Timeline of Life

Check out Rise of Life at National Geographic!!

We like in circles!

We all want something... As mentioned in pluggd.in, its the Circle-of-Life. A wants B, B wants C, C wants D, and you know... D wants A. Here is a good AD.

Elgg and WP-BuddyPress - Evolving the Social Networking space

Image by Andy Peatling via FlickrScheduled for release on Aug 18, Elgg v1.0 is set to create a stir in the world of social networking scripts. With an open-source strategy, it has won the laurels of many. It already has a well established community for the Classic Elgg v0.9, and hopes to expand its market with the new release. The v1.0 is advertised to be more flexible and robust in design, and allows developers to create custom social apps with ease.

The best feature of Elgg is the access controls that empower users to control who can see their data. Elgg is used by a few Universities and large organizations, and thus demonstrates its scalability.

However, here are a few things to have in mind before you embrace it for your new webapp.

• The community is not as large as that of Wordpress.
• There are no ready-made plugins yet for integrating thirdparty components with Elgg (Ex: Integrating a MediaWiki or BBpress). You may expect them in future.
• Its hard to find developers/freelancers for developing with Elgg
• There are not many themes available out on the web.

Well... A good alternative to Elgg is BuddyPress, a project backed by Wordpress. BuddyPress is a set of WordPress MU specific plugins, each plugin adding a new distinct social feature. The idea of BuddyPress is to take a standard vanilla installation of WordPress MU and turn it into something that represents more of a community building tool, or niche social network. The new theme developed by Andy is awesome. See it for yourself on the sandbox.

BuddyPress is still new and half baked right now. Wordpress has promised to complete the project by the end of this year. The lead-developer Andy Peatling has done a terrific job of adding the social layer over WP-MU edition. He is now employed by Automattic, the company who makes Wordpress.

BuddyPress or Elgg??? Hmmm...

• Wordpress has a larger community, easy to find freelancers to work on it, plenitude of themes and plugins, and has a huge community.
• Elgg v1.0 on the other hand has the best access controls for users, more flexible in design, and has been well-tested for over an year.
• Developing on Elgg may require more work and tech knowledge to integrate various third-party components, build a theme, and configure it.

Next week, I will get my hands on both of them and test the waters. So until then, I cannot choose one over another.

Related articles by Zemanta

• WordPress: The Social Network
• The 7 Weirdest and Wackiest Uses for WordPress
• Build Own Social Networking Site With Elgg Social Networking Platform Builder

Auto-blogging tools

I've been recently experimenting with a few auto-blogging plugins for Wordpress. Well... Its NOT for creating a splog, or earning those Adsense pennies. The intention was to compile well-written Sanskrit articles published across the web, and create a Digest. I decided to use Wordpress for greater flexibility and support. Following are the plugins I found that helped me create the auto-publishing Digest.

ReBlog
A reBlog facilitates the process of filtering and republishing relevant content from many RSS feeds. reBloggers subscribe to their favorite feeds, preview the content, and select their favorite posts. These posts are automatically published through their favorite blogging software.

Feed2Post
This allow the automatic creation of new post based on external feeds content

Wp-O-Matic
This makes autoblogging a snap by automatically creating posts from the RSS/Atom feeds you choose, which are organized into campaigns.

FeedWordPress
This is an Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress weblog software.

For tips on how to use wp-o-matic plugin, check out Blogging Empire. It has a few guidelines on how to use the plugin ethically, and provides a few resources that you can make use of.

Flash-Works with Wix

Today, I got the invite code for Wix.com, and was able to explore it in a few minutes. I was pleased with its powerful feature-set which is dead-simple to use... Now, there is no reason for most of us to learn Flash programming. Developers can use Adobe Flex for developing Flash applications, and use Wix.com to create super cool layouts on Flash. Below is my Siddhi-Labs layout that I created on Wix.com in 10 mins.

Click here for an enlarged version. FYI: The writings on the flash paper are actual hyperlinks.

Did you try these websites...

Here are some excellent websites that I came across in web2.0 blogs, and worth a review.
Fun: Animoto
Create a high quality jazzy video in a snap with your pics in place. The slideshow dances to your favorite tune, and best of all its free for short videos. I created one with a blend of my hobbies and passion along with my pics.



