There is a very useful site that is about to be launched called Newsvine. The idea is to provide a forum constructed for users to post news or opinion articles (seed the vine) – either their own work, or references to others. People on the site can vote on which “seeds” they like. The more popular a “seed” is, the higher up “the vine” it gets pushed – it can end up on one of the main pages for a section, a tag, a region, etc. As well as providing a forum for serious discussion related to news topics, it provides a way for little people like me to get their opinions out about topics in a much more efficient way.

The site is currently in beta testing. This means that you cannot just sign up. Well, you can…if you are invited by someone who is already on board. To that effect, I have 20 invites right now. First come, first served. Just leave a comment or send an email to any address at this domain. I think that once this is released, this will become popular in a hurry, so now is the time to sign up (if it is your cup of tea). And if you do have access, you can check out my column at http://yaakov.newsvine.com. I will be concentrating my posting of Israel-politics related items on their from now on, leaving this space for more aliyah-related material.