Archive for 2008-03

Q: Are there plans to extend Simple Commerce or add a more complex e-commerce system?

A: Yes. Internally, it’s Paul’s project. Though he set it aside briefly to help with EE 2.0. The EllisLab team needs it as much as anyone else.

Q: [Andrew] Will there be any future modules or upgrades to the 1.x branch?

A: [Rick] At this point, there isn’t a firm decision. 2.0 has taken a lot of resources and they’d like to keep things focused.

[Leslie] We really don’t make those decisions until after the product is completely developed. With MSM, similar approach. Even pricing and support decisions.

Q: Will the code stay open? Will it ever be encrypted/obfuscated?

A: [Rick] Always open. Never obfuscated.

[Leslie] That goes against the grain of our company values. We want it to be easy for you and we benefit from having such an honest community.

Q: Since you are implementing Ajax functionality, specifically pagination, within the Control Panel, will you release that as a module for use by developers in front-end development?

A: After-note from the editor: This answer came in fast and I had to move quickly past it. From what I remember, the general answer was that it would not be difficult for developers to adapt those things.

Q: [James Curry - UT] Rich-text editors? He has used TinyMCE in the past, but never found it stable enough.

A: [Derek J] We like the idea, but the issues with browser differences and instability we haven’t put much focus on it. Browser manufacturers seem to be adding RTE functionality in the browsers. We’d like to see what happens with that, but if that does not develop, we could look at an option.

[Leslie] It’s just not stable and we need such a high degree of control over the user experience. But we are “similarly optimistic” about this.

[Rick] This is really a philosophical issue. Should it happen when a page is rendered or when it is delivered into the database? I’ve always considered it a bad idea to have formatting inserted into the database. If you need to re-purpose content for some other platform, say RSS, then you need to have clean content to deal with. Sometimes folks in the forum/community seem to think that we are just against one idea or another. But often we genuinely analyze whether or not something is good for the product and then make decisions based on that.

Q: [James Curry - UT] Needs a hook for a custom logout.

A: [Paul] Added in 1.6.1.

Q: [A.J. - 'ajp'] For those of you that don’t have “chief” in your title, how do you feel about that? (Laughter.) Will there be a developer preview for 2.0 for those who create modules for EE?

A: [Derek A - Answering the second question] Yes, we will have a pre-release with very specific instructions to aid developers in updating their projects. There have been definite architectural changes and when

Q: [Paul H] I’m a designer who uses different solutions for client, but I really want to put all my eggs in one basket. Followed Boyink’s tutorial. Can you explain some benefits of EE/CI? How do you deal internally with the different products, EE and CI? Are there any additional products that might be coming up?

A: [Kurt - Answering the benefits] I’m a personal testament to the benefits of EE. (At a former company) we crafted web presences for clients and we used EE to quickly craft new features and custom functionality. We used other tools and never had any luck using them. With EE, it just worked. It’s a great tool to build a business on!

[Leslie] EllisLab is very committed to web professionals. It’s our history and where we are going. There really aren’t any other companies who offer what we offer. Most companies people compare us to are blog-centric or open source companies whose focus is quite different than our focus on web developers. We have no intention of deviating from our approach. We’re committed to that.

[Lisa] In addition to all the benefits Kurt and Les mentioned, with EE you’ll get great support from us and from the community. We are here to answer your questions and we won’t leave you stranded in a problem for weeks at a time.

[Rick] Proponents of open source tend to downplay the problems of open source.

1. There is no real support with many open source products.
2. There is no catalyst for open source developers to take care of bug fixes or other problems in a timely manner.

We are paid to take care of you and so that’s what we do. We are committed to grow and deliver exceptional products and continue to grow the community.

Q: [Dane Peterson] Never built anything in EE and just learned CI just last week. (bixbyheart.com) Champions the clear documentation of CI and the MVC model for his success and quick acclimation to CI.

A: [Derek A] My story is much the same. If CI has changed the way you develop apps, EE will change the way you manage sites.

[Leslie] We moved to CI out of concern for scalability, and while we have sites like iLounge that have TB amounts of transfer and enterprise-class environment [EngineHosting] we feel that the move to run EE with CI.

[Derek J] We don’t have document writers. Rick asks us to document as we develop so that the documentation is informative and comprehensive.

