SuperNews: Multiple feeds for multiple views

The IBM intranet hosts a range of news “feeds,” or distribution services, from internal and external sources. To read the news of the day, users need to visit a number of Web sites, each with a different categorization, navigational structure, and layout. Transfer of technology from the MIT Media Laboratory to IBM enabled the design of SuperNews, a prototype application that aimed to improve IBM employees' experience in reading the news. SuperNews merged heterogeneous news feeds and presented a consistent interface to users. Users could choose to read news on the Web, in e-mail, or as engaging visualizations. Using text processing technology, SuperNews discovered meta-information in articles and created new ways to browse the news collection. SuperNews also allowed users to publish their own columns, as well as annotate and recommend articles to their colleagues. Starting with a range of uncoordinated feeds, SuperNews transformed the solitary reading of news into an engaging and visually appeal ing community experience.