webdesign

Edit Flow – newsroom workflow plugin for WordPress

1 November, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

I have just come across the Edit Flow plugin. Currently at version 0.5.3 it promises to deliver a unified plugin for implementing a newsroom workflow within WordPress. In other words:

Custom post statuses (e.g. assigned, draft, pending review, pitch, waiting for feedback).
Editorial comments to provide feedback on posts.
Email notification of changes to posts.
Custom user groups.
New post meta-data (e.g. description, due date, location etc).

The authors promises to bring additional features in the future and are currently conducting a survey to gauge priorities from their user base.

Currently the plugin offers similar features to what can be achieved from Peter’s Collaboration and Post Notes plugins, which I have used on other news websites. The idea of unifying these features in a single plugin specifically targeted at newsroom workflows is interesting though… and it will be interesting to see if this effort can provide an even better solution to this challenge. I’ve installed it and testing now.

Update: slides from Andrew Spittle describing the philosophy behind the plugin and functionality future releases.

Can a Platform Succeed Without a Popular Service?

28 September, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Adam DuVander:

Twitter and Facebook are often lauded as shining examples of what a platform does for your business. And for good reason. They have very successful developer programs. But they are also extremely popular services on their own. A developer may not build where there is not the foundation of a loyal user base. But even that has exceptions.

Source

BBC News website redesign

6 July, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Steve Herrmann:

And we've done something which will be less obvious to you, but hugely important to the journalists working on the site. We've completely rebuilt the content production system (CPS) which we use to create content and run the site. The new version of the CPS is designed to be easier to use and – crucially when we want to get stories out to you fast – quicker too. It's also built to be more flexible, so it should be easier to keep the site evolving, and to produce the content in ways that work well on other platforms, such as mobile.

External link

Design is key to good online journalism, not just coding and data

28 May, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

John Hillman:

Yet in many ways a digital journalist is more likely to struggle with design than coding. Before you can begin coding you have to have this side of things clear, whether you are working on your own independent blog or developing a complex data rich piece for a much larger news website.

[…]

My opinion is that, like coding, you’ll get the best results when you’re working in a team of professionals; that digital trinity of a journalist, a coder and a designer.

As an online editor for a digital media company, I am aware of just how important coding is, although I don’t believe that journalists and coders will ever meld into the same role. I just think that a modern journalist should be able to understand and talk about web architecture fluently. The same applies to basic design principles.

Make that information architecture and I'll agree – should be understood by all modern journalists.

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"Websites that surprise and delight us": The future of web design

24 May, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Martin Belam:

There is a lot of excitement around HTML5's ability to embed video directly in the page without having to use Flash or Silverlight as a wrapper, but personally, as an information architect on a news site, it is new tags like <header>, <nav>,

and <time> which look immediately useful to me.

This is absolutely the case and the significance of improvements like these are being completely ignored. Prospective online and multimedia journalists should take note!

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Del.ici.us tags: html5 webdesign martinbelam