[Rick] I’ve always believed that it is very important for developers to document as they go. The two go hand-in-hand and it helps reduce confusion and poor docs.

Q: [Tom Myer - 'myerman'] The first application I wrote in CI was in four days and most of that was for Ajax stuff. Tells other stories. Is impressed with CI. 1.6 of CI had plugin and helpers, is it now extensible?

A: After-note from editor: Didn’t catch the exact answer, and probably not the exact question. Derek A. added a couple of remarks, mainly covering the extensibility of helpers in CI.

Q: [Ben Croker - 'BenC'] Rick, how did you start out and how did EllisLab/CI come about?

[Rick] I was in “audio” when I found the Internet and fell in love with it. I starting building websites, at first for fun, then for musicians, then for real clients. Nancy Sinatra was one such client. She constantly demanded updates to her website, so I learned PHP on a trip overseas and later built a CMS, “Power Trip” for her. I began to consider the market for this, though I thought at the time it would be just a side thing. Within six months, after appearing in MacWorld and some other big news, I knew I had to take a leap of faith and start this business.

Once pMachine was created, I noticed how clients were using the software and had the idea for this niche thing called ExpressionEngine. CodeIgniter was developed later as a result of browsing frameworks like Ruby on Rails and others. I was amazed at how awful the documentation for these frameworks was. So I decided to wade into building a framework of our own based on our code base and development practices.

Q: ['rockthenroll'] With 2.0, are there any new modules? Would you ever consider having an advisory board of select community members?

[Rick] Funny you asked about an advisory board as that sidebar was deleted from the EllisLab site last week and I have yet to contact those folks about the changes we are making internally. Thanks for the reminder. (Rick jots note. Audience giggles.)

[Leslie] What we realized is that we really aren’t great communicating with another group as a group, but we are great working with people one-on-one. We envisioned having a board of advisors that we could elicit feedback from, but we ended with a panel of people that we just wanted to work with.

[Rick] I’ve found that when you engage groups like this (advisory boards) with questions, it tends to be an energy sucker, yet we value the brainpower of the collective and it’s stupid not to tap that brainpower.

[Paul] Each day we get hundred of emails from folks who have ideas and send feedback about our products. And that is in addition to the Feature Request forum, so there is a large volume of information about the products that we manage.

[Leslie - Also commented about the volume of requests, advice and information.] The 1.x branch of the EE product is four years old. We are really focused on having really incremental build releases. Now, with CI, those developers can convert CI apps into EE modules really easily.

Q: [Eline] Historically, clients have had problems with the file upload function. Will you be improving this feature, specifically with images?

[Derek J] The short answer is yes. We are taking special measures to make file handling simpler for your client.

Q: [Jason - 'jloft'] I noticed a question mark on the CodeIgniter page. Now it’s gone. What’s up?

A: [Rick] We were developing a question mark. (Laughter.)

[Leslie] We are announcing the release of… QuestionEngine. (Laughter)

[Rick] But seriously, we wanted to convey that they had future plans to release new products, but took it down since they really have no imminent plans for such.

(end of session)

Technorati Tags: ellislab, expressionengine, codeigniter, sxsw, panel, austin, texas, tx

I’m headed to Austin, Texas for a few days to enjoy SXSW Interactive.

So far, I have the first two days of the conference all planned out. I’ll play the other two by ear and schedule as I go. I want to leave a little flexibility. I already feel like I’m quite maxed out! It’s going to be a blast. I will likely need a day just to recover from the insanity of it all.

I’ll log updates here as much as possible. I’ll also post @Twitter, assuming they don’t have any downtime, on Pownce and possibly on Flickr.

A few events I’m looking forward to are:

• The Flickrite Meetup at the Cathedral of Junk
• Google Party
• The 2008 SXSW ABX
• The SXSW Godbit Dinner

Of course, those are all evening (non-official) SXSW events. I will be attending a plethora of sessions. One session I’m especially excited about is the ExpressionEngine 2.0 Preview. Hopefully, I’ll get a few free moments to meet up with the EllisLab folks and thank them personally for crafting such fine products, ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter.

If you are at SXSW and would like to meet up, send an email: sxsw@davidrussell.org

Technorati Tags: sxsw, flickr, google, godbit, events, schedule, expressionengine, codeigniter, ellislab, conference, austin, texas

Lately, I’ve been bombarded with information from a wide variety of sources. Most of the noise is self-inflicted. So I’ve been contemplating several ideas about managing information.

