For the past few weeks I have been completely infused into the Newsvine community and today I have decided it’s time to write my thoughts.

Newsvine is a “web 2.0 website” (although this is a term unfavorable among some of the developers) that allows access to the news medium in a way never before seen. Currently available in the public beta release of the service are such features as in-line chat, commenting, editor free publishing, tagging (taken to a whole new level), citizen journalism, seeding and a remarkable community.

To explain every aspect of Newsvine is nigh-on-impossible. The features of the website are really what makes it different to the new user, but the more you get involved the more you understand it takes on a whole new level of news distribution in the most indescribable way.

For me, the main reason for reading news is not just to pointlessly stay up to date, but to form opinion, merge these opinions into a theory, idea or other mindset and then discuss with like minded people to further our knowledge, opinions and theories on the topic. This is achievable only through discussion with intelligent, interested and articulate people which Newsvine seems to breed by the thousand. More over, the tools are there to do just that; I mean, when was the last time you visited the interestingly articulate folks at the Washington Post, New York Times or CNN and could actually discuss the article of interest with your fellow readers or even the author? At Newsvine you can have a fluid and enlightening debate through an elegant comment system or even join in a live chat right there in your browser, on that page.

You can also seed stories you find on such news media websites and Newsvine will allow you to discuss the topic there. It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s elegant and more than anything it’s collaborative. Of course, Newsvine doesn’t stop there; it also allows readers to become authors and editors. With one simple click you can write your own article and build a column about anything you desire without editors or delays. You have an ability to get your news and editorials “out there” to millions of people instantly and then discuss these topics with your readers. Newsvine even allows the upload of images to further your article and of course basic HTML tags to increase it’s readability.

The most important feature of Newsvine (to me) however is the ability to quickly and easily find whatever you are looking for. You can achieve this through a very smart URL (web address) system where by an authors username is followed by .newsvine.com/ which can then be followed by a particular tag (viz. keyword) or article. You can go to the address www.newsvine.com/tagname (viz. http://www.newsvine.com/republicans) to see all articles related to that keyword or even www.newsvine.com/tagname?category=categoryname (viz. http://www.newsvine.com/republicans?category=politics) in order to find a all articles related to a keyword yet restrict the results to a specific category. This really allows you to find your interest quickly and easily.

The only thing I see that is currently letting Newsvine down is the way it handles comment history. I wish it would allow me to access different histories for my comments on my own column and those on others articles. I also wish I could access all the comments on my own column on a single web-page. There are a few different possibilities here to better organize your discussion but that brings me to the single most important reason Newsvine will succeed. It’s people.

The Newsvine team is a conglomerate of people highly successful in the world of web-based design, marketing and feature rolling. Mike Davidson heads the team as CEO and is not only highly skilled in the field, but more than anything a really friendly, down to earth guy. Without this small, knowledgeable and approachable team Newsvine would have hit the deck like lead by now. I see the future of Newsvine as being very bright, and often refrain from making suggestions until I have checked thoroughly through the website and blog as I can almost guarantee it’s been brought up if not in the process of rectification.

There is so much more to Newsvine that it cannot be explained, only experienced and I encourage you to do so. I have a few invitations left for those that have not yet received one; for those that have, use them. All I can say to implore you to do so is that the entire “feeling” of the place is wreaks of such beauty (in back-end and front-end implementation, design and style) that I am certain I will be looking to the expected Newsvine Code of Honor as a baseline for a similar idea of my own; I couldn’t possibly publish one without seeing what these few thousand great minds have collaboratively produced first.