Goodnewsamerica.us Uses Open Source To Inform America

By Ernest Fretwell
Posted Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Atlanta, GA, July 13, 2004 - In the world of online news the competition can be tough. The newest addition to that world, goodnewsamerica.us, wants to be a player in this world and they intend to do it with Open Source software. They have chosen the e107 Content Management System to get their message out and make their jobs much easier and more efficient. Choosing a CMS is no easy feat since there are upwards of 600 competing systems both Open Source and commercial.

"Using the e107 system gives us the flexibility and instant add/edit/delete functionality from anywhere in the world where there is Web access", said Ernest Fretwell, goodnewsamerica.us Chief Editor. "This is a strong plus. We played with and tried a lot of different systems from Open Source CMS systems like PHP Nuke to commercial CMS systems like Red Dot Solutions. We needed something where plug-in coding and creation was easy, and something where we could turn functionality on and off in an instant. E107 works for us because it is sleek and fast on the back end. We also found the community driving e107 to be the friendliest and most helpful of all the Open Source options."

Goodnewsamerica.us touts itself as a patriotic news link source that gets you news that their editors believe is what's good for America. They take no issue with their bias. "We research and post links to news stories both domestically and internationally that we believe to be important to America. We make no excuses or bones about being pro-American", says Fretwell. "We try to point you in the direction of what we think is good news, but not all we post is good news. We are trying to encourage a community feeling at the site where readers can participate by submitting news or discussing current events."

When asked how they gather their links, goodnewsamerica.us says that it comes from "raw surfing and reading the news from any source that's available". The "click masters" are required to use the Mozilla Firefox browser to surf the news on the Web because of it's tabbed browsing and lack of vulnerabilities to pop-ups, services hijacks, and malware.

The "click masters" gather up links to news that fits the goodnewsamerica.us policy standards, then the links are approved and posted to the site. The whole process can take less than 30 seconds due to the internal communications features of the system. "A simple system for a simple goal", says Fretwell. When asked to reveal what and where they surf, Fretwell confesses that Free Republic, Drudge, and Fox News are "probably the sites we monitor the most - especially FR because those FReepers get the news faster than any other community on the Net".

In an IRC interview with a goodnewsamerica.us site member byarst says, "besides the great content and up to the minute news, I like it because it's so easy to use. Nothing is hidden, and if you like, you never have to leave the home page to get all the news you desire. Their clever way of hiding and showing extra content keeps everything compact and easily accessible. The design is so simple it lets the news speak for itself. And no pictures, ads, or pop-ups makes it the fastest news site on the Net."

Taking a look at the site proves byarst correct. Very soft colors, and bold attention to the main headlines makes the site easy on the eyes. Sure it's boxy, but that's the way HTML works. A virtual tour of the administration back end of the site also proves to be consistently simple and straight-forward.

"The '.us' domain extension was no accident", says Fretwell. "We want this site to be as pro-America as it can be, especially with the country on a war footing. The Greatest Generation stepped up to the plate and saved the world, and now it's my generations' turn. We're just doing what we can to help win the war."

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