thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

Helping clients plan to get the best out of their WordPress sites is something that I really enjoy.

Having a theme library loaded and switching between them for instant changes to “the look and feel” is a fun moment in the discovery planning process.

For non – WordPress users a Theme is effectively a website design “skin” that overlays the content. It works by providing a filtered view of the text (XML) content.

For more technical users we are talking about combination of stylesheet (CSS) and some core function code (pages, posts, comments) which is written in PHP.

At the visual level this is fairly easy. For example if the client has an existing site structure we would look to match the colours, and general look and feel with a similar theme that has 1 , 2 or 3 columns. We may be also looking for menu layouts, header functions, plus sidebar and footer configurations.

Part of this is to understand the branding context and also if there is an existing format whether that should be kept if if there is a more optimal layout.

What we would then do is match fonts, include branded headers and other brand ID assets on a theme that was as close as possible but sometimes it can be quicker to build a new theme that to find one that matches up.

Way back in ’97 there was programme called Net Objects which did something similar in packaging various components together with a set of styles and saved all of the information into an object called a NOD probably some kind of early XML file.

The great thing about that programme was the user interface for applying “styles” really simplified the menu and navigation processes by including all the image icons and button type files along with it.  I used that for many years for fast prototyping of sites and to replace PowerPoint for presentations as it was faster and easier.

Fast forward 9 years to 2006 – WordPress was coming of age with newer more visual releases although from memory I think that Joomla had a bigger range of theme like styles at the time.

But by late 2006 when I started this blog there were some great themes around for WordPress and having used lots of content management systems before I was ready to try something a bit more open ended.

Where to Search for WordPress Themes?

The best place to start is WordPress.org theme library. This is because the 800+ themes there have been sorted into some kind of taxonomy and at least partly vetted by WordPress developers and enthusiasts. This is important for two reasons.

1. Some themes have hidden code in them which might be advertising or worse. See the theme authors guidelines which aims to prevent  “hidden, paid or sponsored links in the theme. Links back to the author’s site are fine.”
2. More importantly this library provides a structure for searching where you can filter searches by types such as fixed or variable width, number of columns, main colour, features and subject which are called theme tags.

This generally provides a  range of visual templates and ideas for a wider search in other theme libraries.

In the past the searches haven’t been very precise possibly because some of these tag and taxonomy rules haven’t been fully applied and because some theme authors game the system by loading up on the equivalent of all possible keywords.

Frameworks and Coding Considerations

Having worked with dozens of themes now it is clear that under the skin many of them can be traced back to earlier building block models or frameworks.

Every install of WordPress comes with a default theme sometimes called Kubrick and that one along with K2 and others. More recent core themes are Carrington, Thematic and Sandbox.

Thematic  describes its Theme as

“a free, open-source, highly extensible, search-engine optimized WordPress Theme Framework featuring 13 widget-ready areas, grid-based layout samples, styling for popular plugins, and a whole community behind it.”

Another excellent theme  is Thesis. One of the first serious themes that I learned from was Chris Peasons Cutline series.

As Chris puts it- here are 5 more reasons to look deeper into the code and overall framework of each theme to save hassle later on.

“As a serial site developer and blogger, I’ve found that the most valuable tool one can have is a refined template system that solves fundamental development, design, and publishing problems, including:

1. SEO and careful attention to in-site link equity
2. an “em” -based approach to element sizing (pixels are nice, but “ems” are by far the most accessible – and therefore the best – choice)
3. polished typography with finely-tuned geometrics for maximum legibility
4. an aesthetically pleasing layout that favors usability and clarity over extravagant presentation
5. forward-compatibility (I like to call it futureproofing)”

Put more simply – picking a great theme now which has “good bones”and optimal features can save a lot of time later on. Some themes come paired with a series of plugins for say featured content and a number of themes come as a kind of half-way house with extensive theme options for those not so comfortable with stylesheets.

Theme options allow user to make changes to a style at a higher level by ticking an options or using other present menu re-combinations to make changes without needing to ever see the CSS code.

An example of this approach would be something like the Atahualpa which come with something like 300 “theme options” and personally a style sheet looks easy after that.

It is described as follows and the links below are tags that can be used for searching.

“Version 3.4 – Atahualpa is a WordPress/PHP/CSS Framework that lets you build your own unique, professional and browser-safe WordPress theme: 1-5 columns, fluid or fixed width, rotating header images and over 200 theme options. Tutorials, downloads and support at the BFA WP Forum

Tags: threaded-comments, theme-options, custom-header, custom-colors, flexible-width, white, sticky-post, translation-ready ”

StudioPress Themes offer another approach where a set of plugins have been pre bundled with a theme and page templates are somewhere closer to a magazine style format.

Magazine syle themes generally have a larger number of columns like a newspaper and would tend to have a category menu as well as featured content sections and even special video or audio panels.

In summary most clients start out looking for a particular look and feel but there are other more practical considerations which could benefit them by saving time and money if the selection criteria is deepened.

