Lala May Shutdown
April 30, 2010
Lala May shutdown: as in Apple will shut Lala down on May 31. I saw the news twice this morning: once as an email from Lala, then in my feed as a post on TechCrunch (which quotes the email sent to Lala users).
When Apple acquired Lala, I described the news as rotten. I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s taken this long for the axe to fall.
At ReadWriteWeb, Frederic followed up the shutdown news with five alternatives to Lala. I don’t think that any of the five services gives me what I like from Lala: a very wide range of music; one complete listen for free; unlimited streams of an album for about a buck.
Back at TC, Robin injected a note of fannish optimism. “Does this mean we can start raising our hopes for iTunes in the cloud?” I share neither the fannishness nor the optimism.
Drupal and WordPress, Two Years On
April 29, 2010
Drupal and WordPress are often compared. Here’s a summary of my summary of a comparison between the two platforms: WordPress is easier to get started with; Drupal has the advantage when it comes to more complex sites.
That was two years (and two weeks) ago. A lot has happened in those years, and early 2010 is a particularly busy and important time for both communities: Drupal and WordPress. If I had to provide a soundbite (blogbite? tweet?) right now, it would be: Drupal and WordPress are becoming more similar.
The best example of convergence from the Drupal side is Drupal Gardens, the slogan for which is: “Building Drupal websites just got easier.” It was indeed easy to establish a little outpost of the Changing Way empire at Drupal Gardens. ChangingWay.org runs on WordPress.com, of which Gardens is the Drupal counterpart.
Gardens runs on version 7 of Drupal. I love this line from Jacob Singh about developing Gardens on that new version, rather than on version 6: it’s like playing Jenga on a cocaine addled elephant riding a skateboard being jabbed in the ass with a hot poker.
WordPress is also in the midst of a new major release. In fact, this very post is a fringe member of a current and ongoing series about WordPress 3.0. Much of what’s in 3.0 (e.g., multisite) is already in Drupal.
The above account of convergence between Drupal and WordPress is very broad-brush. But it’s also about as long as I like a single post to be.
Comments – especially yours – are excellent for filling in gaps. They are also excellent for asking questions, and for offering me inducements to write more detailed comparisons of Drupal and WordPress and the communities and organizations behind them…
Concede the Decade to Facebook?
April 27, 2010
Yes, say Mike Arrington (at TechCrunch) and Sarah Perez (at ReadWriteWeb). They say it in rather different ways. Mike is all grand and sweeping and historical.
Microsoft dominated the technology world in the 90s… Google was the champion for the last decade…
But all the momentum is behind Facebook and how they are changing the Web, and our culture…
Facebook is permeating the Web. Publishers, us included, are clamoring to organize our websites in ways that please Facebook…
Their vision of an open graph of people and things (with Facebook at the center) is becoming reality… Facebook is taking over our identity and we are going along with that happily.
Sarah’s account is more personal, relating her usage of the new instant personalization feature, and her doubts about Facebook.
By giving into Facebook’s vision for the Web, we’re ceding control of our data, our likes, our interests, our “social graph” (a.k.a who we know, who we friend) – everything – to one company. Historically, one very, very closed company. We’re definitely worried about the implications of that. You should be too.
But in the meantime, like that calorie-rich dessert we know we shouldn’t eat, we’re sampling Facebook’s Web and secretly savoring its deliciousness. Why does everything that’s so wrong have to feel so good?
I’m disturbed by the notion that the 201* years will belong to Facebook. It’s not the first time I’ve been disturbed by the pervasiveness of Facebook, and it probably won’t be the last.
The FB201* prophecy helps to bring about its own fulfillment. First, there’s the argument that: lots of people I know are on Facebook, so I need to be. That is one reason for my Facebooking. Another is my daughter’s enthusiasm for Farmville – but Farmville deserves its own post.
The second way in which FB201* is self-fulfilling is illustrated in Mike’s post: TechCrunch will be FB-friendly, as will many other sites.
I’d like a world wide web of choice and interoperability. I don’t think that the FB201* prophecy bodes well for such a web. That said, I’m not going to ignore Facebook: it is a convenient way of keeping touch, or promoting things, etc.
