Web feeds (a.k.a. “News Feeds” or “RSS Feeds”) have been a useful tool for time-conscious Web users for many years. They’re a great way to keep up with blogs, news sites, event calendars, job postings and other frequently updated content.

If you are new to RSS, here are a couple guides to help you get started.

• Feed 101 - From Feedburner/Google
• Explaining RSS to Your Mother - Video tutorials via abduzeedo

Localized Feeds

These feeds will help you keep up with what is going on Wichita.
(Right click link and “copy link location” to snag the feed URL.)
 

1. Twitter Local Feed  - Displays updates by Twitterers in and around Wichita. You can also check out our Twittchita page for a Web-based stream of Wichita tweets.
    
2. Twitter Search: Wichita - Shows current Twitter updates containing the word “Wichita.”
    
3. All WE blogs - Displays posts from all Wichita Eagle blogs. 
    
4. Kansas.com Feeds - The Eagle has headline feeds in most of their online sections (look for the orange RSS button at the top of the page). Save precious browsing time by making a “custom newspaper” in iGoogle or Netvibes.  In ten or fifteen minutes you can build a one page list of hundreds of regularly updating Eagle headlines to skim through effortlessly.
    
5. Craigslist Feeds - Subscribe to current listings in any category with the feed icon at the bottom of each page. Job Postings, Housing and For Sale/Wanted feeds can be especially useful. 
    
6. Eventful, Wichita Events - A local events calendar feed. Also, check out the events feed from Upcoming, not as many items as Eventful, but worthy of a spot in your newsreader.
    
7. 2 wichita Bookmarks Feed - Our feed of local news stories, blog posts, videos, photos and other local Web content scavenged by our contributors. You can also follow specific subject areas by subscribing to individual tag feeds. 
    

Know of any other feeds Wichitans might find useful?  Post them in comments.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, questions and comments about the Web Map of Wichita. We’re glad you like what you see.  Stay tuned, we aren’t done yet. 

We released the first version of the map in April 2008 based on sites in our ranked index at the time.  Many good local sites and blogs were not indexed, and therefore not included on the map. We’ve been feverishly updating the index with new sites since then. In late September we will release a new Web Map of Wichita to coincide with the official launch of 2 wichita.

Hyperlocal Bookmarks

Our main focus around here is the local bookmarks app.  Everything else, the map, blog, site index and other lab projects are secondary.

Over the coming weeks and months we think localized bookmarks can become a unique asset to the local Web culture.  A central link feed can provide a place for thoughtful Web users, bloggers and other Wichita webbians’ to showcase and share good local content. 

In its current state, the bookmarks slowly churn-on thanks to a small group alpha contributors periodically adding wichita-related news, videos, photos and other tidbits to the log. Over the next few weeks we will be inviting many more locals to contribute.  Sign up for a beta invite now!

We click on a lot of local links around here. We needed a page to hold all these links and organize them in an efficient manner. Our solution is the Web Map of Wichita.

So browse around, discover new sites, or just fave-it as a handy local link reference.

Future Enhancements: We are working on updates and new versions. Eventually, we will lose the image maps and go with a pure XML/SVG solution… possibly a flash version too. We are also working on a more accessible text-only version.

This is the first report from Wicsi, which ranks over 1000 sites in the Wichita-area Web orbit.

Don’t expect anything awe-inspiring on a list of the top ten Web sites in Wichita, Kansas. They are what they are, familiar, functional and fixed with deep roots in the traditional Internet.

Wichita’s Top 10

As compiled in the Wichita Web Site Index

1. Wichita Eagle
2. Wichita State University (dampened)
3. KAKE TV Channel 10
4. KWCH TV Channel 12
5. KSNW TV Channel 3
6. Sedgwick County
7. Warren Theaters
8. Wichita Public Library
9. Wichita Public Schools
10. City of Wichita

Two Behemoths

• WSU is by far the most visited site “in Wichita.” However, due to heavy national and international Web traffic and other user-patterns particular to university domains, we dampened their score to reflect “local interest.”
• No surprise to find Wichita’s big media outlets in the top five.  Old Media holds the high ground on the local Webscape. The Wichita Eagle site dominates the news/media genre with more daily visitors than the top three TV stations combined.

This short list ranks the top Web site genres found in Wicsi. We figure by adding the total average monthly unique visitors from all sites within its respective category. Where unique visitor data was not available we estimated by comparing similarly ranked sites.

1. News and Media
2. Education
3. Arts and Entertainment
4. Blogs
5. Restaurants and Bars

The News and Media genre has the fewest sites in our survey, but the strength of The Wichita Eagle easily pushes that category to the top of this list.

An argument can be made that blogs garner the most attention from Wichita Web surfers. While already a formidable local genre,  there are many newly-created blogs not in Wicsi yet. Not to mention the hundreds of smaller blogs we will never document. If you make the leap and put all user-generated content (MySpaces, Flickrs, Twitter pages etc.) in the blog category; they would grab the top spot on this list. For the purposes of our index, and this survey, we are sticking to a strict interpretation of blog.

2 wichita is all about local Web content. To that end, our bookmarks do a fine job collecting and organizing local content. However, it leaves us wondering, which sites are most popular to Wichitans? What blogs do people visit the most? Who is rising and falling in the local Webscape?

Our bookmarks won’t answer these questions. We need a whole new system to identify and track top content providers in the area.

Our solution is a local Web measurement/ranking system we call Wicsi, the Wichita Web Site Index.

Who’s In the System?

Local sites with Wichita-related content of clear interest to Wichitans. We don’t follow paid-inclusion directories, link farms or scraper sites.

Presently, the index contains over 1000 local Web sites. After ranking them all, we break them down to these ranked categories.

