About a month ago, I discovered Paper.li, a service that aggregates content linked to by people in a Twitter community into an online newspaper. It’s one of the most useful ways I’ve found for surfacing news and information I might otherwise have missed entirely.
Not only that, "Neville Hobson Daily," the newspaper I created with Paper.li, gives me insight into the kinds of content some in my own Twitter community find useful or interesting that they link to it. Some of it is similar to the sort of things I would link to but more is new, part of its discovery appeal.
Note that the newspapers you create with Paper.li aren’t about the people in your community who tweet but rather what they link to. I was explaining it to a friend yesterday when I saw that he clearly couldn’t see the remotest value in something like this: he thought it was about publishing people’s tweets. Once he understood that it wasn’t that, he said he could see the potential usefulness of such a tool.
Other aspects of the newspaper make it compelling, too. Sharing, for instance. It’s all very well to publish your newspaper but what about telling people about it? Paper.li offers a great way to do that – tweet it. What I especially like about this is that Paper.li auto-tweets via your Twitter account once a new edition is published, as this example tweet shows, about once a day.
Each tweet includes an ‘@’ link to some of your Twitter followers who have linked to material that’s included in your Paper.li newspaper, thus increasing the chances for others to retweet your auto-tweet, and so bringing your paper to the attention of the communities of those who retweet.
You can also get notified by email whenever a new edition of your paper is published.
If you prefer, you can see the content in list form rather than as a newspaper, which some people prefer. Hovering your mouse over the name of someone who tweeted produces a little pop-up with the actual tweet concerned, the link and any hashtags that tweeter used.
I think the overall concept is a great idea. Paper.li isn’t the first such service, nor the only one – The Twitter Times, for instance, has been around for longer (I tried that out a while ago; my newspaper is still published there). Yet I find Paper.li has the edge for me in terms of its elegance and utility.
Speaking of Twitter hashtags, here’s where a service like Paper.li gets really interesting – you can create a newspaper from linked content in hashtags. So if anyone tweets a link to anything and their tweet includes the hashtag you’ve set up a paper for, that content will be included in the next edition.
Here you can see what I mean – "#hcsmeu Daily," a newspaper I set up a few weeks ago under the #hcsmeu hashtag (‘hcsmeu’ standing for Health Care Social Media Europe, a Twitter-driven discussion group set up by Andrew Spong and Silja Chouquet).
This hashtag paper aggregates content linked to by anyone tweeting who used the #hcsmeu hashtag in their tweet. So it’s not about your own community, it’s about the hashtag community which may also include members of your Twitter community.
See the possibilities for sharing and connecting?
I’ve noticed quiet a few people in my Twitter community starting up their own newspapers, people like Sherrilynne Starkie, Robert Harper, UK band Georgia Wonder, Ecademy, Stephen Fry, and Eb Adeyeri, to name but a few.
Paper.li was developed by SmallRivers, a startup based at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. They say they started out with a single goal in mind:
[…] find an easy way to connect distant communities of shared interest to leverage their respective know-hows and enable collective action. All without leaving their web site, blog or social networking platform.
Paper.li is one way. They also have River.li, a service to "interconnect like-minded sites and related conversations from across the web." I haven’t tried that one yet.
All the services are in alpha, meaning they’re in early-stage development and will evolve and change, or perhaps even cease, no guarantees. The developers actively solicit users’ feedback.
Whatever the route they take, they’re nice ideas.
[Later] GigaOm has an insightful commentary about the Paper.li service including this succinct perspective:
[…] What’s interesting about using Twitter for such a service is that you don’t have to explicitly say which articles you like, or wait for the software to learn what you are interested in — you choose the people you follow and those people choose the links they want to share, and that constitutes your newspaper.
In many ways, this is a natural extension of the idea that if the news is important “it will find me.†In other words, if something is important or interesting, it will eventually make its way to you through your social network, by being shared on Twitter or Facebook or some other service. This is an almost complete inversion of the way media traditionally works, where editors decide what is important and then publish it for readers. In that sense, it is “demand†media rather than “supply†media, or pull rather than push.
