Programming

Can anyone advise me on a Twitter feed challenge? See the comic avatar of me in the upper right of this blog page? There’s a talk balloon, and I’d like to get my latest post from Twitter to show inside that balloon. (That is, the balloon is updated with new text whenever I post a new tweet.)

Anyone got any suggestions for pulling that off? Thanks!!

One of the most striking things about today’s media environment is the low barrier to entry for publishing and trying out new entrepreneurial ideas. Open-source publishing systems push the price for competing against big companies close to zero for the “little guys.” They often can add advanced, cutting-edge features to their blogs and websites for free or just a few bucks by using the latest widget or plug-in. The great irony is that those small players often add features before big media companies get around to it. Continued

Many large news companies use expensive content management and web publishing systems. And sometimes, being saddled with such systems is a detriment when it comes to adding new features in a timely manner. I know one major media company that doesn’t even support user comments on its articles, because its web publishing system is too ungainly to easily add it. (Its online editors are incredibly frustrated by this situation.)

Think about that! A major media company is hamstrung from doing stuff that any blogger can do using open-source platforms like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. Indeed, the blogging platforms (which is a misnomer, because these can be full-fledged content management systems; they’re not limited to producing blogs but are flexible enough to host a wide array of website types) are in some ways better than those corporate web publishing systems. Continued

A common criticism of news websites — especially ones run by small and medium sized newspaper companies and TV news outlets — is that they don’t invest enough in programming or web development talent. Perhaps their sites don’t look as professional, or are not as full featured as they could be because not enough resources are devoted to online operations. They’ve not adapted adequately to the new media environment where having enough geeks around is a requirement for long-term survival.

This won’t be for everyone, but there are several related web services that can get some of your development and design tasks done for reasonable, often very low rates. Using them is a way to extend the web development and design staff you have by off-loading some of their work. Continued