Campsite should provide a set of pre-made widgets along the lines of its ‘Fastnews’ templates for sample designs. These widgets could then be embedded into individual users’ web pages, blogs, social networking sites, etc.
From the user standpoint, the user can add a widget either by copying and pasting a line of code into their page, or by clicking on one of a number of pre-made widget accounts.
Here is an example of how Reuters presents users with the possibility to embed their content widgets: http://www.reuters.com/tools/widgets/news/topnews
Here is an example of a line of code to be embedded, taken from the Reuters website’s widget signup page:
<div class="widgetEmbedCode">
<span id="toolEmbed" title="Copy and paste this HTML to embed this Reuters Video onto a webpage.">Embed Code: <input name="embedVideo" id="embedVideo" type="text" size="20" value='<script src="http://nmp.newsgator.com/NGBuzz/buzz.ashx?buzzId=81503&apiToken;=AAA11919E8A84EB8986088D0B39F3E0B&trkP;=&trkM;=94EB6FAB-58C5-EE96-F3DB-C2444C40C1BA" type="text/javascript"></script>' onclick="javascript:this.select();" /></span>
</div>
In a perfect world these widgets would be able to query the Campsite server via a content API, but for now it would probably be enough for them to use a standard RSS feed as the source for the content. Because it is possible that sites would be blocked, a set of multiple sources for the widget content would probably be required.
Campsite administrators and template designers should be able to create multiple feeds based on the content of their sites; this could be either section-based (Top News, Sports, Politics, etc.), could be topic/tag based or based on the Phorum (most recent posts, most recent posts by topic, posts by topic by date). These feeds would then be picked up by the widgets, which would have to be altered to draw content from the individual feeds.
A mechanism for counting the individual widget installations would also have to be created so as to have an accurate count of the number of people using the service; in this way the widgets could also be a means of delivering ads and/or third-party content, either by service providing the widget hosting/aggregation or by the publishers themselves.
The admin interface could handle widget administration through a plugin. The plugin would do the following:
1) Activate a Campsite installation’s account on a Campware-branded widget hosting service
2) Enable the user to set the source of the content to be provided to the widget, either by automatically creating an RSS feed based on individual sections, user-defined topics or forums
3) Enable the user to either pick the appearance of the widget from a predefined set of designs, or to code their own.
4) Enable the user to stop publishing the widget; in the event the Campsite installation stops publishing, the widget hosting service would have to select another source to draw from.