84 responses to “Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper”
[Blog] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://tinyurl.com/35xxdu3 #fb #in
[nh.com] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://goo.gl/fb/CsBZA
RT @jangles: [Blog] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://tinyurl.com/35xxdu3 #fb #in
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://bit.ly/cPKtQW
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://bit.ly/cPKtQW
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://bit.ly/bUPi6K
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://bit.ly/bUPi6K
Check this out: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://j.mp/cketzO
Check this out: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://j.mp/cketzO
Twitter Comment
Check this out: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper [link to post]
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Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper …: Not only that, "Neville Hobson Daily," the newspaper I … http://bit.ly/bAqjzp
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper … http://bit.ly/aIGXUm
Neville Hobson wrote: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper paper.li http://bit.ly/cNHCMW TX, Nothing left to say @jangles
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://tinyurl.com/35xxdu3 via @jangles < using it for Paper.li/irishdebate Great N.
RT @joedale Great post about paper.li by @jangles http://bit.ly/cNHCMW
RT @lismiss: RT @joedale Great post about paper.li by @jangles http://bit.ly/cNHCMW < thanks!
"Connect your community with Twitter daily newspaper" http://bit.ly/bHfNd6 But you will annoy @dabelshaw UNLESS you turn off autotweets!
Curious about Paper.li? @jangles has an excellent write-up here http://bit.ly/aAD99m
RT @jangles: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://is.gd/eK5Pr
RT @jangles: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://is.gd/eK5Pr
Great post about "connect-your-community-with-a-twitter-daily-newspaper" on paper.li by @jangles http://bit.ly/cNHCMW via @joedale:
RT @jangles: [nh.com] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://goo.gl/fb/CsBZA
"Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper | NevilleHobson.com" – http://bit.ly/df72nG via @jangles
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RT @jangles: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper [link to post]
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Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper …: nhdailysnip About a month ago, I discovered Paper.li, a… http://bit.ly/cvo8By
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper …: nhdailysnip About a month ago, I discovered Paper.li, a… http://bit.ly/anHHZs
Twitter Comment
“Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper | NevilleHobson.com” – [link to post] via @jangles
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[…] Hobson does an excellent job outlining the way paper.li works and what it can mean for communications: …the newspapers you create with Paper.li aren’t […]
RT @jangles: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://is.gd/eK5Pr
Rolled my own: http://paper.li/clarencejones
@farida_h Good answers to your question from @jangles here: http://bit.ly/cNHCMW
Here's the story behind those "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/aGI7EW #hcsm
RT @EdBennett: Here's the story behind those "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/aGI7EW #hcsm
@shelholtz Thank you! Just what I was looking for. Timely & insightful piece by @jangles on starting a Twitter daily: http://bit.ly/cNHCMW
RT @EdBennett: Here's the story behind those "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/9hm99K #hcsm #sm
Here's the story behind those "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/9hm99K #hcsm #sm (via @EdBennett)
RT @EdBennett: Here's the story behind those "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/aGI7EW #hcsm
RT @Zorg20: RT @EdBennett: Here's the story behind those "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/aGI7EW #hcsm
@HelloNY Example of a Twitter daily: http://paper.li/jangles Also see article explaing what they're abt: http://bit.ly/cNHCMW by @jangles
Need 2 play w/ Paper.li: aggregates tweet links into daily n. paper http://paper.li/ via @EdBennett http://bit.ly/aGI7EW #hcsm #yam
Thanks! Will do! RT @farida_h: @HelloNY Example of a Twitter daily: http://paper.li/jangles Also, : http://bit.ly/cNHCMW by @jangles
RT @renee_berry: RT @EdBennett: Here's the story behind "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/aGI7EW #hcsmeu
Twitter Comment
@farida_h Good answers to your question from @jangles here: [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
Here’s the story behind those “Daily newspapers” that are showing up on Twitter. [link to post] #hcsm
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@shelholtz Thank you! Just what I was looking for. Timely & insightful piece by @jangles on starting a Twitter daily: [link to post]
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@farida_h @shelholtz thanks Farida, glad you found the post on Papers.li of interest http://bit.ly/cNHCMW
