FIRSTr: Like digg, but for robotics

[Tim Arnold]

Soo... what is "it"?

It's a whole new way of viewing FIRST news where you are the boss, combining social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication with a form of non-hierarchical, democratic editorial control. In other words, users choose what content they like, what they want to speak out about, and can promote their own news, all within their own control. While this isn't a new concept, it's the only web 2.0 news site for just FIRST information.

What makes this different than, say, CD?

It is a totally different way of finding new stories and promoting things you like. Instead of just telling someone nice job, you can actually help them out by voting for their post. The more votes a story receives, the sooner it will get promoted to the front page. To vote for a post, simply click the orange star. After you have voted the star will turn blue, and you will not be allowed to vote for that same story again. However, this is not intended to attempt to compete directly with CD, it is simply a different way of receiving the news.

Give me an example of what you mean.

Well, let's say you recently had a team fund raiser where you pied a team captain in the face. While that might not be completely appropriate for CD, the community decides what's cool and bad on FIRSTr. Assuming they approve, you would receive free exposure of this event, hits on your team website, and possibly more attendees for future events. Speaking of the future, you might decide to take up a collection for more pie-ing next time. It's a win win situation for everybody.

What now?

Check it out: http://firstr.org. Register if you are in the spirit, and hop right in on submitting and voting on content! RSS feeds are on the bottom right. And most importantly, have fun! It's not meant to be a strict, serious site, but a innovative, intresting place to get your news. Oh, and if you have any questions, go right ahead and ask them.

Please keep in mind that FIRSTr is in beta, and will probably have a few bugs here or there. Please PM me or post here if you recieve any errors or just don't like something.