Utility: Keepm
Its an address book, and similar to Plaxo in functionality. It has a good interface and handy import features. Its a good one to better manage contacts.

Developer: WaveMaker
Ajax webapp developers should worry no more. Wavemaker makes our lives a lot easier with drag-n-drop interface to create Ajax websites. This is a good tool to develop web2.0 sites.

Develop & Consume: Clickpass
Excellent work by the clickpass guyz… I gave it a shot, and was surprised at how much easier it is to use OpenID with clickpass. I will soon use Clickpass developer-kit for one of my openID enabled site that I developed (Saywit.com). Read the full review on Techcrunch.

A jukebox for Indian music

Finally, a jukebox for Indian music is in the market. Its called Rhydhun, and is owned by the highly popular music site MusicIndiaOnline. I've been using it for the past week, and am very pleased with it. It has a huge collection of live streaming songs in decent quality.

I'm truly impressed with the clean ad-free user interface, and browser-like navigation. I'm sure they borrowed the code from Mozilla Firefox to program the browser functionality. It's currently in Beta and is free to use. However, I don't mind paying a premium for this service if I am asked to. Life seems more fun with it...

This comes as a huge blow to Ad dominant Raaga.com. Easily, I can see where Rhydhun is heading... In times to come, it may provide Itunes like functionality to buy individual songs online. Recently, Amazon announced to go international with its music store. Hope India is in its radar!

This Week's Link Love

Some great useful sites that I found this week... Some are fun, some intuitive and others are useful.

Web 2.0

1. Revision3 : Nice videos to watch from the comfort of your computer chair ;)
2. MicroPlace : Invest money, and end poverty
   
3. OpenID wins the support of Yahoo and Google. Hurray!

Lifehack

1. What’s Stopping You from Getting Started (and What to Do About It)
2. 10 Secrets of Success: Same old stuff, but good to be reminded.

Startup Tips

1. How to choose Mentors
2. The Launch of 5PM: Casestudy of a web startup
   
3. Collaboration between Startups: Mutually help each other succeed is the way to go!

India

1. The Zero Rupee Note: A new way to show your finger to the corrupted idiots in India
2. Provoked at Perth: Great victory for Indian cricket
   
3. Taare Zameen Par : An excellent movie that should be watched by parents
   

Online Tipping is now fun & useful

Here is an impressive alternate to those unattractive donate buttons on the web. ScratchBack is a new online tipping widget that allows a blogger or web-publisher to accept tips (fixed-donation) and publish links/images in return. This makes the tipping system both fun and useful. Check out the Techcrunch review.

To give it a try, I tipped ScratchBack today morning. As a tipper, I'm happy becoz my website gets listed on its Topspots widget as an acknowledgment of my contribution. The process is simple and easy as they use PayPal for transactions. I also signed up for the service, and placed a widget on one of my websites - SanskritVoice. Lets see how good the response is.

This is a simple concept that is well executed. Its timing could not get any better as it was launched just when bloggers are searching for an alternate to the Text-Link-Ads framework. By the way, Google will not penalize us for using the ScratchBack widget since all links are nofollow and javascript-generated.

I like the additional uses of this widget. It can be used as a Text-link advertising widget, paid shout-out box, or a fancy tip-jar. Well done Jim Kukral, and kudos to the ScratchBack team!

Explore them this weekend

Here is a collection of impressive websites that I came across in the last week. Hope you too will find them interesting...

1. Jiglu : It plugs into your site to automatically create intelligent tags and inner links for your web content.
   
2. GoodWidgets : Good looking Photo widgets for your blog / website.
3. BeFunky : Create funky stuff from your photos
4. MangoLanguages : Fun and easy way to learn a new language on their list.
5. Yuuguu: Instant & easy remote access and conferencing. I'm yet to explore it!
   

Some useful stuff for web developers and site admins:

• Speed Up Your Javascript Load Time
• Verifying an email address using only OpenID
  
• OpenID + (P)Avatar

You can now have a Social Network of your own

I'm greatly impressed by the effort of the 2 geeks in building the framework called "NoseRub". It is a de-centralized white-label social network that supports basic content types like media, links, micropublishing and text.

