Okay, here’s another cool technology thing I’ve found recently. It’s in the category of Social Software (like the other links I’ve got in the category in this blog’s sidebar). It’s called CommonTimes.

CommonTimes is an interactive news website that allows you to select the top stories and add your own comments. You can create your own channel and also share stories with friends. You can even create/join groups of people with common interests and see what they are reading.

It’s a GREAT concept and works very well. There are several other news-related “community” programs out there, but I think this one is by far the best.

New stories get ranked by how many times they’re read, but you can also sort by most recent, most discussed, or most bookmarked (that’s when people have added the story to their own news “channel”). All the stories that you add or bookmark get added to your channel. You can add news stories from any web page you’re viewing, even blogs (including your own). The main site and all channels are full-text searchable and can have tags applied by anyone. The tags work like they do with Flickr or any other similar program, and each page has a tagcloud for that “channel.”

One other cool thing is that everything on CommonTimes has RSS feeds! So you can subscribe to channels that you’re interested in or share your own feed with others.

It’s a very interesting and fun way to read the news and share it with others. And since other people are sharing news stories that THEY have read, it’s also a great way to find out about news that you may not have heard about otherwise.

Getting started is simple.

  1. Drag the Save to CommonTimes link to your browser toolbar.
  2. Visit http://www.commontimes.org/ and sign up to create your own channel.

That’s it! Give it a try!

Oh, and once you do, be sure to add me to your list of “friends” on CommonTimes. I’m the bunny with the pancake on its head. If you click on him, you’ll get my channel and there’ll be an option at the top to add me as a friend.

In conclusion, here are “Ten Ways to use CommonTimes:”

Ten Ways to use CommonTimes

  1. Keep up with the latest news throughout the day.
  2. Share what you’re reading on the Web with other CommonTimes readers.
  3. Create a channel with your favorite news clippings and share it with your friends.
  4. Follow our most popular stories.
  5. Follow news from a specific section or topic with our RSS feeds.
  6. Share news stories with your colleagues, friends or affinity organizations.
  7. Remix the News to your own liking.
  8. Share interesting stories with friends via email.
  9. Share your thoughts with other users on the news of the day.
  10. Put headlines from your channel or our sections and topics on your Web site or blog.