..the City Action blog story part I:

The idea for this blog came into being about six months ago when I was using the internet on my other half’s computer and I noticed that his default homepage was looking a bit strange - with small boxes of headline information from websites such as the BBC, the Guardian and West Ham United FC.

This page also had tabs across the top with different headings such as ‘news n sport’ and ‘non-profit blogs’.  Having had a little look around I was intrigued, particularly after he explained that I too could create my very own page, complete with all the websites that I like, by using a new technology called RSS.  Even more exciting, my page would be updated every day with each websites’ most up to date news headlines/blog postings/commentary etc. 

Inspired by this new level of what I called ‘internet geek’ knowledge, I set about creating my very own news reader page for City Action and our Corporate Responsibility team at the City of London Corporation with the help of netvibes.

Our team can access the private page via a password and then add their comments and more website ‘feeds’ as they wish.  However, our public page can be viewed by any of you, which we hope provides a useful round up of the volunteering, CSR, third sector and blog feeds that are available.

Despite my initial ‘internet geek’ thoughts, I soon became a news reader convert and here are 5 reasons why your organisation should think about setting one up:

1. It saves you time - by viewing the headlines of all your favourite websites at a glance every day.

2. It will expand your knowledge of the sector/s you work within.

3. It is free! Many news readers such as netvibes, my yahoo, google reader and feed reader are totally free to set up and use.

4. It can give your organisation a public ‘face’, which you can link into your current website.

5. It is accessible and most well established websites now have an RSS facility.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on news reader technology. Does anyone else out there have a public page we can see or some top tips on how to manage your reader? Please do add a comment or contact us with your examples.

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend everyone - next week I will post the next instalment of the City Action blog story part 2…..