As a WordPress practitioner I would steer clients towards some of the other functional considerations like “does it play nice with key plugins ?” and is the structure fully transparent and robust for scaling up and working with other applications which will be the next frontier.

There are other considerations but perhaps you can write in with your comments and questions on what you think are most important when choosing a great WordPress Theme.

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I was on Twitter a couple of years ago and terminated my account after a few days as there was no one the network. I should have kept my account but who could have foreseen what has happened.

Twitter has had a huge rise in popularity in the past 6 months as celebrities and wannabes flock to jump on the bandwagon.

Despite the usual reservations that go with engaging in another layer of communications it is worthwhile setting up a twitter account to keep an eye on some of the players in your patch.

In a business context having access to a partially qualified SMS style list of “followers” which are like subscribers certainly has some attractions.

I’m told by some Vodafone customers that twittering via their phones is possible / I thought that was an SMS function but might be a different way.

I use Twitterrific which is a mini application on an iTouch and that keeps it all away from the desktop.

From my experiences the real time aspect works best when there is instant feedback on an idea or a question. There is always crossover between business and personal and many of the best tweeters can mix both.

Especially after work hours it becomes more of a social water cooler and can be an instant alert if for example something is on teev that is amusing or there are some good guests on Jon Stewart for example.

Updates or “tweets” that I hate the most are ones which are “something interesting here go to the link. ” Yeah right you’re off my list buddy.

Originally there was a reciprocity concept – if someone follows you you follow them back but now there are so many time wasters on the system that it is better not to “follow” them.

Note: If you don’t follow someone you won’t see their updates.

Because of the 140 character limit it is mostly impossible to know what that link is and also it it way better if the tweet offers some instant information such as “a status” which is what it was designed for.

One person who has written two very useful summaries on the topic is Lance Wiggs so here they are:

How NOT to Twitter if you are a corporation
(VodafoneNZ account got hijacked by an idiot for a project)
and
How to twitter if you are a corporation
Lance is on the money with both posts but check the comments also as this is a fast moving river.

How to take advantage of Twitter

The real power of Twitter is the 1-1 interactions, and yet there are only so many people that sit in corporate relations units. Moreover their job should not be to look after every tech nerd’s customer complaint, nor to understand every bizarre happening on the internet”

Some NZ related tweets you may want to check out are

@lawgeeknz / Rick Shera

@TeamXero / Team Xero

@VodafoneNZ Vodafone – could be safe again if Paul Brislen has that account back but see How not to link first.

@lancewiggs / Lance Wiggs

@bernardchickey Finance – Interest rates

@gnat / Nat Torkington – conference maestro

@dialogCRM Jason Kemp which is me by way of comparison. As a media watcher my tweets are fairly random and wide ranging whereas most of the others on this list are more business focussed.

Many people operate corporate and private twitter accounts. Best to read the Lance Wiggs posts and comments to find out if that works.

Thanks for comments by Piero – check his stream out below.

@piero_ / Piero – strategic planner http://www.thewhispershop.co.nz/

A few weeks back I noticed a review on Techcrunch about OpenTable. That company IPO’d last week raising $70m to fund their growth.

“On OpenTable you can search for immediate openings in a given neighborhood. Most online reservations sites have an hour cut off because the systems have to sync together. But OpenTable is the restaurant’s system.

It’s the first time I’ve seen OpenTable actually do something for me as a diner that I couldn’t have done any other way, and the new location-aware iPhone app makes that functionality all the more powerful.”

The idea of being able to have commercial messaging to customers passing nearby has always had huge business appeal.   If my memory is correct it was part of the sizzle around WAP phones in the rush to buy frequencies that never really amounted to much back in 2000.

Not for the first time – technologists had over promised. Still much to the surprise of Telcos SMS messaging really took off since the costs were low enough to encourage all kinds of new uses and since data and voice charges were still too high for most of us.

There is a very good idea that businesses which are set-up to solve a problem often do much better than ones that work around the edges.

I’ve heard this described as the “better to have a pain killer than a bottle of vitamins” approach. (Hat tip to John O’Hara)

Point being the product need/result is instantly understood by a far greater market  size and that makes converting marketing activity to sales results a dream.

So a very good place to start with understanding or creating a new business is to examine the business model. Does it solve an easily identified need or need problem and who would the natural customers be? leading on to how do we get to those people and all the usual marketing and operation delivery challenges.

Open Table offers a service that is not readily available outside US, Canada, Mexico or UK at present but see here for a list which shows a small number in other countries and both China and France are listed so they have licensees but no live sites yet.

So what are the benefits?

• Save time with automated reservations
• Improve service with a powerful guest database
• Maximize efficiency with table management tool
• Attract repeat business with email marketing
• Join the network that seats 2 million diners monthly
• Gain exposure from more than 75 partners

Most of these benefits come from joining a network and the amplification and network benefits of timely information flow on that circuit.

Even though New Zealand is not one of the international territories using OpenTable restaurant booking software it is is only a matter of time before some one here wakes up and sees the opportunity.