The Source of Information

I’m curious about how the source of information creates an amount of signal or noise. Since everything is either useful or useless to me, given that my experiences create such a filter, I should be able to find information sources that give me brilliantly useful information with little noise. And, in most cases, that’s where I aim.

But I have learned of other variables that play into the value of the information.

• Timeliness - If I receive the information in a timely manner, it is much more valuable than receiving the same information a day late. It might sound trivial to some, but poor information management could mean that you are simply not receiving good information when it is most valuable. Practically, we should learn to tap information resources diligently.
• Redundancy - Occasionally, we receive information from a wide variety of sources that are all saying the same thing. It might be a breaking news story, or a simple tidbit of water cooler talk surrounding the latest office memorandum. No matter the case, hearing information too often can be problematic. Practically, we need to pare our sources to prevent duplication.
• Volume - This is the toughest problem for information addicts. The tendency is to over-stimulate our minds with information in an attempt to feel complete. Yet, it is not humanly possible to gather and retain the level of information that most of us attempt to manage. Practically, we need to remove information sources, find the few quality sources that can make the difference and, most importantly, find contentment in retaining the top-level of information while disregarding the rest. Often, we gather for the sake of gathering and find ourselves rather inefficiently equipped with too much noise and not enough signal.

Certainly, the net can be cast much wider than that. Think about other ways that information sources bog us down.

The Use of Information

This is the benchmark for the value of information: how we use it. Good information is important. It can change a perspective, change a focus, or even change a life. Bad information is useless. It wastes time, resources and energy.

How we use information can determine its value to us and to others. Sometimes we mismanage good information and devalue it by irresponsibly passing it to people who are simply not relevant to the matter. We’ve all received that email CC from someone in the office. There are times when “out of the loop” is just fine! Other times we fail to pass on information that is pertinent to someone. We can so easily misuse information and cause conflict.

Managing information productively is an art form. It takes time to craft, but with experience you can manage wisely.

The Absence of Information

The final thought I’ve had is one that runs against the grain of the whole idea of information management: how can we remove information from our routines? And, if we do remove information, what happens?

This is more of an experiment than the other two thoughts. I’m intrigued by the thought that it might be very empowering to significantly reduce the weight of information that is passed to me each day. There is a delicate balance here. I don’t want to live under a rock and not take in information that has real importance in my life. But I do want to remove the sources of information that are reducing my margin for creativity and critical thinking. Much like a clogged artery that blocks the flow of resources to the heart, I believe our minds can be held captive by over-processing too much information. For many of us, turning off the television, putting down the book or logging off the computer would be a wonderful step toward improved information management. It’s a challenge that is hitting home with me lately and I’m constantly looking for ways to increase that margin. So far, I’m amazed by the little things that have returned on my investment. But I think there is a long-term reward as well.

You know, I haven’t been writing nearly as much as I’d like. I haven’t been playing guitar as much as I’d like. I haven’t relaxed as much as I’d like. Admittedly, it’s because I have not really taken control of information or explored ways to increase valuable information or reduce invaluable information in my life. Information management is a personal challenge and one that I’ve come to take quite seriously! If you are on a similar journey, or if you’ve been inspired to manage information more efficiently, let me know.

Technorati Tags: information, management, overload, productivity, life

I’d like to welcome Chris Hodges to digital publishing. Chris pastors Church of the Highlands a top-notch church in Birmingham, Alabama. While in college, I attended Church of the Highlands and became a part of the living legacy of the church. Highlands was born in 2001 and God has miraculously blessed the church with abundant spiritual and physical growth.

This past January, Chris cast vision for a new paradigm at Highlands—a focus on the inner-city of Birmingham. I believe God will continue to do wondrous things at Highlands and I am excited that more of my friends will hear first-hand the unique work that is happening there.

Chris is one of the finest church leaders in the world today! He takes no credit for the success of Highlands, but I believe the church wouldn’t be what it is today without a pastor who gets on his knees and humbly prays for Birmingham to come to Christ! May we all find inspiration in his words to help us reach people for Christ in our own cities. If you have a moment today, pray for Church of the Highlands, Chris Hodges, his team and the city of Birmingham.

Shift: Chris Hodges Blog
Church of the Highlands (Flash required, unfortunately.)