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How would you like to have your own news program? You choose the subjects or topics (such as technology or cricket), choose the anchors for the show, and get a video feed that is your own news show.

Sounds far-fetched? Shake your head to clear it up, and read this - "News at Seven" (http://www.newsatseven.com/) is almost there. Currently, the site features only the video for news shows created by the developers, and presents the shows using `avatars', or virtual characters, as presenters or anchors.

News at Seven basically scours RSS feeds for videos, images and text related to the topics you have defined. It also searches for commentary on the news from blogs and puts them together as a nice package.

The show is presented in typical news show fashion: an introduction from the presenter, videos and images supporting the news and another anchor reading off blog commentary on the news.

Is this a precursor to the kind of society we will become - a society where a person looking to expand his or her general knowledge will be seen as a rather dull person rather than as a well-informed and well-rounded individual?

Is this the future of news - highly personalised offerings that do not foster basic civic sense or a sense of community?

N. Nagaraj

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