Social software is a term used to describe those kinds of programs that are popping up all over the place that allow people to meet and interact with each other online. Usually these types of interaction are based on common interests. I plan on doing a post in more detail, listing exciting new programs that are already working, but for now, I want to bring one particular program to your attention.

CommonTimes allows you to gather news stories in one place, comment on them, and share them with others.

CommonTimes is an interactive news site where you select the top stories and share your views about the day’s events.

Don’t just read the news, talk about it with other readers. Create your own news channel. Comment on stories. Follow your favorite topics. Blog about the news. At CommonTimes, you are the editor.

So not only can you customize news feeds in one place, like you might with any RSS aggregator, but you can also maintain your own channel, with new stories that are of interest to you. You can also join (or create) groups and see what other people, who have similar interests to you, are reading.

I have created a group for librarians to share the news stories that they are reading and are interested in. If you would like to pariticipate, first you need to join CommonTimes at http://www.commontimes.org/users/create_user.php. Once you’ve gotten the confirmation email and clicked the link to confirm your membership, go to http://www.commontimes.org/groups.php and join the Librarians group. It’s easy to use and will be another tool for building a network of librarians around the world for discussing the news and sharing ideas.

As an added incentive, there are also lots of extra features at CommonTimes, such as tagclouds for the last 24 hours, RSS feeds of your own channel or others, images in the news, automatic synchronization with Del.icio.us, interfacing with Bloglines and blogging software, and more!