A way to make Twitter better
I *almost* love Twitter. I use it sporadically to either fill a bit of time or to buoy a moment of low brain activity. It has never taken a consistent place in my day. I just figured out why.
The Problem
Twitter is great for following colleagues and professionals who use it to disseminate interesting articles, resources, facts, etc... It is also great for keeping up with some details of friends lives. It can be frustrating, however, when you log in and find dozens of posts about the personal side of your professional contacts. It gums up the works and causes interesting tweets to drop well below the fold (or several ajax folds).
A Solution
Add a personal / professional switch for each tweet. This tweet is personal... this one is professional. On the reader's side, we have the simple ability to filter our stream. "I just want to see the professional tweets." *Click*
The draw of Twitter is simplicity, so I'm trying to add as little extra complication as I can imagine. Some people may never use it and many will probably chronically mis-tag their tweets, another good hearted tech eccentricity to quip about in podcasts and on blogs.
Taking this a step farther. Twitter could completely voluntarily add the ability to tag tweets with any sort of boolean, or even category-type tags. I know this breaks their wall of 'everything in the tweet' and that the # tag is their gift to the universe for this sort of thing. These solutions, however, would allow those tweeters who want to use it to create more in-depth semantics in their tweets, which would allow those readers who want to sift through the noise the ability to do so.
[Update: Twitter is moving in this direction with Annotations:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_twitter_annotations_mean.php -http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Annotations-Overview. The only question is how these will be integrated into the popular UIs to drive behavior. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.]
Ethics and action in an open community
The community of open software and design is an amazing thing. I am frequently awed by it. It makes my way of life possible. I find a beauty in engaging it and a special kind of joy in giving back to it.
The thing that's striking me at the moment is that it is an example of an economic system that works. It is a model where everyone involved can get more than they can give. No, this doesn't violate the precepts of thermodynamics. This is a case where the product created by one person or group can be distributed to thousands or millions with no fee for mutual benefit. (There is an economic thesis here, but that is for another day.)
At face value, it looks like the community is 99% pirates and trolls and 1% geniuses. Actually, the ratio is even more extreme, when you do the math of software uploads, updates, etc... vs downloads. I, personally, have downloaded far more then I've ever given back. This is not for lack of trying, however. I've been active in forums, tried briefly at participating in developer communities and even tried to launch my own open source project.
Sometimes I feel like a draw on the system. Then I come across another resource that shows how the entire model only exists because of people like myself. Today, that site was this:
http://www.mac-developer-network.com/category/columns/artoftheproduct/
Going Open Source 1: Coding Style
This is the first article in 'So you want to go Open Source', a journal of my process as I work toward releasing a company project that has been in development for a very long time as open source. This article covers my first passes through the code base.
I have already taken my most advanced implementation of the code base, set it up in a shiny new dev area and stripped all traces of the former project. I'm left with a fully functional engine with no polish that basically purrs great but does very little - isn't attached to any gears, drive trains or tires... etc. My temptation is to start implementing the meta-code that will give the project shape, but that would be getting ahead of myself.
Before shaping the logic and design of the app, I ought to do a full audit of every line of code. In my fist pass through the code, I am focusing on two things:
- Cleaning up, stylizing and commenting the code and
- Creating an itemized list of all elements of the project that will have to be dynamicized and genericized
Style, style, style...
My approach to style focuses on clarity and accessibility with a bit of dry sarcastic wit. I will be using php documentor so I'll largely taking my inspiration from their style guide. I also recommend reading the pear guides, and articles and guides for other open source projects just to round out the ideas.
Framework?
I'm basing my software on a simplified MVC, so won't have to package any other framework or incorporate bridge notes on how issues may arrise.
Comments!
I'm finding that the process of commenting is the most helpful aspect of this exercise. By forcing myself to explain each segment of code, I am rigorously exposing potential inefficiencies, insecurities and even some contextual errors. I am also developing my master ToDo list concurrently as a place to organize the tasks. I recommend Basecamp for ToDoing.
This process will take me a while, as I have to fit it in amongst other responsibilities. Stay tuned for part 2.
NIH (Not Invented Here syndrome)
In some recent research into forming an Open Source initiative, I came across 'Not Invented Here syndrome' . This was one of those cases where it turns out that there's a widely adopted idea encapsulating a thought process and pit-of-the-stomach feeling that I'd been having for years. It was a nice 'yes! I"m not alone,' moment to be sure.
I do recognize that NIH can be a problem, but incorrect diagnosis can be dangerous as well. If you or someone you love develops a self-conscious problem and needs some reassurance that building in-house is ok, I recommend reading this article by Joel before any further self-scrutiny. (I also recomend regularly reading other stuff from Joel and participating in the business of software discussions that he kindly hosts.)