If we think in decades, we might turn to the questions such as: Who will be taking over the web in 2020?
WordPress 3.0: Major Unobtrusiveness?
April 25, 2010
WordPress 3.0 is a major release due to features such as multisite networks, custom post types, a new default theme, and menu management options.
That said, I’m hoping that you’ll be able to upgrade to it without noticing much difference. To refer back to the four features mentioned above:
- Multisite, and hence the Super Admin stuff, is off by default, with edits to files such as wp-config required to turn it on.
- Custom post types appear as an option right at the foot of the admin menu sidebar, so they don’t get in the way, and might remain unnoticed.
- The new default theme applies to new blogs/sites, so you won’t see it if you’re just upgrading an existing install.
- Menu management, like custom post types, isn’t an obtrusive part of the admin interface.
It seems as though you’ll be able to upgrade to 3.0 without bumping into the new stuff, unless you want to. Put another way, WordPress 3.0 will let you shoot yourself in the foot, but you’ll have to take explicit steps to load the guns.
WordPress 3.0: Twenty Ten as Default Theme
April 20, 2010
As I noted in January, WordPress is getting a new default theme: Twenty Ten. Over at WordPlay, where I’m playing with WordPress 3.0, I set up a blog to explore the new theme.
I just posted about how Twenty Ten does header images: IMHO, it does them right. I’ll soon add other posts on other features of Twenty Ten to that test blog.
I’ll also add more posts to this series on WordPress 3.0 here at Changing Way. Changing Way lives at WordPress.com, and so gets the 3.0 features as, when, and if they are folded into WordPress.com.
Twenty Ten is biggish news for WordPress.com. It’ll take over as default theme sometime soon, and it’s a significant improvement.
WordPress 3.0: Custom Post Types
April 19, 2010
In WordPress right now, a post is a post (which is different from a page). Version 3.0 allows the creation of custom post types. For example, if I want to use a WordPress blog to manage a course I’m teaching, I might have Lessons, Quizzes, and so on. In V3, I could create Lesson as a custom post type.
An excellent account of custom post types is provided by Konstantin Kovshenin. He makes the point that custom post types are about organization, rather than about functionality. I could, using WordPress 2.x, post lessons to a course blog, but I can organize things rather more neatly using the custom post types.
I have indeed added the custom post type Lesson to one of my test sites. I then added a lesson, and a regular post about what I had to do and some things that came up along the custom post road.
Most bloggers will never create a custom post type. The feature is interesting for the Thing Management Systems that can be built with it. For example, my lesson post type might be a step toward a Course Management System built on WordPress.
To get at custom post types from the dashboard, you have to install a plugin, and to really work with custom post types, you have to edit the WordPress PHP code. I’m not sure what plans are in place to make the feature more easily accessible.
Neither am I sure how custom post types will show up in WordPress.com. My guess is that, if the feature shows up at all this year, it will be in the form of a few new post types (video, etc.), rather than as a dashboard option to add and manage new post types.
If you have better information, or any kind of different perspective on this, feel free to share in the comments. Next up in this series of posts on WordPress 3.0 will be something I’m sure will be in WordPress.com soon: the new default theme.
WordPress 3.0: Multisite Networks
April 18, 2010
WordPress 3.0 is due in May (i.e. next month) according to the roadmap at WordPress.org. The Codex entry for 3.0 lists highlights, starting with new menu management.
This posts focuses on the highlights that come at the end of the list: “WordPress and WPMU code merged” and “Configure a Network (multisite/WPMU).” What does that mean? Well, right now, installing WordPress and creating a blog are pretty much the same thing. If you want another blog, you install WordPress again. If you have lots of blogs, you have lots of installations to maintain.
That’s where WPMU comes in. You can run multiple blogs from a single installation of WPMU. The MU stands for multi-user. I’ve always found that rather confusing, because you can have multiple users on a single WordPress blog.
So, starting with WordPress 3.0, you’ll be able to run multiple blogs from a single install of WordPress. Actually, in the terms introduced in 3.0, you’ll be able to run multiple sites, and the collection of sites is called a network. (If you want to read more about the change in terminology, see Dougal Campbell’s post.)
