Metrocascade is live, has a new look
Posted by: metrocascade on: February 7, 2009
Whoa, it’s up…!
MetroCascade, the local news aggregator for Victoria, BC, is up and ready to go!
We’ve been online for while now, but not till yesterday did we get our great new look. Now we feel ready to tell the world.
Much of the behind-the-scenes work is done (thanks to Helmut and Werner), which means more “upfront” work needs to begin in earnest (hello, Yule?): populating the site with more content by finding additional local bloggers for the “read” cascade; getting the “see” cascade going by tapping into all the amazing local photography talent; and inputting events data into the “do” cascade.
We’re still a work in progress, so keep coming back often, as refinements keep making the site better for you, our user. Give us feedback on what works for you, and what doesn’t – use the comments board on this blog or send us email via MetroCascade‘s contact page.
If you need a refresher on how MetroCascade works, it goes like this:
The main “cascade” is the Read cascade, the column in the middle of the page. That’s where we aggregate local bloggers and local news, all on the Google model (i.e., you the reader get a link that sends you away, to the blog or news page).
On the left, there’s the See cascade, which right now is unfinished, but will feature local photographers – again, “google model,” you get a thumbnail, click on it and it’ll send you to the photographer’s site (could be Flickr, Picasa, GPhoto, or another photo service site, or could be their own website). (By the way, click through on the Flickr or Picasa links to see some of the cool photos of Victoria that are out there right now…!)
And on the right, there’s the Do cascade, which will be our events calendar. Believe it or not, there’s a lot to be put into the Do cascade – Victoria has plenty of events – and venues. We’re still working on getting that up and running; right now I think it’s going to depend on some inputting of data by hand, but soon many venues will be automatically included.
So, in short: the Read cascade is the most “populated” right now, and of course we’re still looking for more content (if you have a blog based in the Victoria metro region, and we’re not yet aggregating it, please tell us so we can include it). The See cascade should be coming along really soon, as should the Do cascade. It’s our soft launch, and slowly but surely we’re going to get a solid content build-up.
This is for you, Victoria: show yourself to yourselves, all of your selves.
(Adapted and cross-posted from my personal blog.)
- Yule Heibel
3 Responses to "Metrocascade is live, has a new look"
February 9, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Thanks, Davin!
Re. the “see” cascade… I had hoped we’d be able to do something like flickr badges, where images rotate in an ongoing fashion. But that’s (probably) not going to happen, for a couple of reasons: First, it might work for flickr, but then wouldn’t work for another site, like a photoblog. But second, and more importantly, we don’t want to show anyone’s photos without their permission/ approval.
Werner and Helmut are still working on the technical details, but basically we’ll be asking local photographers to provide us with a thumbprint of the images and a url to where we can find the “real” picture.
I know you have some kickass photos, so if you want to let us showcase your pictures next, let me know! (You have my email, too, right?)
Right now we’re looking at keeping one photographer’s work up for about a week.
I have to add that I’d love it if eventually we could contact photographers who only post their photos to flickr, and get their approval to put their pictures up (again, for a one-week period or so). There’s some pretty good local talent here, and we sure have the scenery and subject matter.
February 9, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Hi Yule,
I am curious to see how the “see” is implemented. Is it grabbing from Flickr or is it scouring photoblogs for material?
Great work!