I just set up my new blog, garden.rodeworks.com, as the growingthoughts app on Facebook.  Making it an app allows some pretty cool features.  For instance users can install the app on their Facebook profile pages, comment on posts directly there, and invite others to add the app to their pages.  I don’t actually expect many people to do this with my little bit of content, but for a more commercial site what a great way to expand the draw of your content.  Write once and distribute to multiple outlets!

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Here is another session from WordCamp NYC.  The topic is WordPress-as-content management system, and the story of the transformation of the Harvard Gazette.  They took the paper’s static html site and transformed it to a WordPress powered site in just 3 months.  It is always interesting to see how adaptable WordPress is to fit various needs, and the Gazette implemention is very well done.  both video and audio versions of the session are presented below.  Watch for the discussion about their administrative interface — they have customized the edit-posts panel in a very nice way that divides the listing according to category.  Making it easier for editors to get right to their content.

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In a recent post and at a session at last weekend’s WordCamp NYC Jim Groom questions how much commercialization belongs in the WordPress community.  A post on the WPMU.ORG blog, holds that WordPress’ future is in premium, purchased plug-ins, a point Jim takes great exception to.  He points out that the strength and quality of WordPress is a direct result of the active, sharing community, and if increased commercialization displaced this shared ethos, then WordPress might well suffer.  And while I agree with Jim, I also wonder if this isn’t an inevitable phase in the growth of WordPress and other active open source projects.

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At WordCamp NYC 2009, Ramil Teodosio’s session on WP Intranets was just what I needed for an upcoming project.  In the session he walked us through a project management site he uses for software development in a group/team setting.  He uses categories in some really clever ways along with a couple of plug-ins to build a pretty powerful application.  In his words WordPress has become his “swiss army knife”, a flexible tool that can adapt to many different needs.

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The program is finished and posted for the WordPress University workshop, scheduled for Thursday April 8, 2010.  It is a really exciting program: Read the rest of this entry »

Flickr, the coolest on-line photo site there is, has always encouraged outside developers to build their own applications that utilize the massive Flickr public database.  I have had a Flickr account like forever, before Yahoo bought them — and have used some WordPress – Flickr plug-ins that utilized the API.  But the problem was you had to find the apps yourself, spread around on developers own web pages.  Well Flickr just launched a new page that provides an easy way to find apps.  I found a cool Facebook app that will display my latest Flickr uploads on my Facebook page — very handy.

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