Each of us have a blog of our own, then why not have a social network of our own too... NoseRub is an effort to fill that space. This light-weight social network will display a lifestream of our online activity, track friends from various other networks, and make quick notes to the web.

You always have full control of your data & layout, as you can install NoseRub on your own server and have it connect to other servers out there. Check out this page for a walkthrough using screenshots. Btw, its free and open-source.

Are you wondering what de-centralized means...? Here is an explanation from its founder:

NoseRub is not only a social network aggregator, but claims to be decentralised. What does this mean? You can install NoseRub on your own server and let it connect with your friends NoseRub server, or with hosted NoseRub servers. A good similarity is wordpress. You can either host your blog at wordpress.com, or install the software from wordpress.org on your own server.

Example: I have an account on a NoseRub framework running on my server, and you may have yours on your server. I will still be able to add you as a friend and communicate seamlessly with your account.

I'm also impressed at how it makes use of FOAF micro-format to store information and communicate with other NoseRub servers. FOAF provides a RDF/XML format for downloading profile and relationship data, and is a project under the umbrella of Semantic Web. Great work by NoseRub folks!

Update: A similar approach taken by SixApart is worth watching out for. They just announced the upcoming launch of "open social graph". Also checkout this huge news on Google's Open API plans.

Scalable Architecture

I came across the blog 'High Scalability' that deals with the underlying Software Architecture of several webapps and enterprise applications. This will sure help developers like us in building a scalable product.

Check out these links

• Flickr Architecture
• Mailinator Architecture
• Wikimedia architecture
• How many machines do you need to run your site?
• What does the next generation data center look like?
• TypePad Architecture
• What tech is used to build your favorite site?
• PlentyOfFish Architecture
• Digg Architecture

Social Networks for Entrepreneurs

Below is a short compiled list of social networks that are popular among techies and tech-entrepreneurs.


Saywit is a social webapp to share our ingenuity, creative thinking, and out-of-box solutions. It aims to bring out our creative intelligence naturally through participation! It has an ALGORITHMS channel that might interest many software programmers & developers.

Vator.tv is a catalyst for innovation. It is a professional network and marketplace for ideas and businesses. Anyone, across all industries, at any stage, can share ideas, products, services and businesses with the rest of the world, mainly through video.

People use Vator.tv to pitch their ideas, businesses, skillsets or needs, such as capital, partner or staffing requirements. Hence, the tagline, "What's your pitch?" Through these pitches, people on Vator.tv can network, exchange knowledge and collaborate with other people who can help those ideas get to the next level.

TechTribe is India’s career network. It’s a place where professionals connect to advance their careers. Developing a career requires professionals to network with people – for Jobs, Advice, Knowledge, and Relationships. techTribe is a platform that enables professionals in India to do that.

The offerings include frontFoot, a referral recruiting service which enables professionals to refer their friends to great jobs at market leading companies; and Answers, an advice forum which enables professionals to seek advice from their peers, and to offer advice as experts.

Cofoundr is a private community for entrepreneurs -- programmers, designers, investors, and other individuals deeply involved with starting new ventures. Members use the site to find co-founders, build teams, and get advice.

BizToo is an online community that lets you meet new business contacts. It's also an online business marketplace and social business networking site where you can ask
and get business advice form global entrepreneurs.

Ecademy is a Social Network for Business People founded in 1998 now with over 150,000 member profiles worldwide. It is unique as business people connect both online on the web site and offline at events and 1-2-1 meetings. Ecademy includes both a free basic membership and a paid premier membership.

Ryze helps people make connections and grow their networks. You can network to grow your business, build your career and life, find a job and make sales. Or just keep in touch with friends.

Members get a free networking-oriented home page and can send messages to other members. They can also join special Networks related to their industry, interests or location. More than 1,000 organizations host Networks on Ryze to help their members interact with each other and grow their organizations.

LinkedIn is a place to find and leverage professional opportunities, now and throughout your career. There are already 13 million professionals in the LinkedIn Network and that number is growing fast. LinkedIn is an irreplaceable resource for building your professional relationships and achieving your goals. Locating connections is as easy as a simple lookup for employees listed under any businesses you worked for.

Doostang is an invite-only professional social network that started in 2005. It is an online career community that connects people through personal relationships and affiliations. The members of this site can share relevant career opportunities and interact with one another.

