Update: They've updated the homepage since I wrote this. It's still hideous.

I had to stirr… overall I'm probably over zealous in my reaction, however I feel there may be some truth in the title. The UI design just irks me.

One of the reasons I use technorati is for its ablility to filter out the crap through tagging. Problem is, my most used feature is no longer as accessible as it once was. Tag searching. Instead of simply clicking the Tags tab to search them I now have to use the dropdown. I hate that for a number of reasons.

1. For new users its not apparently visible that you can search by tags and it becomes yet *another* boring search field engine on the surface.
2. Not knowing you can search by tags means less users may tag.
3. I can't click back and forth between a keyword search and a tag search like I used to ALL the time. Thats two clicks now. Garr!

As for other pre-existing features I used a lot; related tags are no longer as obvious as they were(they're small and blue, yuk!), helping to guide me to the place I wanted to be. Overall the search is less of a helper service. I feel like I have to dig deeper in order to do what I want and that's just plain bad UI design. But then I'm a nerd and it's quite obvious that the new design has been aimed at more of a widespread audience.

Homepage features like "What everyone is blogging about" as it stands feels useless. For one there aren't nearly enough results listed on the homepage to make it appealing for me to peruse. Needs to be double that they are listing. The page might actually look semi-balanced column length wise doing that. And what's with the whitespace in the Discover and Top searches blocks. Eeek. Makes me shudder as if something is missing. Why the hell do my blogs need to be so dominant on the home page too? I'd rather something useful was listed there. And please stop mangling one of my long blog names, there's space to present it in one line. Use it, please.

The page layout just feels wrong. Top searches listed down the side of the page? So far away from the search box where people searching for something would be eyeballing… search, search for what? I liked the previous displaying of the top searches/tags near the search box to give people ideas.

I like the discover pages. I don't like the page format with the ad to the right though. Looks off centre. They're frigging animated ads too and make me want to get away from them as soon as possible. I can't read shit with that happening and distracting me.
Bah, I'm in a bad mood now. I'm trying to figure out what positives there are for me there. Seemingly more negatives. Okay here's one, the photos search tab might be useful for stealing images when finding good images on google images isn't easy. How long before video and music(podcast), book searches appear there too? You too can be more like Vox.

The most popular is a cool feature.

The biggest improvement however, is the My Favorites. Technorati has entered the news aggregration arena or was that always there an I never cared to look? The bastard made me save my bloglines to disk before uploading them and then only imported 76 of my 716! Garr! Favorites suck.
Favorite widgets too though. Cool. But not the Widget-widget web yet.

I've been thinking about data distribution and the open API model services like Amazon S3 offer. The more I think about it, the more I see a need for an identity system with integrated online data storage. I call this an i-drive API spec. Something any hosting provider could implement.
Here's how I see it work; first a standard form of data storage API be developed with all the bells and whistles for users to secure their data and access though a standard protocol. Possibly different levels of API security spec too. Not everyone wants to store secure data and not every provider has the resources to implement high security. I'd like the option to be able to store my photo's/music/data on my own server for example. Other sensitive data on secure services. Anyway, users are then given the option of where they choose to store that data when using identity broker services. The Yadis identity service discovery system then shares that i-drive information with i-drive enabled apps. The apps can cache if the API lets it. (much like I believe XDI link contracts work). This way, anyone can store specific data anywhere that provides an i-drive service, even multiple services for the same data, eg. backup and redundancy. Some people might want that data all in one place. Me, I like diversity and choice.

As I understand it XDI will do some(all?) of this for i-names. A full blown i-broker implementation I'm guessing? More to read…

Ideally I'd like to be able to grab some open source i-drive code, dump it on my on own web host, tell my Yadis supported identity account where my i-drive is located and what it's to be used for and all the rest between my web apps and i-drive is taken care of for me. Additionally I could then implement my own open source OpenID(or i-names) broker with i-drive on my server then and start using it and encouraging sites like flickr to support it. It could all be built into my blogware. That'd be sweet. I could even have an i-drive service running on my operating system keeping sync (if my bandwidth costs weren't so high).

