Just what is 67601.org?

67601.org is a non-profit web site designed to be a community news, weather and information linking service. It uses RSS to constantly stay up-to-date. At the heart of the design, 67601.org aggregates news and events from Yahoo! News and currently the three local RSS news feeds available (The University Leader, KFHS-TV, and PlayHays.com). From there, it combines, filters, sifts and rinses the feeds to produce and display only news and events about Hays, Kansas. Each list item links back to the original source where you can read the full article.

67601.org is not a source of news.

You could consider it a directory or table of contents of the latest news that links you to the originating sources for complete details.

A word on fair use.

Posting the factual information found on 67601.org is fair use. If articles are being delivered via a Yahoo! News RSS feed, the information would appear to already be displayed under fair use guidelines at one or more web sites. However, let's take time to look further at fair use and think about how it applies to 67601.org:

Taken from EFF.org:

There are no hard and fast rules for fair use (and anyone who tells you that a set number of words or percentage of a work is "fair" is talking about guidelines, not the law). The Copyright Act sets out four factors for courts to look at (17 U.S.C. § 107):

• The purpose and character of the use. Transformative uses are favored over mere copying. Non-commercial uses are also more likely fair.
• The nature of the copyrighted work. Is the original factual in nature or fiction? Published or unpublished? Creative and unpublished works get more protection under copyright, while using factual material is more often fair use.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used. Copying nearly all of a work, or copying its "heart" is less likely to be fair.
• The effect on the market or potential market. This factor is often held to be the most important in the analysis, and it applies even if the original is given away for free. If you use the copied work in a way that substitutes for the original in the market, it's unlikely to be a fair use; uses that serve a different audience or purpose are more likely fair. Linking to the original may also help to diminish the substitution effect. Note that criticism or parody that has the side effect of reducing a market may be fair because of its transformative character. In other words, if your criticism of a product is so powerful that people stop buying the product, that doesn't count as having an "effect on the market for the work" under copyright law.

Taken from ChillingEffects.org:

The most significant factor in this analysis is the fourth, effect on the market. If a copier's use supplants demand for the original work, then it will be very difficult for him or her to claim fair use. On the other hand, if the use does not compete with the original, for example because it is a parody, criticism, or news report, it is more likely to be permitted as "fair use."

What about terms of use?

67601.org complies with the terms of service for the provider of every RSS feed that helps make this site possible. For example, the Yahoo! News terms of use says, "The feeds are provided free of charge for use by individuals and non-profit organizations for personal, non-commercial uses. We ask that you provide attribution to Yahoo! News in connection with your use of the feeds." It also goes on to say, "How can I use RSS?...Using a program known as a News Aggregator to collect, update and display RSS feeds (and) Incorporating RSS feeds into weblogs." That's 67601.org in a nutshell. It aggregates and displays RSS feeds in a weblog format. And 67601.org is a non-profit community service. Please note that 67601.org thanks organizations at the bottom of every page and not all of those organizations provide RSS feeds. If your article, event or other info comes in from a large feed like Yahoo! News instead of directly from a feed that your site provides, 67601.org thanks you, too!

Are there benefits for news sources that 67601.org links to?

Yes. Increased online readership due to greater exposure. It's also called free advertising. On the web, the more sites linking to your content, the better. Potential readers finding articles faster is another benefit. If you save people time, they will spend more time on your site. Funny how that works, but it is true. Did you also notice that part above about Yahoo wanting a link back to Yahoo! News? Every news post on 67601.org links back to the originating source for the full article. Aside from actual readers going to the source to read the articles, search engine "bots" or "spiders" also crawl those links (highly relevant links I should add) back to the news source. This type of linking gives the news source a rankings boost in search engines like Google and Yahoo.

How did 67601.org start?

After graduating from FHSU, we moved away from Hays. We stayed in touch with family and friends and came back a few times every year. Once we started our family, we decided Hays was a great place to come back to. We started to look online for information and Hays has tons of information online on many different web sites. I saw the need to organize as much of that information as possible into one easy to find list that links to all of it. RSS was the perfect tool for this because I wanted up-to-date information instead of a simple static directory. I could have simply kept it to myself in a personal RSS reader, but there are many people who are interested in Hays, Kansas news, weather and information that know how to use the Internet but aren't tech-geeky enough to design it all for themselves. (At least that's what I'm told - tech-geeky? really?)

What are the future plans for 67601.org?

67601.org is in the beta stages right now. It could offer so much more - from city commission minutes to always up-to-date community bulletins. I plan to get involved in the community and offer free services to help make all of the various community news and activity postings available via RSS. Most important is that 67601.org always stays positive, useful and displays what a great place Hays is to live, work and play.

As a non-profit, is 67601.org involved with any specific charity?

67601.org will probably be involved with more than one charity in the near future. There are many great charities and charity fund-raising events in Ellis County. It is impossible to commit to just one. Also, events can occur like the Greensburg tornado that quickly shift priorities. I will setup a way to donate to 67601.org with Google Checkout after the site is out of beta.

How can we contact you?

Please send email to (a d m i n AT 6 7 6 0 1 dot org) - just remove all the spaces, no parenthesis and turn AT into @. Oh yeah, also turn "dot" into . I don't do that to be difficult. I do it to avoid spambots.

Enjoy!

Dave Gray