• Arts and Entertainment
• Blogs
• Non-retail businesses
• Education
• Restaurants and Bars
• News and Media
• Retail Shopping

What We Measure

Roughly speaking, our formula is: Popularity + Importance + Subjective Factors = Final Score

• Popularity - Using diverse public and private traffic data sources, we track the number of users visiting local Web sites.
• Importance - Link quality and popularity (backlinks). On the Web and within our index.
• Subjective Factors - About 5%–10% of final score.  There are a number of “judgment calls” that need to be made when identifying top local sites. We look at things like how often the site is updated and if information is useful, clear and easy to find.

Score/Rank

All indexed sites are given a final score between 0 and 10 (10 is best). This score is used to rank all the sites in the index and within their respective categories.

Note: This system is based on Internet-wide metrics and can be used to rank any site on the Web.  There are no 10’s, 9’s or 8’s in a market of Wichita’s size. Popular local sites have a score of around 5 or 6, with an average of  3.5 for the top 200.

Factors that Boost Scores

• Backlinks from major search engines
• Backlinks from other sites in Wicsi
• Backlinks from the top 50 sites in Wicsi
• Registering a score (any score) on public ranking system
• Unique daily/monthly visitors as reported by public and private providers
• Google PageRank (the public one)  historical, not real-time
• Frequent updates
• Usability

Dampening Popularity and Importance

We correct for local interest factors by dampening scores on certain sites. For example, sites like Boeing, Coleman or WSU have large Web audience outside the area. They may attract local attention, but clearly are not as popular to Wichita Web surfers as scores suggest. In this particular case, we use methods to “handicap” these sites commensurate with the amount of outside traffic.

Double Check

After we produce a rank and score for a local site, we check our work against an assortment of public rankings and metrics. Variance is analyzed and resolved if possible.

What does 2 wichita do with all this?

• Share It - 2 wichita is here to be a tool for local bloggers and other independent content providers in Wichita and South-Central Kansas. We freely share information to help them get acquainted with their Web surroundings and maximize their local reach and influence. (Bloggers—  Contact Us)
• Make Content - We periodically publish “Top 10 Lists” in various categories.
• Make Maps/Links Pages - We developed a visual Web Map of Wichita based on this data, and will continue to update it based on usage and index trends.
• Good Old-Fashioned Exploitation :) -  Tracking all sorts of Wichita-related Web sites helps us help local businesses and adds unique value to our unintrusive advertising model.

The Jayhawks are national champions!

KU YouTube Round up

Video and photos from last night’s celebration in Lawrence are making their way on to YouTube. People were streaming on to the streets right after the game to began the great march to Mass St. From the bars, to the rooftops, to the streets, it was en masse on Mass while the band plays on, and on… Chanting, high-fives and dancing all around.

There were classic reactions to Mario Chalmers 3 point shot to tie the game. On the Living room front, the Deacon family was typical… tension, fear, anticipation of the empty depression about to set in, and then…

It’s a miracle!
What the hell happened?
I don’t know!

This guy goes nuts, barks at the TV. This nervous fellow is relieved. Inside the bars it was even crazier.

Allen Fieldhouse would have been a nice place to be. (court stormed at 04:00)

What would a video round-up be without the obligatory kitty cat watching the game? I bet the kitty really got a real emotional kick out of One Shining Moment.

More… The jayhawks return to Lawrence.  Video of the ceremony at Memorial Stadium

Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU!

Jayhawker Photos from Around the Web

• Flickr Photos tagged “jayhawks” (3000+)
• KU: 2008 NCAA National Champions - Flickr group pool
• Just Jayhawks - Flickr group
• Lawrence KS - Flickr group
• College Hoops - Flickr group
• Slide show - New York Times
• Slide show - Lawrence Journal-World
• Slide show - Sports Illustrated

Media and Opinion

• Kansas donors willing to pay to keep Self - AP
• Plenty of Twists, One Final Turn - Washington Post
• The shot heard ’round the world - Sports Illustrated
• KU secures 2008 NCAA crown - Lawrence Journal-World
• KU beats Memphis in OT to win national title - KC Star
• That was some feeling when Chalmers hit the shot -  KC Star
• This championship game was one for the ages -  KC Star
• Kansas wins national championship - Wichita Eagle

Jayhawks Blog Coverage

• Many Shining Moments At The ‘08 Final Four - SbB
• Bill Self Suddenly a Kansas Icon - Busted Play
• Clutch Performance - Brockblog
• Those Memphis Blues Again - Hang Time
• What a Game! - The Huffington Post
• Once Again, What’s the Big Deal, Skip? - Armchair GM
• How the Jayhawks compare to the decade’s best - College Hotline
• Brandon Rush Leaving on a High Note - Larry Brown Sports
• CBS, Get Someone Other Than Billy Packer - Awful Announcing
• Rock Chalk it Up - Mike on Sports
• Roy Williams wearing a Jayhawk - Fanhouse
• Roy and the Kansas sticker - UNC Basketball Update
• Your NCAA Champion Kansas Jayhawks - Deadspin
• The Dream is Over - Tiger Sports Report
• The day after… - Rush the Court Basketblog

More Championship Game Odds and Ends

• Jesse Jackson Tries To Cheer Up Memphis Players - SbB
• Clinton compares herself to Jayhawks - CNN
• Sign a Congrats card for Bill Self and the team
• Turncoat bets on Memphis! - Orange County Register
• Engineers’ algorithm picks KU to win NCAA championship - EE Times
• Discussion: InsideHoops NCAA Championship game thread

This Jayhawks round-up will be updated regularly until the commotion tapers off.

An old “Fordman” ad for Rusty Eck Ford (mid 1970’s?) exhibiting high production values, by modern standards, for a local TV ad.

It’s not great art or anything… but definitely a Wichita classic.