There's a new feature this morning on Onaswarm -- you can make the page show only posts from a certain source. Just click on
link in the "Feeds" section of the "Connections" widget to the right (you'll probably have to scroll down).
From our developing website documentation. There'll probably be modifications to this before we officially go live but this
is in horseshoe/handgrenades distance.
Posting
easy-to-use Web 2.0 interface allowing continuous posting and editing
group blogs
networks; blog collections aggregating posts from all members
multiple-posters per blog
tagging, with tag memory
structured blogging; add the following types to posts (extendable):
ratings / reviews
links (for social bookmarking)
address information
contact information
Google maps
attachments; group photos into albums
easy inclusion of images and YouTube-style videos using wiki-like instructions
attach large binary objects to posts, such as podcasts and videocasts
workflow capabilities allow “blobs” to be transformed before presentation to the end user
Extensive e-mail integration
post by e-mail
subscribe by e-mail
participate in comment discussions via e-mail
distribute by e-mail
easy unsubscribe features, on a per-post, per-blog or per-installation basis
Comments
comments may be open, show-if-approved or no comments; settable on a per-blog basis
comments may allow structured data; settable on a per-installation basis
comments mailed to all participants of discussion; e-mail replies to blog comments are posted as
comments
Presentation
20 preset templates, visually selectable
full-text search
simple calendaring by month,
microformats (hCard, hCalendar, hAtom) used where appropriate
Internet/Intranet Integration
continuous important of syndication feeds (and attached data)
RSS feeds of each weblog, weblog comments, lifestream, network, group; each feed can be
parameterized by tag if necessary. RSS feeds import and use rich data, including geo, address and calendaring
extensions
XML/RPC MetaWeblogAPI interface
OPML interface to account information, including group, network and friend/colleague lists, and
also access to all posts on a per-year basis
XSPF playlists of podcasts
Administration
simple easy-to-use control panel
simple account switching interface, for cross-posting and administration
statistics, including file downloads, page views, number of RSS subscribers, top referrers and
recent referrers
This one was a close call, since we're like 98% of the way there. In the end though we've decided to get out the door with a
blogging centric platform and we'll fill in the blanks afterwards.
A new feature we're very pleased to be announcing (for the next release, obviously) is "lifestream". A lifestream provides a
compressed view of everything that you're doing. Here's a quick screenshot:
Note the following:
your lifestream consists of all your imported feeds, and in the future, events you've done on your blog (changing your
picture, adding information to your profile, etc.)
the icons on the left show you where the stream is coming from; we dynamically make this icon from the favicon, or if
it's a local user, we display their picture
clicking on the date brings you to the entry that's on your blog; clicking on the link will bring you to the original
post in it's original location (i.e. it will bring you to del.icio.us, twitter, or whatever)
I've just combined a number of randomly chosen feeds for this example; please excuse me if the Chinese characters say
something horribly rude!
there's a link in the sidebar to get to the lifestream
lifestreams work for networks (very useful) and groups (less so)
To make this all work, we've exposed an underlying feature -- "show this entry in the archives only". When this is selected,
items will not appear on the main page or in the RSS feeds. However, all archive pages, etc. will display the item. It's
a clever way of adding lots of data to your blog without cluttering up the main page.
A key and new feature of the BlogMatrix Platform is the ability to "switch user" -- basically, the ability to work with
different accounts while logging in only once. This function gives us:
"superuser" accounts that can edit anything
"group/bulletin board" accounts, that can be posted to be different users
group blogs, where you can grant other users (friends) the right to post on your blog (and possibly do
administration)
Here's a screenshot of switching users. You reach this popin window by clicking the new "su" button which you can see near
the top right (it appears on all administration pages).
Once you select a friend or group to switch to, you will be brought to the corresponding page on their account.
Note the following:
certain options are greyed out; this is because you haven't been granted permission to do these actions
your original user account is still listed
if you create a new post, it will be posted as your original (login) name, not the name of the account you
switched to.
if you select the Finished button (not shown anywhere here), you'll be switched back to your original account
if you select any option from the "My Account" menu, you'll be switch back to your original account (we may change our
mind on this one depending on usabilty testing)
you can always switch back using the popin window.
In case you haven't noticed, BlogMatrix has a template system so if you don't like the "System" look and feel, you can easily install your own from the admin page. What's our template language? Simple: we use Blogger's "classic" templates. You can see the manual for these here. If you're migrating from a blogger account (or just have one) you can grab it from over there and install here.
Important: we don't work with new template language. If the file begins with '<?xml', it's no good to us (yet).
Hint: we're working on extending the Blogger template model to be more flexible for our needs. One good trick is this...
<Blogger n="50">
... which increases the number of entries shown from the default 20 to 50 (or whatever)
We'll probably be removing some functionality from the templates in the near future too. In particular, we're definitely removing "views" and we may be removing the ability to use the System 'frame' with your own template.
You'll notice now that the information bar above any post will display your name (set in Edit Account Profile). If you don't see it, it will start appearing after your next post!
Video inclusion allows you to easily embed a YouTube or Google Video video in your blog post. It's simple, just add text that looks like this to your blog post:
We'll be making it a lot easier tomorrow to add images to your blog posts tomorrow. Just select the "Add Attachments" link (to the right) and upload your image. Automatically, a link that looks like this will be added to your blog post:
[[image=MyRecordings.png]]
Keep it where it is or move it to where the image is and that's where the image will show up. If you use image=http://..., that particular image will be included on the page. Otherwise, it will assume the image is an uploaded attachment and try to use that.
If you have an existing weblog on Blogger/Blogspot or MovableType/Typepad, you can now can easily import the entire blog. Just go the admin page and on the lower left you'll see "Import from Blogspot" and "Import from Blogger". Just click on the link and follow the instructions.
Six Apart expects Movable Type Enterprise to offer an attractive way for companies to improve internal communications and knowledge sharing. Its low cost means the offering could replace other software tools designed to deliver similar collaboration and content-management benefits, Six Apart said.
At the low end, a license costs $4,000 with the option of an additional $2,000 yearly fee for customer support. The support fee includes product updates and a two-hour response time to questions.
The Six Apart press release lists features, of which I'll highlight the more interesting:
LDAP authentication
Oracle 10g database support
Cross-blog publishing and aggregation tools
Powerful anti-spam protection with solid feedback management tools
Customizable email integration
The Infoworld article mentions a few other competitors in this space: iUpload and Near-Time Inc.
The next version of the website software will “ping” a number a number of web directories to help get your podcasts listed. The sites we are pinging are (provisionally):
Anything and everything about the semantic web, microformats and structured blogging. We're building this site live, so expect more than occasional flakiness.
