About Snippets

"Snippets" is the name for Enfeedia-hosted customizable web pages that present up to 16 RSS feeds for at-a-glance monitoring of news and information pertaining to an overall topic. Typically, each feed on a Snippets page provides a specialty category of information pertaining to the overall topic for that page.

Any Enfeedia account owner at the Publisher-Pro or Enfeediac membership level can easily publish his/her own Snippets web page by simply filling out a form. Feeds are arranged into one to four columns depending on how the account owner fills out that form. The organization and selection of feeds is determined by the owner of the Snippets page.

Owners of feeds can permit others to post items onto their feeds in three different ways (see Group Collaboration below) depending on how much freedom the feed owners want to allow. Thus, a Snippets page can in general be published by a group of authors selected by the Snippets page owner, much like a newpaper containing columns written by a number of reporters.

Snippets, being hosted by Enfeedia as a cloud computing resource, requires no IT or system administration support to set up, operate, or maintain.

Source of Feeds

Feeds can be selected for display on a Snippets page from:

(1) the account of the Snippets page owner (i.e., his/her own feeds),

(2) any account where the owner of that account has permitted unconditional use of his/her feeds others' Snippets, and

(3) any account where the owner of that account has set up a secret "Snippets ID" and the publisher of a Snippets page knows that ID.

The owner of a feed can make the feed available for Snippets published by others for cases (2) and (3) when initially setting up the feed or later when editing the feed by going to Set Up Feeds (located in the News Feed Publishing cluster of links). Sharing of one's feeds for others' Snippets offers a powerful way to support group publishing efforts.

Setting Up a Snippets Web Page

To publish a Snippets page, go to Publish Snippets (located in the News Feed Publishing cluster of links).A form will be presented for the Snippets publisher to customize his/her Snippets. Instructions are provided with the form. The 16 feeds are selected from 16 drop-down boxes showing all available feeds (for cases (1) through (3) above).

A number of other entries are made to customize the page: title, a link to a title image, a link for the title, a description of this Snippets page, additional text links related to or supportive of this page, a Google AdSense account code should you wish to present Google ads that pay to your account, and a Snippets ID that allows you to select feeds from other accounts that are connected to that ID.

Public vs Private Snippets

A Snippets web page can be made private by specifying a "Privacy Password". If one is not specified, then the Snippets page for the account is public, meaning anyone who knows the address for the page can view it. To enter or remove a Privacy Password, go to About My Account (located in the Site and Membership Information cluster of links). Membership at the Enfeediac level is required to publish private Snippets.

Public Snippets

Public Snippets pages are useful for organizations wishing to gain and maintain a following for purposes of promoting the organization's mission or business. By supplying timely information in related categories about a significant topic, written to pique the Snippets page visitor and demonstrate a command of the topic, visitors will be inclined to come to the site often, even subcribe to one or more of the feeds on the Snippets page. Publishers of Snippets can gain a reputation as an authority on the topic. And with the multiple feeds presented on the page, multiple authors can easily collaborate, such that the site visitor sees that he/she is benefitting from multiple experts.

Examples include corporate marketing departments, real estate brokerages, community service organizations, vacation resorts, financial / investment groups, parent-teacher organizations, chambers of commerce, and property management companies.

Private Snippets

Paradoxically, one can use the public publishing benefits of RSS to build a powerful private communications channel. The notification attribute of RSS technology can be used to inform those within a closed community of something new having been posted, but with the requirement that a password be provided to view the Snippets page. The feeds shown on a private Snippets page are not published with the private content, but rather with a statement that the password is required to view the contents of the feed. Because of the 'cloud computing' nature of Enfeedia, members of the closed community can view the private Snippets page wherever an online computer is available.

Examples of private Snippets includes corporate communications channels, company inter-department communications, project management organizations, investment groups, homeowners associations, clubs, and even family newsletters.

Click here for a demo (use 'gizmothings' for the Account name and also for the Password to view this private Snippets page). A public Snippets page is just like a private one except a password is not requested.

Group Collaboration

In the general case, a Snippets page contains multiple feeds, each feed being authored by typically different contributors (perhaps several per feed) with the purpose of sharing the collective information from this group of contributors with a special-interest community.

As example, the departments managers of a company can each publish a feed for inclusion on a private Snippets page for status and information reporting broadly within the organization.

Enfeedia offers three modes of posting items onto feeds: Editor, Reporter, and Freelancer. Each offers a different level of capabilties. Special passwords are set up by the account owner to determine which posting mode is made available to authors.

Editor mode: If an editor passwword is assigned to a feed, then anyone having that password can add, edit, and delete items on feeds. If several persons have the editor password, they can edit each others postings as if they originally posted them.

Editor mode is most commonly used when the owner wants to simply delegate maintaining the feed to a trusted associate.

Reporter mode: If a reporter password is assigned to a feed, then anyone having that password can add items to the feed, but can edit or delete only those items this reporter originally posted. Thus, reporters cannot edit or delete items posted by others. Reporters use PINs to identify their postings as opposed to postings by others. Additionally, Reporter-mode postings can be moderated on unmoderated as determind by the account owner. If moderated, either an Editor or the account owner serves as the moderator.

Reporter mode typically used when information is to be supplied from a number of specialists, i.e., persons who report on special areas of interest. The reporter mode is the ideal way to pull togather a lot of related information onto the multiple feeds of a Snippets page.

Freelance mode: Unlike editor and reporter modes, passwords are assigned to individual items on a feed for freelancer posting. By controlling how freelance passwords are assigned, the account owner can control exactly how many items on a feed a freelancer can post. The account owner initially sets up an item (perhaps with a title "coming soon", and gives it a freelance password. Then, a freelancer can post an update to that item by using that password. Freelancers cannot alter or delete postings by others.

Freelance mode is typically used where the owner wishes to carefully control the submissions fom others who may not be that well known to the owner. For example, a feed set up for freelance posting can be used for advertising, where each freelancer purhases a spot on the feed.