I haven't been able to find this anywhere yet but is there a way for the Control Center to list the channels by category or filter? I want all the newsfeeds I subscribe to listed in the Control Center. I also need to put them in an organizational structure, like Windows Explorer kind of.

I know the filters are set up to create My Channels but it only lists one filter at a time and I want all of them to show up within headings. I realize categories are created so that you can apply more than one and run reports or set up filters to just obtain the feed that you want on a combination of categories. However, I need to list the feeds by a main category.

For example, I have a number of feeds that are Distance Learning, Educational Technology, General Tech News, and Gaming. Those are all main categories for me with some having minor relationships connecting a few feeds within each. I am not sure how to handle the minor relationships for this but the one thing that has held me back from purchasing Awasu at this point is a desperate need to do this.

If I have to rely on switching between filters I won't go to them. Out of sight out of mind...

Any suggestions, plugins that you know of, plans to add this type of feature?

Thanks!

Angela

That's right, only one filter can be active at any time. A lot of people have asked for more flexibility in arraging their My Channels window and the way you described is probably how it's going to work. Coming soon to an Awasu near you

For the moment, there's not really any way you can get what you want. The best thing I can think of is to define a bunch of search agents that can be set up to show channels in different colours.

That was fast responding! Thank you!

It's late here and I think too much when it's late so consider this fair warning to the brainstorming I am putting in text on this concept....

I have been trying to think through the relationship issues for feeds that have more than one category associated with them. The issue I struggle with on most software I use is multiple relationships and how do you find something that most software only associates to things linearly rather than systemicly.

For instance Indexing, File Managers, directories are pretty much designed as a linear method of tracking. Particularly when you compare it to something like a concept map design.

Email is a great example of this problem. I have at least 50 folders in my work email inbox folder. Why? Because I use it to archive important threads within a vast number of depts and aspects of my job. Someone asks for a license document on software from last year I can pull it up immediately. However, if it is an issue about a computer lab and I have had to involve 4 depts then I have to figure out which relationship was most important and file it under the one folder. Unless I duplicated it and filed it in each I have to guess

MindManager, the Brain, and even web sites like kartoo.com are designed to think in terms of complex relationships and associations. The idea of assigning multiple categories to a feed is in part what made me decide to use Awasu over other aggregators. It comes the closest I have seen yet to "thinking" relationally.

So what design could be created that would think relationally, as a system, and is as much a visual "trigger" as something like a concept map? And it has to reside in one screen, preferably less to conserve space, and summarize every feed you have by color, relationship, and updated news feeds.

I don't have an answer yet but it's running around in the back of my mind all the time trying to put the right combination of "puzzle" (design) pieces together. You may not be interested in this format, however.

Thanks for listening and considering!

Angela

Thanks for the input. It was great! I too have been frustrated with the simplistic filing mechanisms that computers impose on us. This is roughly how it will work...

There will be a "Classic" mode that works the way it does now, but you will have the option to go a tree-based mode, a la Windows Explorer. You will be able to define a hierarchy of categories, not just the simple one-level system we have now, and you will see them as a tree in the My Channels window.

Channels can be assigned to more than one category and will appear in each category in the tree. You will be able to drag and drop channels around the tree i.e. add/remove them from the various categories. If you delete a channel, you will be asked if you want to delete the channel or just remove it from that category. And so on. Hopefully, this will alleviate the problem of a burgeoning number of feeds and how to manage them.

I'd like to somehow tie this in with the ability to show/hide channels based on filters since I think that's a really nice feature. Once you have several hundred features, showing them all at once isn't practical.

I'll have to mull over it a bit more...