Other Notable ones for Business Networks include Xing and Spoke. In India, the social networks like Brijj and ApneCircle are getting popular among the professionals. The new comer EyeMany comes up with a slightly different approach by introducing video resumes, but still has a long way to go.

GTD works for me!

Ofcourse, I've been making TO-DO lists ever since I was a child. But not all lists are in one place. My ToDo list usually contains discrete items placed out of context, and poorly organized. The much hyped concept of GTD (Getting Things Done) is actually working well for me. Just out of curiosity, I was exploring the various GTD tools on the net... and soon I fell in love with the concept.

Its dead simple and to my surprise, it proved effective. GTD is just a minor tweak to the way we write ToDo lists. In this, a context, project, and an optional timeline can be associated with the tasks. This way, we can brain-dump all our tasks and focus on executing them.

Here are a few resources I found useful...
Massive GTD Resource List, 50 Essential GTD Resources.

I found the following tools impressive...
Offline: Next Action; Online: Tracks (Hosted), SimpleGTD

Web2.0 for traditional Web companies

I came across this slide-show at Wat-Consult, and wanted to share with you all. The content is well aggregated and presented to the reader. I especially liked the classification of web2.0 apps, that you can find in the initial few slides.

Me too Micro-Blogging!

Yesterday, I started using micro-blogging & nano-blogging! Oh... I just mean Tumblr and Pownce. Very soon, I fell in love with the simplicity of Tumblelogs. They are too cool, easy and addictive! Check out my shoutings at My Tumblr. Pownce is pretty good too. It makes more sense than the Twitter service. Catch me powncing here...

Relevant pics from Flickr



Related News
Micro-blogging on the rise - CTV.ca
How the LAFD Keeps Us Connected: An Interview with Brian Humphrey - LAist
Personalizing the Internet - Richmond Times Dispatch

Nice revolutionary services! Long live Web2.0

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Sprouting of creepy web2.0 apps

Recently, I came across a web2.0 site titled 'My Biggest Complaint', and I said to myself 'What a creepy idea!'. The word 'Complaining' itself has a negative connotation attached, and creating a platform for a group of people to share their complaints is even worse. Guessing who would be the target audience for this site is pretty obvious... all whining unhappy losers.

The creator could have given a positive spin to his site by encouraging people to brainstorm ideas to overcome their complaints. Solutions are what we need!

Yahoo Login Relief

I'm pleased with Yahoo's short-term memory of our login info. Earlier, it had no memory what so ever... requiring me to sign-in every time I want to check mail. Now, it can remember my password for 2 weeks on my system, making my life easier. I probably will check my Yahoo mail more often than before. To me, it was a much-awaited feature since long... better late than never!

Top 150 All-Time i-Technology Heroes

Wana hear some Techie Geeky Professional Podcasts? ? ? On Digg, I came across a site that lists the Top 150 All-Time i-Technology Heroes according to SYS-CON's globe-girdling network. Some of those names are hyperlinked to their brief biographies added in time. Browsing a little more, I found a nice compilation by Niels Mäkel... a collection of podcasts that highlight some of the interviews and presentations. Nice to listen to the views of the I.T legends!

Here are some podcast sites that serve a similar purpose. Go ahead, and hear the legends speak.
IT Conversations
Open Source Conversations
Podcast Academy

Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines

Web-Search~ A Multi-Billion dollar idea I'm sure you've heard of Google's earning of $3.21 billion for the fourth quarter. Two days ago, I received an email stating that my mashup search-site (FundooWeb) has been selected to be one of the Top 25 Web.2.0 Search Engines listed by OEDb (Online Education Database). I'm honored, and feel privileged to get my search-mashup counted upon. Not surprisingly, this site got into Digg's front page, and currently stands at 850 diggs.

I should honestly say... its a thoughtfully composed list of web2.0 search tools that we may not be aware of. Hmmm! I know whats crossing your mind... Why bother when we have Google. Am I right? Trust me! Its lot more fun using these cool search tools than the plain interface of Google. Give each of them a try, and have fun. However, Google is definitely the answer for some serious search, but no fun.

Once again, my sincere thanks to the selectors and editors of the article for counting upon FundooWeb.