“TimesPeople is a new way to discover what other readers find interesting on our site — and to make recommendations of your own.”

Sounds cool! But is it?

What I like:

1. Browser Integration
It works seamlessly with Firefox 3, embedding a narrow toolbar at the top of nytimes.com. To me, this is a great method for incorporating social networking and sharing into any site. Make it prominent and accessible from every page without getting in the way.

2. A Newspaper (an old one, at that) Trying Something New
It’s something that promotes user engagement with the site and each other, and I think that’s paramount for news organizations who want to thrive.

A few suggestions:

1. Offer Better People Search
Right now you can only search by name. Why not search by topic and city? I’m finding it’s really hard start building out my contacts list. A “recommended” friends list based on similarities in sharing habits would also be nice.

2. Build a City Center
The main TimesPeople Web site should include most recommended items in various news categories and media (slideshows, video, etc.). You could also feature users, perhaps some celebs? In general, I’m looking for some place to browse everyone’s activity. Make it resemble a busy market.

3. Make Adding Content and Commenting Easy
It’s not very clear or obvious (which it should be) how to add a story. I had to scroll down to the bottom of a blog post I was viewing and click “Share,” revealing a generic “Recommend” link. Had I not visited the FAQs, I never would’ve figured this out. I should get a big fat add link and icon in my TimesPeople toolbar at the top of the page. Also, it’d be nice if I could comment on links I’m posting. Why am I recommending a particular story or multimedia piece?

4. Offer More Robust Profiles
This will probably come as the service matures, but it’d be nice if I could link up my Web site, my Twitter account, Facebook profile, etc. Also, a user profile page could server as a personalized feed reader, where I could add and view stories from specific topics or writers from the Times.

There’s a lot of potential here and I commend the Times for trying something like this.

Feel free to check out my feed and add me as a contact.

Update: You can also check out a video interview with some of The Times developers produced by beet.tv.

Can you create a vital community-driven Web site in six months? Now, can you do it from 1,366 miles away?

I’m about to find out using my hometown Marshall, Minn., as my test subject. Using my personal contacts (my family) and some grassroots efforts online I want to create a vibrant user-powered community center. I dub thee “The Shall.”

For at least 6 months I plan to:
- Log in and post something relevant to the community daily
- Document the process (challenges, successes, humorous anecdotes)
- Try and have some fun connecting with the prairie town I grew up in

Residents get their local news and gossip (they hosted who for dinner?) from two primary places: The Marshall Independent (a hard-working and award-winning paper where I did a summer internship) and gomarshall.net (oh, Lord have mercy…that is a marquee).

And while both sites have some sort of social networking/communication going on, it’s no where near something like mnspeak.com.

The Shall is going to aggregate everything related to Marshall (on YouTube, Flickr, news stories, events) and allow citizens to publish their own content (news, questions, garage sales, video from the basketball game).

I was inspired to try this after I saw the Boulder Daily Camera move their community site to Ning.

I’m starting with a loose framework and an open mind. Let’s see what happens!