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17/04/08 Build It With Me? A Group Blog Manager
SINGAPORE - It may exist, and if it does, great - send me a link! If it doesn’t, I’d love to write a spec if there was a developer or two who’d like to code it as a collaboration project with shared ownership?
I’m editor of blog.TeamGearedUp.com and we’ve got an international (but very Irish) team (Aisling, Neal, Eoin, Alx & Dave). We use a Wordpress install with multiple user accounts. It’s been working just fine for 3 years now, but, it could be a much better more fluid experience.
I’d like a ‘Group Blog Manager’ tool (Auctomatic for blog posts?). All of this is possible already, its just not easy to explain it all to non-technical bloggers. A 3rd party site or plug-in that helped group bloggers do all this in the one place automatically would be invaluable…
- Before I start writing, I want to know if any other authors are in the middle of or have a draft saved of the same story.
- I want to be able to use a bookmarklet to tag interesting stories, images, links, products as I surf the web. They can be browsed by all authors and once used in a story, they automatically get marked as ‘used’.
- It should be able to post to multiple blogging platforms. I expect to have one account that can post my content to any group blog I participate in. I want all my content in one place and let me distribute it across my blogs.
- If I have an interview scheduled with somebody for that week, I want to open questions up to all the authors. Everyone (including readers?) should be able to add their question to the pile for moderation.
- I want a calendar of weekly posts automatically started to structure the blog a bit. e.g. Techie Tuesday, Friday Links, etc. These should auto-create and sit in the sidebar letting all authors add their contributions during the week. Each should have an owner who’s job it is to approve before the deadline.
- Images (via pixenate.com?) should be automatically sized to the blogs dimensions, and watermarked with a logo or tagline.
- Mandatory fields to structure the post, e.g. automatic location, image credits, sign-off name, image captions. Take all the repetitiveness out of it.
- If we’ve already mentioned the person, place, event or product the tool should tell us so we can mention ’see previously’. With so many authors it can be easy to forget who wrote about what a year ago.
- Author by author stats & post frequency targets. Allow teams to grow their blog goals. Set agreed targets and monitor them.
So there you go. I’ll gladly support & work with anyone crazy enough to take this app on. I’m off to Taiwan in 8hrs until Monday night. See you on the other side.
-Robin.
(Image Credit: The Team Geared Up (TGU) on tour in Thailand at Easter Sunday 2008.)
Tags: Blogging, concept, er, General, group, group blogging, idea, pixenate, software
5 Comments
Interesting idea. Wordpress MU came to mind when I read your headline, but I can see this is an entirely different animal.
I’ve been working with Hobo lately (http://hobocentral.net/ - watch the intro screencast) which would suit this well. I’m sure it’d be possible to knock up a working prototype of this in a few weeks… give me a shout when you’re back.
Robin,
Remind me to rustle up a bookmarklet to launch pixenate in crop mode with a fixed width and height already selected.
Walter
oh man cheers dude for including me! yay! big up TGU!!!! sorry im a little drunk
@walter - that would be savage! Automatically bringing the pic to within boundaries then asking you to crop the extra bit off.
@alx - Ir a la cama!
@andy Must look at Hobo
18/04/08 Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » Fluffy Links - Firday 18th April 2008
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