Using this service I could subscribe to all sorts of data that gets added to my i-drive and sync'd to specific i-drive devices (TV/Music Player). YouTube on my real tube.

Anyone know of efforts around other than XDI looking to do something like this?

Update: Another thought. Triggered while reading Mark Cuban. Make each and everyone of these i-drives BitTorrent capable.

Update: A bare bones API extendable to include data manipulation extensions for web apps to make use of. eg. attach advert clip to a podcast, resize an image, seek to a video or comment location inside media, etc. WebDAV?

Update: I found this great post by Christine when looking for another of hers I'd read previously. It covers the need for decentralized data access. Well worth a good read.

I've been following Cameron Reilly's progress with ThePodcastNetwork for a while now. Listening to his current woes, hoping things pick up soon for him. His request for ideas had me thinking and I've decided to pitch some of my ideas in. Feel free to steal them, I have much bigger ones in the works. Anyway here are my suggestions and thought I'd publish them for all to see and debate.

I'll start by outlining the podcast hosting (or video log for that matter) business model as I see it. Advertising. With more and more services like Amazon's S3 our likely future, I see the bottom eventually falling out of mere hosting unless you make the hardware or maintain it. Still you can cream a little off the top using it if you like, but for me the future is all advertising and subscriptions with hosting a side dish unless your a data centre.

Now Cameron more than anyone knows that advertising for his medium will most likely come through embedded sponsorship in podcasts as well as targeted on his site. Thus the more listeners and distribution, the better exposure for all involved. In my mind therefore building brand reputation while building distribution channels are the key to this medium. So, first we build on those. I use Cameron's business as my case study here. So here are my suggestions:

1. Build a better distribution model.

Make it easy for anyone to access and share your data.

The first and easiest thing Cameron could do is make each and every podcast easily sharable on anyone's site with a custom and branded flash player(with fallback) they can drop in, ala Youtube.

Optionally, a player, that on mouse hover or excerpt button click, displays either a text excerpt or transcript of the cast. (I've heard anecdotal evidence that transcripts next to casts improve listens by up to 225%.) Note: I'd do it with display:none javascript, not ajax to help the search engines find it. Let's hope RSS readers of the future support display:none or some other safe means of embedding metadata, aye. (Comments on alternative methods welcome)

So for easy copying and pasting I see the implemenation best done through and interface something like Live Clipboard's.

Thus we display Live Clipboard scissors on objects considered sharable. With our podcast example, on hovering those scissors would display your options for that content. In this case clicking Copy simply copies a piece of HTML to the users clipboard containing an object element marked up. ie. the podcast player <object> with podcast uri and description.

Note: This example doesn't utilise the 'Live' of Live Clipboard, but you get the idea. BTW, to anyone looking to implement Live Clipboard, please, on selecting a method of an object the user should be presented with something like a tooltip instructing them what has just happened! eg. "Success! HTML Object copied to your operating system clipboard. Now, go paste it somewhere!" or "Success! Live Clipboard XML Object copied to your operating system clipboard. Perhaps on hovering objects the type of content to be copied is displayed. eg. replace Copy (CTRL-C) in the figure above with Copy HTML Object (CTRL-C) or Copy Live Clipboard Object (CTRL-C)

Now, back to distributing our podcasts.

I'd also suggest branded widgets of feeds copied and pasted in similar fashion.

Taking this further an open API service for database access to casts and their metadata as well as data processing services. This however requires infrastructure and one central content management and hosting system. So build one(if and when you can afford to!). And Cameron, I know I'd have a 2web widget on my blog if you had one.

Next for distribution, another interesting path I see this model taking is with distributed metadata creation services. Check out what the blip.tv guys are working on with mirrorplay (not up yet) and read about video vertigo (user and password are in the popup authentication) and where metadata sharing for distributed media is headed.

There's an opportunity here for someone to build an open API that lets developers build podcasting software into their own, have those podcasts hosted on the API providers servers and allow collaboration with advertisers through it. Or just a service that streams the process of adding ads to the media and then to the clients servers. It's complicated to explain but if your interested, have a look at the eventful aka EVDB model. I think it's kinda similar but in their case used for events and I hear purchasing tickets.

