While the cat’s away (Christy) the mice will play (me). So here is my pick of the week in lieu of Christy’s insight.
Communicating the latest news, events, or just to stay in touch with customers using web based technologies is a challenge. There are many formats publish the news in: RSS feeds, XML, Facebook, email lists, Twitter.
Do you Twitter? If so, your message will never get to me. My first experience with Twitter was reading lines like: I’m throwing up now; time to feed the cat; my dog just pooped [this is the euphemism] on the carpet.
My first impression of Twitter was it’s just garbage so I never signed up. The “signal to noise” ratio was 0 (zero). Nadda.
Enter from stage right: Paul at YellowPencil. Paul introduced me to a new web service: Dapper.
Dapper home page
The Dapper home page is clean and provides clear entry points for more information. Am I lazy? You bet. I’m going to search for existing Dapp feeds first. Let someone else do the grunt work.
Getting started is easy. For those guys that never read manuals, click on the “create a new dapp.” For those rare individuals that actually read (or listen to) manuals first, click on “how it works video.” The small amount of text and images makes finding these links easy.
Once you get into Dapper, you realize it is like a super translation service. You could use Dapper to find news on “Hawaii all-inclusive vacation” or “Caribbean cruise” through a Google search then combine them into one “signal” and get your news as an RSS feed. Or you could choose an XML format. Or add it to NetVibes.
And if hell freezes over and someone convinces me there is useful content on Twitter, I could add that to a Dapp feed: with a very strict filter to remove the crap.
The Dapp creation process is just as easy as the home page suggests. There is a guided 5 step wizard that prompts and nudges you on the right path. Of course, the last step (number 5) is “Please sign up to save your Dapp.” By the time step 5 rolled around I was convinced I could do this. I definitely like the “try before you sign up” concept.
Dapp also provides features for companies: provide your latest news in a Dapp friendly format and users can easily choose which format to receive it in. You reach audiences that like RSS or NetVibes or Google Gadgets but only have to support one interface.
Reduced work equals more play time. Caribbean cruise anyone?
How do you present news to your audience?
