Patrick Beeson

Most cities and towns in this country have multiple souces for local news and information. You can read, watch, listen or interact with one or a combination of locally produced media for just about any piece of data.

But do we really need to seek out these multiple media using their specific platform? Does anyone remember the portal?

If you use the assumption that the Internet levels the field of sources -- newspapers, magazines, television and radio all distribute their information online -- then it's possible to conceive a Web site that aggregates all local media on one Web site.

Former Technology Reporter for The Roanoke Times/roanoke.com Andrew Kantor has attempted to accomplish this feat on his new(ish) Web site This is Roanoke.

Here is the gist, taken from the about page of the site:

This Is Roanoke is a prototype -- a proof of concept, an experiment, or whatever you want to call it. The idea is to present relevant Roanoke news and information in a quick and easy read, with contributions from the community.

Right now we've got news from every major local news source (and some non-local ones), plus a variety of useful stuff -- weekly store circulars, links to things like school calendars, and so on. And more will be coming.

Kantor also displays Google ads to generate revenue for the nearly "98 percent self-sustaining" site.

Much of what makes This is Roanoke possible are RSS feeds produced by sites like roanoke.com, local bloggers and local television news site WDBJ7.com. Kantor also links to an index of local government press releases and other local content.

While I'm not sure this site has a sustaining business model -- those sources of information can be shut down at any time -- it does present an, as Kantor states:

...a proof of concept, an experiment, or whatever you want to call it. The idea is to present relevant Roanoke news and information in a quick and easy read, with contributions from the community.

And if I still lived in Roanoke, I would definitely visit this site on a daily basis. How's that for proof-of-concept?

I am curious how the information providers have reacted to this site.

A similar effort appears to be journalism/Web development wunderkind Adrian Holovaty's EveryBlock concept.

If Holovaty's concept does what I think it will -- aggregate all local news and information, including the type of information Holovaty's other site Chicago Crime is known for -- this will the best display of information distribution to date.

And yes, I'm including newspaper Web sites in that statement.

Andrew Kantor is a really smart guy. I hope he will continue to let loose his interest in online media.