Puffbox

For those wondering when we’ll get a community-edited site for general news… today might be it. Newsvine bills itself as a ‘collective… a place where anyone can read, write and influence the news.’ In practice, that means tagging like del.icio.us, editorial-by-voting like Digg, users’ columns like a blogging platform… and a steady supply of ‘professional’ content to keep it all ticking over. And as of today, it’s open to the public.

I was lucky enough to get in on the closed beta launch earlier in the year. I was excited by what I saw, but not entirely won over. Looking again though, I’m a little more impressed, and a little more convinced. Their UK homepage is still a bit too US-driven and AP-dominated for my liking, but it’s good to see the user participation starting to happen.

A brief look at the company blog, or the CEO’s own musings, and it’s clear these guys know what they’re trying to do. They could succeed… although I’m beginning to feel a US-hosted service won’t be able to crack the UK market.

So who’s going to bring this to the UK? I can only think of a handful of candidates, with access to the base content, and the open-mindedness to let users run their own show. I’m looking to Simon Waldman at the Guardian; or Lloyd Shepherd, now returning to Yahoo. You could make a case for Sky or MSN doing something, but I just don’t see it.

UPDATE: I think Mike Arrington is getting just a little carried away when he says it’s perfect.