tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12673673.post5094458233109379003..comments2008-09-28T17:00:55.510-05:00Tish Grierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15657229618222899908noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12673673.post-41695985981612428632008-09-28T17:00:00.000-05:002008-09-28T17:00:00.000-05:00excellent point, TR about a lot of aggregators out there (disclosure: I work for an aggregator, but we don't carry ads.) <BR/><BR/>If there's going to be anything other than "polite aggegation" of a small snippet of content (200 characters a la Google) and if there is income being generated from aggregation, then there should be some sort of reciprocal arrangement with the aggregator. That includes local tv affiliates and newspapers that like to "steal" content produced by hyperlocal sources (that really bugs me) <BR/><BR/>and another very good point about EveryBlock. It's great raw data, but it needs interpretation for it to make sense to the quick-reader. <BR/><BR/>The focus has to shift to people--and away from bright shiny objects and stealing. Let's see what happens :-)Tish Grierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15657229618222899908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12673673.post-59702694909831461312008-09-28T16:44:00.000-05:002008-09-28T16:44:00.000-05:00Nobody else ever seems to dare to say this but I won't be heartbroken if all this slows down, either. Certainly we wouldn't have today's Internet without the bravery and brilliance of some startup types. But right now, there indeed are too many who are doing little more than living off the content we hyperlocal newsies kill ourselves to produce -- sometimes aggregated in ways that make search engines recognize their scraped version to the exclusion of our original version, with nominal linkbacks at best. And they get the VC, while we are trying to sell local ads in our "spare time" to pay the bills. My request is that aggregators stop being called "entries in the hyperlocal space" as they are too often. Whatever you aggregate, you're still an aggregator, not a content producer. And the only real innovator I've seen in that space so far is EveryBlock - going the extra mile to find every last database and info source and offer it to you in an easily searchable way - but treating the original sources respectfully. (Although in the end, what you still have is a stack of links, without any interpretation as to which matter and which don't - that's where "we" come in.)TR @ WSBhttp://westseattleblog.comnoreply@blogger.com