I just tried out the multisite network feature at andux.org/wordplay. First, I installed WordPress 3.0, beta 1. That didn’t give WordPlay the multisite capability. By default, and I think it’s the right default, a 3.0 installation supports exactly one blog. Enabling the multisite network feature is a distinct step, involving the editing of wp-config.php and other files.
It was then easy to create a second blog running off the same install. I now get to be… Super Admin! No, that doesn’t involve a costume. It means that I am the admin for the whole network, and am able to make changes to the whole network of blogs (I should rather say network of sites).
I can create new users for the network, assigning roles per user/blog combination. For example, the user watson is an admin for blog #2 in the network, but only a subscriber for blog #1. Similarly, themes can be enabled on a site by site basis.
Multisite networks is, for me, the most interesting new feature of WordPress 3.0, and the best reason for this release to get a new integer (i.e. 3.0 rather than 2.next). That’s partly because I’ve always been interested in WPMU, and indeed used to blog about WPMU.
That said, I don’t think that the multisite feature of 3.0 will make much difference to WordPress.com, which is where changingway.org lives. WordPress.com currently runs WPMU to host millions of blogs: now that’s multisite!
I’ll try out, and post here about, other features of 3.0. Next up will probably be custom post types.
WordPress.com Themes and Team
April 15, 2010
WordPress.com now has an official Theme Team, according to Ian Stewart of said team. There’s an impressive manifesto, starting with:
Every WordPress.com user should feel like there’s a theme that fits them perfectly.
My first reaction was that means highly customizable themes, and some of the discussion in comments on Ian’s post supports that.
Ian also mentions “web standards,” which I of course support. I’m hoping that new themes will also adhere to some kind of “WordPress theme standard.” For example, new themes should all the same html tag for post titles. Consistency would make a lot of things easier: changing themes when you have the CSS upgrade; responding to some of the posts in the WordPress.com forums; applying Typekit to WordPress.com blogs.
I’ll follow the work of the theme team with interest. I’m happy with Simpla, as CSS’d and widget’d for this blog, but I could be tempted by a clean, customizable theme.
Instructional Systems Design
April 14, 2010
I’ve recently started getting interested in Instructional Systems Design, often referred to as ISD, or Instructional Design. Well, I’ve been interested in, indeed doing ISD, for some time now. What I’ve been finding out about recently is ISD: the domain, with its own books, courses, gurus, etc. Here’s a definition from InstructionalDesign.org.
The process by which instruction is improved through the analysis of learning needs and systematic development of learning materials. Instructional designers often use technology and multimedia as tools to enhance instruction.
From my software industry background, this looks like systems analysis applied to learning. And indeed, the introductory text I’m reading makes the systems analysis connection on the first page of chapter 1 (ISD From the Ground Up (2nd Ed): A No-Nonsense Approach to Instructional Design, by local-to-me prof Chuck Hodell).
The ADDIE framework is widely used in ISD. ADDIE refers to the phases: analyze; design; develop; implement; evaluate. Again, this looks like a framework from software. ADDIE also looks like a framework from the Strategic Management courses I’ve taught in business school (e.g., analyze, formulate strategy, implement, measure).
Most of all, ADDIE looks like what I did when creating courses, particularly those I had to opportunity to create from scratch (favorite example: Blogging and Business focused elective for MBA students). It’s interesting to see the process described formally, with checklists, definitions, etc.
ISDers seem to be very active in social media. I won’t make a list of resources, at least not in this post. I will, however, thank and link to Christy Tucker. Her blog features weekly update/bookmark posts, as well a very solid backlog of more introductory posts. Christy is good enough to provide thoughtful responses to comments on these fundamental posts (e.g., What Does an Instructional Designer Do?).
Some sources (e.g., Wikipedia) note that instructional design is historically and traditionally rooted in cognitive and behavioral psychology. However, most of what I’ve seen on ISD so far looks more like systems analysis than applied psychology.
I’ve started a new category at this blog for Instructional (Systems) Design and related stuff, since I expect to be writing more about it, and it doesn’t fit neatly into any existing category. My reasons for writing about ISD include: sharing what I’m learning; deepening my own learning; and getting comments from you, dear reader.
Edit: I renamed the category to Learning. The above link reflects that.