Twitter Comment
RT @EdBennett: Here’s the story behind those “Daily newspapers” that are showing up on Twitter. [link to post] #hcsm
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Twitter Comment
@HelloNY Example of a Twitter daily: http://paper.li/jangles Also see article explaing what they’re abt: [link to post] by @jangles
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Twitter Comment
RT @joedale Great post about paper.li by @jangles [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
RT @Zorg20: RT @EdBennett: Here’s the story behind those “Daily newspapers” that are showing up on Twitter. [link to post] #hcsm
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Twitter Comment
RT @lismiss: RT @joedale Great post about paper.li by @jangles [link to post] < thanks! – Posted using Chat Catcher
Twitter Comment
Neville Hobson wrote: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper paper.li [link to post] TX, Nothing left to say @jangles
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Twitter Comment
Great post about “connect-your-community-with-a-twitter-daily-newspaper” on paper.li by @jangles [link to post] via @joedale:
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Twitter Comment
RT @renee_berry: RT @EdBennett: Here’s the story behind “Daily newspapers” that are showing up on Twitter. [link to post] #hcsmeu
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Twitter Comment
Need 2 play w/ Paper.li: aggregates tweet links into daily n. paper http://paper.li/ via @EdBennett [link to post] #hcsm #yam
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@farida_h @shelholtz thanks Farida, glad you found the post on Papers.li of interest [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
Thanks! Will do! RT @farida_h: @HelloNY Example of a Twitter daily: http://paper.li/jangles Also, : [link to post] by @jangles
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Thanks, Will do! @jgwentworth
This is pretty cool – RT @jangles: [nh.com] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://goo.gl/fb/CsBZA
RT @BenCotton: RT @jangles: [Blog] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://tinyurl.com/35xxdu3 #fb #in
FYI: UK based Nelville Hobson blogs about the intersection of communication and technology. This article describes… http://fb.me/HoqCUeKY
@MedSurgNurses The paper site is great – gathers import links from twitter list for an easy overview http://bit.ly/aGI7EW (via @EdBennett
Twitter Comment
@MedSurgNurses The paper site is great – gathers import links from twitter list for an easy overview [link to post] (via @EdBennett
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Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://bit.ly/aexwen
Thanks for the mention Neville. I’m publishing a post about my experience with paper.li tomorrow.
How the Top Bloggers in Italy Daily works http://tinyurl.com/35xxdu3
RT @italytutto How the Top Bloggers in Italy Daily works http://tinyurl.com/35xxdu3
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RT @italytutto How the Top Bloggers in Italy Daily works [link to post]
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RT @jangles: [Blog] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper [link to post] #fb #in
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How the Top Bloggers in Italy Daily works [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper [link to post] via @jangles < using it for Paper.li/irishdebate Great N. – Posted using Chat Catcher
Twitter Comment
[Blog] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper [link to post] #fb #in
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RT @bencotton: RT @jangles: [Blog] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper [link to post] #fb #in
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[…] Neville Hobson has also written about his experiences with paper.li here. […]
@jrobinsonRN Thanks – Here's the story behind those "Daily newspapers" that are showing up on Twitter. http://bit.ly/aGI7EW @EdBennett
Twitter Comment
@jrobinsonRN Thanks – Here’s the story behind those “Daily newspapers” that are showing up on Twitter. [link to post] @EdBennett
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I’ve been getting my mind around paper.li, too. Like your friend, I discovered the utility only when I realized it published only links.
I’ve created an IABC daily here: http://paper.li/allanjenkins/iabc
Twitter Comment
Twitter: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper | NevilleHobson.com: About a month ago, I discovere… [link to post]
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[…] For anyone who’s asking, “Why?” here’s your answer. Amplify’d from nevillehobson.com […]
RT @jangles: Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper http://is.gd/eK5Pr
[…] Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper (nevillehobson.com) […]
Have we figured out how much Paper.Li links affect SEO? Will there be a gaming?
@BradMays Have a look at @NevilleHobson's closer look at paper.li: http://bit.ly/cPP5Yd Found out about it from him!
who is using #paper.li with interesting results? <examples anyone?> http://bit.ly/cNHCMW