Peter Zelchenko

Portfolio > Systems > RSS Community Newsfeed Display

RSS Community Newsfeed Display. Concept and proposal. Starting in around 2000, I began thinking about how to get important news quickly to people where they live and walk. This led me not only to some viable paper-based solutions, but also to digital and WiFi-centered concepts. In 2007, with the costs for large-size LED displays coming down, I asked, "Why not put these on every street corner?" Messages would be fed as updates through a WiFi or cellular connection, which would use RSS subscription to web-based one-liners coming from any of several authorized "news" providers. (These days, the transport for this could be a Twitter channel.) Authorized publishers to this display would be limited but would include city officials, neighborhood groups, community organizations, and local and citywide newspapers. The Center for Neighborhood Technology and local aldermen expressed initial interest. This concept enjoyed positive late-round response in the 2007 Knight News Challenge.