Today we released the first version of Touchstone that will be sent to both our closed community of testers and special members of the blog/press/development/publishing community. We call it the 'Limited Alpha'. This release is designed to start some people talking about our little project even before we are ready to release it to the public!

Here is the email that was sent to the testers mailing list:

Good afternoon everyone,

Chris and Ash here – AKA: “The Touchstone Development Team” (we have uniforms and everything).

We would like to announce the very first Limited Alpha of Touchstone. We have quite a few new people on this mailing so I’d like to extend you all a warm welcome.

Instructions for downloading and installing the build are on the website listed below. Please read these carefully – this is only an Alpha so it’s not as easy to install as we’d like.

You can get your copy at: [secret website address here]
We appreciate your involvement - we hope that, with your help, feedback and support, Touchstone can begin empowering people to keep informed while they work.

To refresh your memory:

Touchstone is a gadget that persists on your desktop displaying news and nformation that you subscribe to. Initially this will be based on RSS and eventually it could include all types of alerts/information from various programs (through 3rd party adapters),

In this release, Touchstone looks like a news ticker (like the one you see at the bottom of news shows/stations on TV). Eventually there will be a way for the user to set rules about what’s important to them and configure additional ‘visualizations’ such as a ‘sidebar’ version, and various ‘alerts’ that popup when important information comes in.
These features are hinted at in a couple of mockup screens (that don’t work!) in the setup screen in this build

Kind regards,

Chris Saad & Ashley Angell
Touchstone - Are You Paying Attention?