When engaging a new project, we've almost always brazenly struck forth into the fray crafting and chasing our vision for what the project could be. In the end this has lead to some truly interesting and original sites that have wowed our clients but also a number of projects running over budget (the excess of which we absorbed almost without fail.) There's little doubt that we could have delivered a number of our projects more efficiently if we had relied more heavily on more of the open source (and other) options out there. On not a few occasions, well into extended development cycles, we've realized that we're probably reinventing enough wheels to build a tractor trailer truck. It's hard to objectively quantify at this point how these minuses have balanced out with the benefits of crafting a vision from the ground up, where the only compromise is your own skill and energy. Sometimes I've suffered it. Other times I've benefited from it. I'll abstain from any overarching self-conscious values based reflections that I may or may not have.
Who over what
Ever since I began strapping myself in for the 10-18 hour days in front of the glowing screens I've traveled widely over the internets. What a strange and wonderous place it is indeed. I've found a lot of things that run the gambit from vauable professionally through personally interesting and deep into blissfully escapist. Recently, however, it hasn't been so much the things I've been finding but the people I've been finding that have peaked my interest and inspired me to push through the more difficult professional situations and even provided some uni-directional compatriatism in a very interesting kind of way.*
As with all internet trends, I don't think I'm alone. I'm feeling this shift due to a mass of interview style podcasts and video shorts that are cropping up everywhere. So if you've seen the fringes of the podcasting and video interview segment world out there and like it, pull the thread. All these people are tight with each other; spend any time with one and you'll find connections to a dozen others. Many are extremely talented, honest and open people who genuinely put themselves through these mediums.
Here's a very short list of personality centered pod/video casts that I've been moving through.
- http://www.myextralife.com/appslappy/ - very light and entertaining podcast "for iphone, ipod touch and Apple app store addicts" founded by Scott Johnson who has a built quite a domain of cartoons and nerdy movie/game/culture podcasts at http://www.myextralife.com.
- http://www.havocinspired.co.uk/category/please-start-from-the-beginning/ - a series of interviews in which freelance-ish web/design people are encouraged to start from the beginning and talk about their careers.
- http://twit.tv/ - I don't know where to begin with this one. Leo Laporte has produced a staggering amount of content and built a whole network around himself. I have mixed feelings; while I have enjoyed some of the shows, I find Leo himself to be a little too much of a personality and not enough of a person. This judgment is probably due to some kind of mishandled envy of his success on my part... (EDIT: I have since listened to a few more of his podcasts with and determined that, yes, it is just my own insecurities. Leo Laport is an excellent host, striking the balance of candid and professional). but there is a lot there to explore and subscribe to.
- aaand then there's http://davidpogue.com/. What a screwball. I enjoy catching up with his videos every three months or so.
I'd love to hear who you listen to in the comments.
* - An example of the real engagement: just this last weekend one of the commentators that I listen to was hired by his dream company, a move that will require him to go off the air. This moved me to write a contratulations email that was as heart-felt as any that I've sent to people who I know and, well, know who I am.
Contest anyone?
I have been talking with the creator of http://www.advertology.com about the possibility of starting up a mini web development competition. Here are the rules I've come up with so far. I'd like air out these ideas to let some of the stink out before throwing them down for the massive event. Please let me know if you'd be interested in entering such a competition or if you have any ideas/suggestions about it or if you'd like to play some frisbee anytime in the near future.
Rules
- The competition will run for a set amount of time. I say 4 months, but I may be off.
- Everyone will create a site containing the same subject matter to be decided via committee having:
- a decent amout of popularity (ie is being searched for) and
- some web commercial value (ie is associated with items that are selling on Amazon.)
- A maximum budget will be set, say $50, to be paid out of pocket or hustled from friend or family member
- Each contestant will hook up a google analytics account and share it with a centralized competition account so that everyone can see everyone's traffic, goals, etc...
Judging criteria
- Visitors, uniques, time on site, etc...
- Goal conversions
- Ad Revenue collected
- Commission profits, such as Amazon Affiliates revenue
Prize: deep fulfillment and lifelong well being.
David Heinemeier Hansson Flosses Weekly
There's a great interview with David Heinemeier Hansson @DHH, one of the founders of http://www.37signals.com and the guy behind http://www.rubyonrails.org, on FLOSS Weekly 79: http://twit.tv/floss79. He talks a lot about developing and releasing the rails open source initiative into the world and does a bit of rails evangelizing (deserved), reminiscing about 37signals and talk about his dev environment. Good stuff.