'10 X 10' presents 'the news at a glance'

Again, while any of the stories available here can be found by much more conventional means, 10 X 10 presents them in a fascinating chronological/cultural context - showing not only what the major news sources are considering the important stories of the moment, but also inviting questions about what might be influencing those choices. (By way of illustration, the top three words in the list as I write are Iraq, Nuclear, and Security. As I scrolled down, I eventually found Victory, but is was in position 96 - and referred to a boxing match.)

In a different way, the thumbnail grid makes its own statement. While words in the list are never repeated, images related to those words frequently crop up more than once, so the visitor is presented with occasional patterns. (Presently, a half dozen identical images of a train derailment in the UK - "Train," "Police," "Crossing," "Crash"...- and four of GWB -"President," "Message"...- are scattered across the grid.) Extreme differences in close proximity are also common - a Nobel Prize winner might appear next to a dictator, or a billionaire next to a refugee.

In this way,10 X 10's news of the hour can easily summon up thoughts about much broader issues.

Given all the opportunities for patterns and interrelations, it would have been fascinating to have seen the grids on the morning after George Bush's re-election, but unfortunately, the site launched a day too late. However, you can look at any hour as far back as the 3 a.m., November 4 launch, through "Previous Hour," "Next Hour," and "History" links at the bottom of the screen - and once January arrives, there will also be a one-grid summation of all the stories gathered in the previous year. (Though for 2004, the year will presumably only include November and December.)

If this site remains in operation for a sufficient duration, the history options could become a singular resource for serious as well as more trivial research - from investigating historical shifts as demonstrated by changes in annual grids, to recording the grid that was posted at the hour of birth of a family addition.

(Finally, at the bottom of the page, beside "About" and "How It Works" links, "For Developers" holds an unusually generous invitation to other web developers - allowing them to freely use the information gathered by 10 X10 in their own non-commercial projects.)

While there is no human intervention on the part of 10 X 10, the stories are, of course, edited and given priorities at the source sites (so, for example, the story about the train derailment wouldn't have ranked as high if it had happened in China, or if the BBC wasn't one of the three sources for stories), but this doesn't detract from the value of the exercise. In its ability to provide an hourly snapshot of the world, 10 X 10 is unique, and whether it will serve merely as an entertaining diversion, or as a valuable resource for followers of global events...well, that will be entirely up to each visitor.

10 X 10 can be found at http://www.tenbyten.org/.

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