Yesterday, I posted about a tool that lets you pull content from your WordPress.org blog, rearrange the content, add chapters, sections, etc. and publish the whole thing in an ePUB, PDF or TEI format. Too cool! Sure, you end up with duplicated content but people love choices. I don’t want to read your short story collection online on my phone. I want to read it on my iPad. If given the choice, I’d grab the PDF file and plunk it on my iPad rather than visit your site and clicking through your endless pages on your blog–an activity that is dependent upon having a wifi connection.
I happened upon another tool that represents information from a feed in a different, interesting and useful way. Paper.li pulls in content you specify from Twitter and outputs the results as a newspaper. To see examples of how organizations have used paper.li, check out implementations by GOOD and the Indiana University Bloomington Archives (on Twitter as @IUBArchives).
It’s brilliant. As a user, I like the quick, easy-to-read Twitter feeds when I’m on the go but the newspaper layout certainly plays up to my inner news junkie. This tool also has a harmonizing affect upon the Twitterverse. Often, scrolling through Twitter updates is much akin to a standing in a crowd people who are shouting out you in 140 characters. The paper.li experience is customizable, typically built around a theme. In this way, paper.li adds a little cohesion to the cacophony.
More can be found on paper.li’s blog.
Playing in Puddles 