I can’t wait to be invited to attend the Nigerian Dead Relatives Blog Directory Awards…

85%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Definitely skewed low. Some MySpacers are probably blowing the curve. Good thing they didn’t include Twitter and Flickr. I’d be in the triple digits easily…

So, now I'm a "BlogBridge Topic Expert" – I'm rather uncomfortable with the term "expert" but it's their word, not mine. The new Edublogs Reading List is online, and (I think) should stay synced with my list in BlogBridge, so maintenance won't be a problem.

BlogBridge Edublogs Reading List

• Comments. Typical blogs have "name", "url", "email" and "comment" fields. Drupal has an optional "Subject" and a "Comment" field. It works, but makes it harder to follow contributions in a conversation – you have to remember to put your name in the comment each and every time you post. Not friendly I was a bonehead – there's an option to make this behave as expected, under admin/comments/configure.
• Subscrbing to comments. Email subscriptions to a post's comments is the most powerful and effective way to maintain a conversation on a blog. The "subscriptions" module would work, but it only understands Drupal's users. The vast majority of commenters (i.e., everyone but myself) won't have an account in this copy of Drupal, so Subscriptions.module is useless to them. Close, though. All it needs is Anonymous user support, with a way to provide an email address. Not friendly.
• CoComment support. Lacking. I'm going to miss that, at least until I figure out how to properly implement it. Not friendly.
• Flicker Photo Album. There's a Flickr module that claims to do something similar, but it just isn't working for me. So, in the meantime, the "photos" link in the header nav bar points directly to Flickr. Not friendly.
• Flickr photo posting. There's a FlickrInserter module, modeled after Tantan's excellent Flickr Post Bar plugin for WordPress (which, in turn, is modelled after the awesome Flock Flickr Post bar). For now, I'm copying and pasting HTML directly from Flickr. Not friendly.
• I miss PodPress. Have to find a comparable solution for Drupal. Not fatal, but it sure was nice.

Of course, it's not all cloud – there is some silver in there. I did decide to switch, after all, and am not regretting it one bit (yet). Things that are good:

• MUCH better search function. Booleans. Filters. Lots of goodness there. Friendly.
• Tracking what's new since I (or anyone) visited the site – which comments are new? Friendly.
• Throttling. If the site gets hammered (yeah, right) I have it set to shut down the bells and whistles to ensure content still gets out. Friendly.
• Content types – not just blog posts, but forums, surveys, books, etc… Friendly.
• Unpublished content, and unpromoted content. I can stage stuff without it being public until I decide to make it so. More powerful/flexible than drafts in WP.
• Stats and logs within the admin interface. I can see what's working (or not) without having to go anywhere else.
• Blocks and menus. Very flexible ways to add functionality without having to hack a template or theme. Friendly.
• Lots and lots of other great stuff.

But, I'm holding off on throwing the switch (I came within about 5 seconds of a full switchover, but finally decided against it). Why? WordPress is still nicer for individual blogging. Sure, it lacks the super-handy Book structure. And the better Menu and Page management. And a bunch of other cool stuff.

Drupal has far better searching – advanced searching with booleans – and better ways of organizing content (multiple taxonomies, tags, paths, etc…). It has better "website management" and a pretty decent upgrade process.

But, WordPress (for now) has better integration with things like image uploading, Flickr images, podcasting (via PodPress) and a bunch of other little things that tie into the "workflow" of blogging, as opposed to content management. These are all things that I use my blog for now, so it's silly to switch to something that doesn't currently rock at doing these tasks.I'm absolutely confident that I could eventually bend Drupal to do my bidding, but WordPress already does it now, so there's not a Super Compelling Reason To Jump at this particular moment. Also, the migration process isn't the smoothest one on the planet, and appears to be a one-way trip.

Update: I mentioned in one of my comments to this post that I was afraid of using the WordPress DBook plugin, because I didn't want to introduce any non-standard content types. I was completely wrong about what DBook does. It's sole function is to do the heavy lifting to provide better inter-page navigation between WordPress Pages. No new content type, no change to the database at all. Sorry for not checking facts better before posting that comment! 

The book is definitely on top of my nonfiction reading list (my fiction reading, on the bus ride commute, is currently another Gregory Benford book I’m deliberately reading out of sequence…)

The first round of online events (April 3-7 – right now!) is on the teaching implications of blogging. Topics like case studies, integration with LMS, blogs as personal learning environments, information literacy, etc…

The next round of events (April 10-14) is on library & info resources, followed by admissions/alumni/marketing (April 17-21) and websites & web development (April 24-28).

I’ll try to keep track of the events as the occur, but am assuming/hoping they’ll all be available in archive form for use/reuse after the conference.

Oh, and it’s free. That ain’t not half bad. It’s going to be bad to take over Flickr like we did for Northern Voice 2006, but it’s a start…

I’m feeling a bit like Rob – our Gandalf has just disappeared into the depths of Moria, and we’re now left to stumble through on our own. Hopefully his hiatus is a bit more relaxing, but I’m looking forward to meeting Stephen The White…

Excellent news, Greg. I’d been keeping your old blog in my subscriptions Just In Caseā„¢ and have already subscribed to your new one.

Thanks to Scott and James for the heads-up on Ritter’s Return. Greg’s already hit the ground running with some great comments from Blackboard users about weblogs, wikis and podcasting.