National Public Radio has just become the latest media property to launch a social network (not counting those that surely launched one while you were reading that sentence). It's called NPR
Community, and ARS Technica joined up to see how it fared against giants like Facebook and Digg.
In many ways, the site is exactly what you would expect from an NPR social network. It's
centered largely on its vast library of content, from Car Talk to This American Life, but with considerably less advertising than most social networks. The site also tries to foster "positive
conversation," and allows users to comment on NPR content. Refreshingly little personal information is required of users to join.
NPR acknowledges it is a bit late to the game--"We needed
the right tools and the right philosophy to come together. Now it has," said Dick Meyer, NPR's Editorial Director of Digital Media--but Ars Technica gives the site an overall thumbs-up, saying it is
worth the effort to sign up, especially because the effort is so minimal.
Read the whole story at Ars Technica »