And BTW, while your at it creating widgets, don't forget to add digg and delicious buttons to each! And comments… You could even include an area in the widget for displaying tags and tagging that very podcast using AJAX! No need then for mirrorplay? Maybe. Maybe not. Something worth considering is that not everyone lets you embed scripts… alternative: flash… *grumble*

Additionally you should write or purchase rights or licensing to podcast aggregating software for downloading content locally and consumuing it and feeding the playlist back to your database. Don't forget to brand it all.

Don't forget to bundle your service with other hardware. Mobile devices especially are the media players of the future.

2. Build a solid brand image.

Produce quality content under your logo stamp. Seek out existing podcasters(or vloggers, whatever floats your boat) with a proven track record and bring em aboard your stamp. Podtech did this with Scoble, Scoble did this with GETV…

Make podcasts about the people. Interviews, exclusives… I love those. Encourage that in your producers. Everyone loves to hear from experts in their field. Experts market themselves, experts therefore market you if you can get em.

3. Design and marketing.

Now I'm basing this off Camerons site and his homepage is a little bland. Get a good designer Cam, make it fun and build upon the brand in the design. In Camerons case, get rid of the whitespace at the top and make the TPN logo stand out. Add some mr.sheen polish to it and develop a 'look & feel' synonymous with TPN. Make play buttons using the logo to use there and in widgets? Something with personality…

Add a "featured show(s)" section with clips and play buttons. Add a short playable promo clip for all the shows and latest shows on there so people can get a feel for the hosts quickly. We're all time poor so please don't make me listen through ads or fancy long intros on those promo clips. Make the search feature and categories more visible. Make the site fun and idiot proof.

Maybe add sound effects on hovering items. Make promo's automatically play on hovering… Grab people's attention. Just never play music on page loading! That's a heinous usability crime! I curse you myspace.

Also add features that will entice people back. Let people tag and mark casts as favorites for later referral. Capture that attention data on what each user plays/tags/does on your site. Create a social network of tags and "who tags like me", "who likes listening to what I do" network ala last.fm. Create widgets of this data for the users. Use the data to recommend other items, including advertising. Create widgets for those.
Ultimately, you'll be reaching your users through distribution channels. Get that right. Make it so that people can easily find your content on your site to help it go viral. Add feeds and widgets on everything. Even categories, peoples listening lists, top downloaded… basic SEO.
4. Education

Drive traffic through education. Create a podcasting tutorial blog(and cast) to educate people. Let the TPN producer crew write it, everyone has a howto podcast story right? Call it the Digital Podcasting School ala Darren Rowse and his Digital Photography School.

5. Advertising

First, create some. Your own! Build a service that can attach advertising automatically to media. Create your own advertising first for podcasts in your network to test the system and attract advertisers that listen. Add an advertise with us option to your widgets. Failing those, hire someone to find you advertisers. Or something. Advertising hurts my brain.

6. Product Affiliates

Create a "cool audio tool" directory using amazon and other affiliates who'd like to advertise their wares to podcasters/users through you. This would fit well on the education blog and next to podcasts. Include hardware/software recommendations, reviews, etc. Track it all with stats.

7. Service Affiliates

"Advertisment FREE" podcasts for paying clients or subscribers.

8. Statistics

Watch them and learn.

9. Brainstorm

Put all the content producers on a mailing list if they're not already. Bounce ideas in it with them all. Create a community wiki to document all those ideas. They'll want to help, they're making a cut of the money for producing the content…

10. Get good developers to build it all

So you can sit back, feet in the air and let someone else stress out. I should also talk about networking, blah, blah, but I'm no good at that. Just do it. You'll figure it out with all that traffic and attention you'll be getting from people.

In conclusion:

• Build an API
• Build your own service on top of that API
• Open your API and service to the Public

The future is in API's and widgets(smart widgets and apps that talk back to your server with attention data).

SIOC (Semantically Interlinked Online Communities) is an ontology for describing discussion forums and posts on topic threads in online community sites. This includes but is not limited to: blogs, bulletin boards, mailing lists, newsgroups, etc.

