techtalkblogs - a better way to join the conversation

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2 years ago, I put a call
out to start the aussie .net blogger list.

This was a OPML file
that I maintained and I kept this information as a blogroll on my blog as
well.

We hit 100 members
recently and it have subsequently grown to
123 members, but it has always been a manual process. People email me, and
when I get around to it, I update the OPML.

There must be a better way.

Well, there is, and it's called TechTalkBlogs.

This project has been a dream of mine for a while. It provides a single
aggregated view of all the local bloggers in the OPML, as well as the ability
for bloggers to add/remove them selves from the list. I love it. No longer do I
have to manual edit an OPML file in notepad again!

This gives us a a way to see the most up to date and interesting news items
from around the local technology & blogging community. We have also included
the Kiwi .NET Bloggers OPML, (as
maintained by Nic Wise) so it's a truly ANZ community.  As of this
evening, there were 173 active feeds.

The site has a neat feature to the aggregated feed
- a "Thumbs Up".  If you see something you find
interesting, go ahead and give it big Aussie thumbs up by clicking on the
"Thumbs Up" Icon.  When you give a Thumbs
Up, you are helping the community by helping TechTalkBlogs work out what
are the most interesting stories floating around the blogosphere.

There is another part of the site, in which we have a guest blogger talking
about particular topics. We are kicking off with Rocky Heckman, an Australian Security MVP, in
which he will comment on security related issues (since we are about to
undertake the upcoming
Security Seminars) and keep an eye on conversation happening in the
aggregated feed. Over the coming weeks/months, we will have other guest bloggers
covering topics such as Windows Vista,  Atlas, and other topics of
interest.

I also have lots of ideas to extend this. I can see it now, tags, folksonomy,
feeds by category/tag, geotagging of feeds, maps, lists of top blog posters,
mashups, etc, etc, etc. I'm getting ahead of myself 

So, want to know what the local IT Community is talking about?  Go to techtalkblogs. Have your say, join the
conversation!

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