There are a variety of really cool sites and tools being developed today that will assist users in aggregating the data that matters to them. Alefo is a tool that will greatly lower the barrier for people to use RSS and gather data from around the web. Before I launch into the details of the tool I want to discuss the need to lower the data gathering barrier.
The Need to Lower The Barrier
I used to tell my wife that she should “start using RSS” to simplify her ability to access information. At first I received the glazed over eyes, the kind of eyes that you may see if people want to avoid the discussion out of lack of interest. I tried another tactic with her and I described a benefit and an example of how she could use RSS to gather the information that she reads on a regular basis. Her response shifted from marital detachment to a deeper understanding of what I was talking about.
Likewise I once set up a Dapper feed with an alert attached to it for her, she excitedly said “it worked!”. Data gathering tools should not be as mysterious as a magicians trick. The tools should be seamless and drop dead simple to use if they are to ever gain traction with the mainstream.
Simplifying The Language
The first step to lower the barrier is to simplify the language and decrease the amount of work that is needed to simply follow a blog or other site feed. Marshall Kirkpatrick, the lead writer for Read Write Web, recently discussed Google and their plans to start making RSS more accessible on the Blogger platform. I really agree that accessibility to RSS will greatly increase its use. There are a variety of ways to lower the barrier for people. Changing the terminology, and reducing the number of steps to add a feed is a great place to start.
A Drop Dead Simple Tool For Gathering Data
Enter Alefo, one of the newest most exciting platforms that I know of being developed in this area. Alefo is in a pre-beta release and is creating a site using the needed simplicity to lower the barrier for individuals gathering information. Alefo is absolutely simple to set up and create new widgets for the dashboard. You search for the page you are wanting to add to your dashboard, highlight the area desired, and click submit. Your dashboard reappears and the new data is added to your page.
You can use Alefo to gather widgets (site shots) and aggregate RSS feeds all on the same page. Much like other aggregators you are able to have multiple tabs to seperate the data by catagory. The simplicity of using Alefo is obvious. Where Alefo goes from here is going to be really interesting, something that I will be following up with on a regular basis.
Their recently released blog will be a great starting place to keep in touch with future developments. I created a site shot of their blog and placed it on my Alefo homepage. Now I can view their blog along with my other site shots and RSS feeds from various places around the web. The data is accesible from the one dashboard, a perfect candidate for my start page.
Alefo is in Phase One of redefining Data Aggregation
We have many choices when it comes to “feed readers”. There are a variety of great tools available with varying levels of third party applications at our disposal. Alefo allows the user to create their own third party application through the easy to embed widget. Alefo is a brief snap shot of what the web will become in the future. In the future the web will be completely extensible. You will be able to reshape what you see and place it in a format of your own choosing. Using drag and drop functionality the barrier to entry will be set low, anybody will be able to bend the web for their own purposes.
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