According to Wikipedia, a “feed” is a “data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it.”  In layman’s terms, this means that when a piece of content is published, you receive it in whatever inbox you would like (instead of having to continually go back to the publisher’s website).  We’re hoping this offers a hassle-free way for the ODA community to keep updated on what’s going on.  Read what we write about when it’s delivered to you, and if you have something to contribute, leave a comment on that post.

Let me make this a bit more concrete.  At the moment, we have four tiers of feeds, this metaphorical river channel of information:

• Updates for Everyone - These are posts we write which are the broadest of updates, like this one, that we think are relevant to everyone interested in what’s going on with Oregon Direct Action.  As an example, these posts might include monthly project updates, large events, and whenever we have super huge news to announce.
• Updates for our Community - For our community at the University of Oregon and around our projects, we intend to write posts of a bit more comprehensive nature.  They might also include news relevant to the community, and opportunities for different members of the community to get involved.
• Updates for our Partners - These are posts geared towards our partners, including findings in our research and ideas or opportunities directly related to our projects.  As a note, this feed also includes a summary of ODA-relevant links saved with our del.icio.us account, reports, podcasts, and tools we find and think will be useful.
• Updates for the Team - High-frequency updates from the different parts of the team intended to keep all of us up-to-date on what’s going on.  Ideally, this feed will take the place of email, for the most part.  Currently, this also includes links from our del.icio.us account and all audio podcasts.

As time goes on, the way that these feeds are structured, and the types of content they receive, will most likely evolve significantly.  We’re making this strategy up as we go along and, as far as we can tell, no one has ever done something like this before.  Conceptually, we’re solid on the idea on “crowdsourcing” as much of our projects as we can, but how we actually do this is bound to have a few rough edges.  Any and all feedback is warmly welcomed.

One thing to note is that you should only need to subscribe to one feed.  With how we’re planning on structuring this, everything that gets published in “Community Updates” will also be received by the team and our partners, but not by “everyone.”  The feeds will also have tiers of frequency, with “Updates for our Team” having the highest traffic and “Updates for Everyone” having the lowest.

Cool.  On with the show.

Update: I almost forgot.  Thanks to DJ Strouse of EWB USC and all others with the open source organization quasi-working group for helping map out this and upcoming strategies.

Currently, we’re looking into project ideas involving microfinance, decentralised power, education, and/or water and sanitation possibly in the countries of Peru, Haiti, India, or Mongolia. The feasibility assessments we do in the next few weeks will largely determine the scope and direction of this year’s project.

Shout out to the peeps at Whitman Direct Action for the super model for a student organization.

I thought it only fitting that we use the default Wordpress post to launch the online presence of Oregon Direct Action. It is a super easy way to run a website.