Next Steps for TypePad from Six Apart
I’ve only just now gotten a chance to look at some of this stuff since TypePad/Moveable Type isn’t a platform I’m currently using. (This blog uses Wordpress; and all of my Jackson Free Press stuff uses Expression Engine.) I was just reading Huffington Post and noticed that it’s run using MoveableType, something I found surprising and impressive. So I clicked over to Six Apart and find some fun stuff, in no particular order:
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InstantWatcher.com – TV Guide for ‘Watch Instantly’
If you’re spending as much time on Netflix Watch Instantly as I am (thank you Roku!), you’ll really appreciate this site: InstantWatcher.com. This very clever mash-up takes content from the Netflix API and marries it up with the YouTube API in order to show clips; it also uses the NYTimes’ movie reviews API to give you reviews and recommendations of the films available in Watch Instantly.
My favorite trick of InstantWatcher might be the “expiring” feature, which tells you what movies to hurry and watch before they fall off the Watch Instantly service.
InstantWatcher the brainchild of Daniel Chao, who has also developed the site KindleFeeder.com for Amazon Kindle users. Which, of course, I covet. (The Kindle, I mean.)
AdaptiveBlue – Worth a Look
If you’re up and running with your “Web 2.0″ blog and looking for some interesting widgets and other tools to add another dimension to your blogging, AdaptiveBlue is worth a look. The widgets are fun — you can show your NetFlix queue, NYTimes best sellers, Rolling Stone movie reviews — can be added to your blog to show a little personality. SmartLinks are particularly interesting; pop culture items (books, movies, music) are automatically linked to Amazon, Last.FM, IMDB or other sites that make it easier for your reader to dig a little deeper. Fun stuff.
Great WordPress Templates
Just a quick note that this guy is doing some really fun work with WordPress templates, creating some exciting magazine and “conversation” driven templates. One of his templates, Arthemia, I intend to use for BOOM Jackson magazine; another is Platformate, which is a really interesting layout for a site that offers lots of comment and conversation (not unlike the JFP). I might need to borrow some of these ideas for the JFP; that’s a very “2.0″ design, particularly for a personal blog like this one. (In fact…hmmm. If you’re reading this and you notice I’m using that theme, then, well, I’ve changed to it.)
Enjoyed the Pic, Beer Dude
I was surfing Ning sites and came across this guy’s profile page and pic. If I’d have been drinking Coke, it would have come out my nose. (I love that he’s shooting from a little Heineken mini-keg.) He’s a member of Bobalicious in Canada, which is apparently a social network supporting an online online magazine up there.
I didn’t get too deep into social networking in HTDE/Web 2.0 Blog in part because services like Ning weren’t quite in full swing. But the truth is, as these services mature, Ning-like social networks offer a great way to mash up a blog and a forum to get a community of folks focused on getting to know one another better and having a little fun.
You need to have some momentum in terms of readership (three nerdy guys hanging out on a Ning is just about as exciting as three nerdy guys hanging out at one of their mother’s house without a Ning site) and it REALLY helps to have a reason to bring folks together, whether it’s regional or topical. (And if you can get people together IRL based on their social networking, all the better.)
But, that said, Ning is cool, and it can be “blogging” if you want — you can set up a Ning so that it’s very much like your personal blog (or a group blog) except you surround yourself with pictures, events and blog entries by others as well.
Anyway, if you’re reading the book and want to see if thing’s have gotten any further toward the “next big thing,” check out Ning and see if maybe it qualifies.
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