The Next Generation of Blogging

Taking advantage of our recent hiatus from blogging, we have had occasion to review what we were putting into our blog, and what our readers were getting out of it. We came to the conclusion that it may be time for a major revision in the look and feel of the Dowbrigade News.

Way back in 2003, when we got this whole blogging thing off the ground, we attended a series of sessions with the Blogfather himself, Dave Winer, at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, in which we discussed the future of blogging, and what we would ask for in a blogging tool, if Santa Claus were a genius programmer with unlimited resources.

Unfortunately, almost none of the functionality envisioned in the ensuing discussion is available in the mainstream blogging products on the market now, almost four years later, belying the conventional wisdom that an unrestrained market inevitably delivers what customers want, with the spoils going to whoever delivers first. Unlimited layout plasticity, visitor defined visual organization, dynamic embedded fields, live chat, content sharing between platforms and blogging tools, elegant incorporation of RSS and OPML, drag and drop uploading, one-click content sharing and numerous other ideas remain beyond the pale, although most are available in not-ready-for-prime-time betas or geeky niche products.

But hey, that can’t stop us from dreaming. Since almost the beginning we have been enamored with the idea of a blog that resembles a squared-circle crystal ball. The links and controls would be cleverly incorporated into the base of the globe. The really cool feature would be that when a visitor clicks on a story, category or function of the blog, the desired information would form in a few seconds from whispy smoke in the bulb of the ball. Once formed it would be the same as any blog-text, with links, photos and scrollability, but every change of content or story would cause the crystal to quickly fill again with swirling smoke before resolving into the desired new configuration. A slick commentary on the impermanence and ethereal nature of the Blogosphere, no? And all done up with virtual smoke and mirrors.

Of course, as an old-fashioned analog guy who can’t program his Blackberry, the Dowbrigade is going to need plenty of help to make this happen. Any teenaged uber-geeks out there looking for a design challenge? We can promise fame, if not fortune, to any takers.

Meanwhile, we are working on a detailed follow-up posting about the new functionality we would like to incorporate into the New Edition Dowbrigade. We are thinking along the lines of a screen completely composed of size-adjustable color-coded fields (think, building blocks) which can be individually and easily programmed to display any imaginable content, including postings, slide shows, windows into other’s OPML taxonomies, commercial content like weather and TV, mail and messages, inline WIKI windows, dynamic and automatically updated search nets, easily accessed and cross-indexed archives, or anything else available on the net.

The layout, resizing and content assignment for each adjustable field must be so simple and easy a second grader could do it during a commercial break in Sponge Bob Squarepants. Look for a detailed description of this "building block" model of blog creation in an upcoming posting. Coming soon to a Crystal Ball near you……