June 27, 2011Sr. Susan Wolf, SND

For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with publishing my own daily newspaper using an “aggregator.” I love it and it is totally automated and free! I read my newspaper everyday.

My paper is The Catholic e-News Daily and it contains articles from one of my Twitter lists. All I had to do was name the paper, designate the Twitter list, check what types of content I wanted to publish, how often (daily, twice daily, or weekly) and at what time of day. The tool does the rest. Once it is set up—it runs automatically. I can edit my choices anytime and the new version will appear with the next publication. At publishing time, it sends a notice to my Twitter followers and an email to my subscribers.

The aggregator scans all of the tweets on my specified Twitter list each day, finds links to new content and puts them together on one website. The opening lines of these articles are published in the newspaper along with the original author and the name of the Tweeter. Hyperlinks are provided.

I follow a lot of people on Twitter and I don’t have time to read all of the tweets everyday—but there are some people that I don’t want to miss. This newspaper brings them to me (and to my subscribers) in one place—complete with a lead-in and accompanying graphics. You can check it out (and subscribe) by clicking on The Catholic e-News Daily. It comes out daily at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.

There are all kinds of aggregators—some are totally automatic, others allow more customization and editing. What aggregators do you use? Why do you like them?

Comments (3)

David Niles

June 27, 2011 at 8:33 am

This is a great approach. There is so much information coming across Twitter that it is impractical to follow it all. By creating an aggregated paper, you are serving the role that newspaper editors have served — finding and presenting information that interests a specific audience. I am seeing more of these kind of newsletters, and wonder if is a sign of a trend of people trying to find ways to more efficiently deal with information overload.
Sr. Susan Wolf, SND

June 27, 2011 at 12:02 pm

You echo my thoughts David. The aggregator is a easy way to organize the content that I am interested in and allows me to share it with others in an attractive way. I discovered this tool when my articles started showing up in other people’s newspapers.
Alex

July 15, 2011 at 12:55 pm

I use Google Reader. It is sooo simple and powerful. Reader has become part of my daily routine. I also use Google Chrome with a reader extension which allows me to add RSS feeds to my Reader folders with a click of the button. It doesn’t get any better:)