I’d guess that there a a large number of restaurants in New Zealand who don’t have any real software based booking system. This is a compelling reason to get one very quickly.

In essence pushing bookings data from other systems out to the web should be that difficult and many restaurant application vendors should be able to do this but the real genius is to push to mobile phones

If you have an iPhone or iTouch you can at least download the free application onto your device and have a look at how it all works.

I did this myself a few days ago and checked out some tables in Anchorage Alaska. I was very impressed until I got to the menu section and realised I couldn’t “pop” that  page out to my Safari browser on the iTouch.

The reason for viewing in a web browser is to view in landscape mode and enlarge text so it can be read. Twitterific does this kind of thing very well.

On the other hand – if I knew the restaurants and was really a local I would be less interested in the menu than can I get a booking which is the primary service being offered.

Net result  - the Open Table business model is transparent and easy to  buy the story so $70m of funding at a time when there is a lot of doom and gloom in the business community.

I also couldn’t help thinking about Open Source versions of this kind of software and I know that could be done.

Being in New Zealand and Australia I wondered what  other kind of project might be around of this kind. There is a list over at secret sauce* and Taggle looks very interesting in this regard

“A Taggle is a very low-cost tag that enables consumers, enterprises and governments to use the internet to track the location and status on almost any asset.

Taggle Systems (formerly Widentifi) was founded by some of Australia’s leading wireless technology entrepreneurs and is funded by two venture capital firms and private investors.

Secret Sauce has provided a CEO that has led the company through product definition, design and development of a complex hardware and silicon chip solution, business planning and multiple funding rounds.”

I remember reading about bicycle security in Amsterdam many years ago and how there were small GPS devices that could be installed ina  bike and used to trace them when stolen.

Last time I was in Sydney I had my worst ever taxi ride.  I needed to go 3 km to a venue and the driver got lost numerous times.  The car had GPS but only for security reasons.  Can I suggest the most important asset for a tax driver especially in Sydney is GPS for navigation!! After 90 mins I finally got to the location but that trip ruined the day  totally.

An excellent example of going for the vitamin rather than the pain killer.

*Secret Sauce is also a brilliant looking company. On their website they describe themselves as:

“Secret Sauce is an entrepreneurial partner for the commercialisation of intellectual property.

We find intellectual property that has commercial value, determine the best path to market then generate revenue through licensing deals, IP sales and the creation of new ventures.”

I have also been very impressed to reacquaint myself with the people at EveredgeIP who are based in Auckland.

Please we need more Open Tables  in ANZAC land – lets get some more useful applications into the Appstore.

Update: A version of this is also over at Idealog Magazine Blog

Most of my work is online and so once a new activity is in train the follow on step is to find ways to speed up the process so that I can scale up my work.

Sometimes this is because I can offer a new service if I can reinvent a process in a smart way but more often than not it is just to fit everything in.

Here are 4 ways that I get to work a bit smarter and faster during the day. It would be great to hear what works for you.

1. One trick I use is to have two computers going most of the time. I use a PC and a Mac as I often have to test online content in different ways but really some things just work better on a particular combination.
2. For web browsers on the PC I have Internet Explorer8 which I only use for testing as it chews all of the system resources and I used to prefer Firefox as it was better and then it too got a memory leak. I also tried Safari and Chrome on the PC but most of the time I use Opera which is little known but doesn’t seem bloated and is faster most of the time.  I use Safari, Opera and Firefox on the Mac – mostly Safari.
3. Use iTouch (or iPhone) applications on wireless for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter* and Joost plus numerous other device tuned applications. This is much faster and keeps ram and other system resource on your computer available for other applications.
4. Use iTouch for email on IMAP so I can delete (from server) and fast respond to emails on the fly when I wandering around or taking a break from the desk.

I was very late to get an Ipod mainly because I’ve had a good stereo for ever and I can never get comfortable with any earplugs.  I even use SKYPE with the inbuilt mic and speakers on the Mac because I don’t like normal headphones either.

* So many twitter applications. The impression is that most twitter innovations come from people like twitteriffic and others on mobile platforms. I’m using the Version 2 in premium edition which has no ads but the free versions seems fine as well.

However the second generation iTouch has speakers and a very nice screen for video podcasts from TED or Joost. I use wireless broadband rather than a phone data connection because I get 25GB allowance every month and its just smarter to use that first when I can.

From time to time I still login using a web browser for Facebook or other social media type applications but much of the value comes from a frequent and high level view of events rather which is faster and easier on a mobile device.

BTW I’m most impressed with videos from the Joost platform. There is an iPhone / iTouch application for Joost which is very impressive for video streaming. Much better than YouTube which is all clogged up.

Joost tends to get overlooked  with much of the buzz coming from Hulu (although we can’t view that outside the U.S) but I’m picking it has some clever back end systems which make it smarter and less traffic helps as well.

So, would any of these approaches work for you? or do you have some online productivity tricks to share?