I came across this word today: Fauxonomy. There seems to be some disagreement about it's meaning however. The first thing that came to my mind was fauxonomy as machine generated taxonomy made out to look like user-generated taxsonomy(folksonomy), however some who support scientific taxonomies have dubbed folksonomies as fauxonomies themselves. Either way I'm sticking with my interpretation. My french was never any good though…

I've been reading up a lot about dojo, a fantastic javascript toolkit that allows developers to make spiffy web applications without the hassle of worrying too much about things like browser compatibility. dojo takes care of most of the hard work for you and comes with loads of widgety goodness.

I wrote my first line of code today. In writing my first line of code I ran into problems. Windows. It's moments like this I miss my Gentoo box and the larry the cow forum humour. moo.
Anyway, in my wisdom, I decided to base my first app on an existing widget test, so I copied that test into my new projects directory. In doing so I knew I'd have to tell the script where to find dojo relative to where I'd moved the test. Herein lay my problem. I wanted to be able to freely move tests about without having to worry about directory relativity.

Here's the default source reference out of SVN:

<script type="text/javascript" src="../../dojo.js"></script>

and here's what I had hoped would work but didn't:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/htdocs/svn/dojo/dojo.js"></script>

instead, after looking through documentation and pulling out my hair, here is what I had to use:

<script type="text/javascript" src="file:///c:/htdocs/svn/dojo/dojo.js"></script>

note the three slashes. thankyou windows. :/

Thankgod for Editplus' abiilty to search and replace text in multiple open files! Whee. God, where would I be without that… *cringes*

Now, my test is back to it's full functional best, and I can play away. Yay!

Next I have to decide whether or not I want to use a framework with my new found dojo love. Python or PHP even Ruby… To django or not to django. Z.end perhaps. RoR what a decision.

PHP probably, app markets widest appeal it be. :/

Jeff Croft writes about whether CSS belongs in RSS feeds.

I just went round-and-round with Brian Livingston, an editor at WindowsSecrets.com, about his article entitled CSS Support is Poor in RSS Feed Readers. Brian believes that we web producers should be using CSS in our RSS feeds to make our content more readable — he talks about colors, typefaces, sizes, etc.

Interesting discussion. While I'd rather CSS and feed content were kept seperate, issues like Jason raises in embedding objects, in his case microformats into posts and feeds that he later parses and displays using javascript, has me questioning this logic. While I'm sure there are ways around issues like his example raises, like external sytlesheets(where supported ahem), etc. I still see that inevitably some users and developers will want to be able to do more and interact and share more than just static content in feeds, and to do that options need to be there to carry this out.

You only need to look at any systems where there have been mass amateur uptake of them to see of potential benefits to allowing the free-for-all. People are attracted to glitz and glam. The more people, the more innovation and resulting technology exposure allowing it to flourish, and who knows what that may bring us next. (see this interesting videocast of Ben Hammersley for more)

For me a feed is all about sharing <em>information</em>. It shouldn't matter what that information is. Apart from security issues with certain style attributes, I don't see a problem including CSS inside it so long as it's function is defined and preferably not as styling. I believe in external styling wherever possible, that way the end user can then being presented with the option to use that styling or not. However styling critical to function as in many AJAX apps are now using, seems reasonable to include. Though ideally it too should be referenced externally should it be deemed dynamic. Often however it seems pointless to do so with such settings vital to operation that are unlikely to change over time. eg. display:none; on Jason's example. The problem as I see it, is there is no standard that I know of tells parsers what external CSS may be vital for functioning. Maybe we need standards of "safe" styling?

Saying all that and wanting to allow freedoms, the last thing I want my feed reader preventing me doing is reading because of some designers like for flashing objects and other heinous crimes. But then I'd probably just unsubscribe from those feeds…
I'm sure there are ways in which the best of both worlds can be accomodated. Seems to me counter-productive to just just say flatly that; no CSS shouldn't be in feed content.

As an aside, there's been an interesting discusson at Clinton DeWitt's blog thats worth reading in regards to RSS and ATOM placing interesting items in feeds.

Like Aralgon, I've had nothing but problems trying to subscribe to the Live Clipboard mailing list. Finally I can! You can too. Thanks dude.

Subscribe Here