We run a Wordpress multisite setup here at MPOW, and have two
different blogs that we use for this type of purpose: an "Alerts" blog
for in-house alert needs, and a "News" blog for public-facing
announcements. We just use the RSS feed to push the alerts where
needed, and there's certainly no shortage of RSS collection/parsing
libraries. I'm partial to Magpie (http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/)
but only because I've had years of using it.

We even recently moved to using Growl for Windows with an RSS plugin
to do "heads up" alerts on staff/faculty PCs, so that when something
is posted to the Alerts blog, all staff machines get an
impossible-to-ignore alert overlay on their screens. We will likely be
doing a similar thing for "Emergency" use and the public machines.

Jason



On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Michael Schofield <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>
>
>
> I've been toying with the idea making something because I can't seem to find
> a free alternative, but I thought I'd do my due diligence and pick your
> brains. I'm open for any alternatives to the following, but I'm specifically
> looking for a free option with an API.
>
>
>
> Scenario: our main website lives on the university's server, which turns out
> to be a very dull playground: HTML/CSS/JS only. This means there's about 150
> static files that I'm now presently rolling into a WP Network living on our
> own boxes-and our own domain-(we've been waiting for the last year for a
> university-wide CMS, but we just don't want to hold our breaths any longer
> J) but the main site, the landing page, will always be static. This means
> that whenever there's an early closure, a hurricane watch, or some other
> announcement someone has to submit a ticket and then I have to make a
> change. My goal is to cut me-the middleman-out of the process.
>
>
>
> My potential project: So what I was thinking was jury-rigging a Wordpress
> theme into an "alerts" dashboard for managers, directors, and so on. I want
> to empower the Circulation manager to login, make an announcement, and be
> done with it. For all the departmental and other sites that live on the WP
> Network, I'd write and install a corresponding "alerts" plugin that watches
> the JSON API for an alert and-if true-display it. For our static sites, I'd
> toss in a jquery plugin that did the same.
>
>
>
> My question: this seems like something that's been done before! Has it? If
> not, anyone want to collaborate on github?
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
>
> Michael Schofield(@nova.edu) | Web Services Librarian | (954) 262-4536
>
> Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center
>
>
>
> Hi! Hit me up any time, but I'd really appreciate it if you report broken
> links, bugs, your meeting minutes, or request an awesome web app over on the
> Library Web Services <http://staff.library.nova.edu/pm>  site.
>
>