Weblogs are a great resource because they (usually) come from an individual and represent a particular point of view. Weblogs are more likely to give a contrarian view on a particular issue than you would get if you only relied on the ‘big’ websites or the mass media (newspapers, television, etc.). The only problem is that it can be difficult for an ordinary user to find this contrarian view. This is the problem I think we can solve.

Basically my idea is to have a tool which advises users about well-regarded weblog articles which are related to the web page they are currently viewing. I have some ideas on how this could be implemented from a technical point of view, and I’d love to get going on it.

Quite a broad range of technical skills would be required, including client side (writing Internet Explorer and Mozilla plugins), server side ranking, bayesian and fuzzy logic (deciding what articles are relevant) and XML (gathering and parsing various feeds to help find the relevant stuff). UI, testing, documentation and other skills would also be required.

If you’re interested in helping, leave a message or talk to me on #joiito sometime.