A Publish2 network
Tools for News, one week in
A week ago, I opened up Tools for News, my Django-powered database of software and web applications journalists* can use to make our lives easier and do our jobs better.
The site is pretty simple (and if I can make it more so, I will): Browse through the categories and look for what you're trying to do. Find what you need. Go use it. If you get stuck on the site looking for something and can't find it, I did something wrong (message me through the site if that happens).
Logging in lets you add tools, add links to existing tools and bookmark tools so you can find them later. Registration is quick, I promise. All the site asks is a username and a password (twice) and a simple email confirmation (to keep out spambots).
A couple things to try:
Feeds
Feeds are getting more granular by the day. Here's what you'll find there now:
*Nothing in the word journalist should imply a limit based on who gets paid to do this. More on that thought here
As I said, I want to keep the site simple. It's about tools, and it will stay that way. That said, a few features are in the works that will, hopefully, make it easier to find and share tools.
Public bookmarks
At the moment, only you can see your bookmarks. I'm not really sure why I did that. I'll also make an RSS feed for user bookmarks. This would give you a way to cross-post bookmarks to Twitter or Facebook through their feed APIs.
Profiles
Because I want to know who you people are. Or not. This will probably be more about settings for how your profile page is arranged than when your birthday is.
What kind of info would you want in a profile?
OpenID, Facebook Connect, or some other alternate auth
For now, I think the registration process is simple enough, but maybe it isn't. Ryan is asking for some other way to log in, and I'm pretty stoked on the idea of moving data freely between Facebook and Tools for News, especially after seeing what the Crunchberry Project did with Newsmixer.
That said, it's a step up technically from what I've done with Django so far, so it's getting pushed back until all the easy stuff is done.
OpenID is somewhat less likely, if only because I find it confusing and more time consuming on most sites where it's used than a simple email confirmation. Wish that weren't the case, and maybe I'm just slow, but so it goes.
Voting/Rating
Django has a great voting module already built, so this would be easy enough to implement. I'm holding off, for the moment, because I want to make sure any kind of rating is meaningful.
When I look for a tool--let's say I want to map something--finding the best tool doesn't mean finding the most popular; I need the one that meets my specific needs. That's hard to express in any kind of rating system.
Thoughts on how to do this better are, of course, welcome.
Twitter, Delicious integration
It's in the works. For now, I may just add a ShareThis widget. If I get an RSS feed working for bookmarks, that will make sharing easier for everybody. I have no intention of letting Tools for News become a walled garden.
Check out the site. Read my blog post on Tools for News. Read the About page and Colophon. You can also read my notes on the site on my project tracker.
The site is pretty simple (and if I can make it more so, I will): Browse through the categories and look for what you're trying to do. Find what you need. Go use it. If you get stuck on the site looking for something and can't find it, I did something wrong (message me through the site if that happens).
Logging in lets you add tools, add links to existing tools and bookmark tools so you can find them later. Registration is quick, I promise. All the site asks is a username and a password (twice) and a simple email confirmation (to keep out spambots).
A couple things to try:
- Add a tool: If you've been using something for a while, but it's not in the database, put it in. Do it so you can find it later. It'll be listed on your Contributor page.
- Add a link: Links come in four flavors at the moment--tutorials, examples, unusual uses and resources. There's also a feed of the latest links (specific link type feeds are coming).
- Bookmark a tool: This is a one-click save (assuming you're logged in). It'll show up on your page.
- Comment on a tool: Tell us how you use Yahoo Pipes or Flickr or xPDF
Feeds
Feeds are getting more granular by the day. Here's what you'll find there now:
*Nothing in the word journalist should imply a limit based on who gets paid to do this. More on that thought here
Down the road
As I said, I want to keep the site simple. It's about tools, and it will stay that way. That said, a few features are in the works that will, hopefully, make it easier to find and share tools.
Public bookmarks
At the moment, only you can see your bookmarks. I'm not really sure why I did that. I'll also make an RSS feed for user bookmarks. This would give you a way to cross-post bookmarks to Twitter or Facebook through their feed APIs.
Profiles
Because I want to know who you people are. Or not. This will probably be more about settings for how your profile page is arranged than when your birthday is.
What kind of info would you want in a profile?
Maybe features
OpenID, Facebook Connect, or some other alternate auth
For now, I think the registration process is simple enough, but maybe it isn't. Ryan is asking for some other way to log in, and I'm pretty stoked on the idea of moving data freely between Facebook and Tools for News, especially after seeing what the Crunchberry Project did with Newsmixer.
That said, it's a step up technically from what I've done with Django so far, so it's getting pushed back until all the easy stuff is done.
OpenID is somewhat less likely, if only because I find it confusing and more time consuming on most sites where it's used than a simple email confirmation. Wish that weren't the case, and maybe I'm just slow, but so it goes.
Voting/Rating
Django has a great voting module already built, so this would be easy enough to implement. I'm holding off, for the moment, because I want to make sure any kind of rating is meaningful.
When I look for a tool--let's say I want to map something--finding the best tool doesn't mean finding the most popular; I need the one that meets my specific needs. That's hard to express in any kind of rating system.
Thoughts on how to do this better are, of course, welcome.
Twitter, Delicious integration
It's in the works. For now, I may just add a ShareThis widget. If I get an RSS feed working for bookmarks, that will make sharing easier for everybody. I have no intention of letting Tools for News become a walled garden.
Want to know more?
Check out the site. Read my blog post on Tools for News. Read the About page and Colophon. You can also read my notes on the site on my project tracker.
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