Six Apart News & Events: July 2003

In case you've missed it, we're on day four of the five days of TypePad, our effort to present some in-depth information about TypePad, including detailed descriptions of major features, additional screenshots and a number of ideas that inspired our development of the service.

Tomorrow we'll be announcing all the service details including pricing, features and availability.

And if that wasn't big enough news, we're happy to announce that we've finally begun moving into our new offices -- a major milestone for us. For those interested, I've posted a photo album here.

There's an increasing sense today that many of our most powerful institutions have become disconnected from the ordinary citizens they are supposed to represent. From questions about the accuracy and bias of the media to concerns over accountability of elected officials and government policy, there is a lack of communication and understanding between these organizations and the people who grant them their power.

Despite these concerns, it seems that the personal publishing phenomenon is having a positive impact on these strained connections. We try to stay away from the more outrageous hyperbole about weblogs being "revolutionary," but the overall trend towards expressiveness and immediacy on the web has already had a noticeable effect.

Continue reading 'Encouraging Accountability through Personal Publishing'...

"For the third annual Blogathon, web users from around the world will engage in a 24-hour marathon of blogging, each to raise money and awareness for his or her own good cause. In the words of founder Cat Connor, "I've always felt the best thing about the web was its ability to affect the real world. The web can be a major force for good."

You have until tonight -- Midnight Pacfic time -- to sign up for this year's Blogathon. The actual event begins on Friday, July 26 at 6:00 am Pacific time.

It's a great opportunity to help a bunch of great causes (you pick your own favorite organization) and I was proud to participate in the first event in 2001.

Good luck to Cat and all the participants.

Two recent releases that should be of interest to Movable Type users:

MT Plugin Manager

David Raynes and Kristine Beeson have just released a public beta of their MT Plugin Manager:

"You'll have access to install, uninstall, upgrade, and check requirements all in one place, as well as easy links to get more information. The MT Plugin Manager uses information from the MT Plugin Directory to let you easily manage your plugins."

Be sure to read the notes from developers before working with the Manager. Also, note that this is still a beta release and they are soliciting feedback in testing.

Zempt 0.3

And from Bill Zeller and Adam Kalsey comes version 0.3 of Zempt, a posting client for Movable Type currently available for Windows users. A lot of changes have been incorporated into this version including offline operation, spell check and post editing.

Great work from both groups!

We're excited to let everybody know that the hundreds of expert guides who publish topic-specific sites on About.com are now all using Movable Type to manage their sites. About.com has always had great writing and useful links since its early days as The Mining Company, and since the work that the guides do has always been about high-quality personal publishing with a human voice, we're glad they chose Movable Type as the right tool for the job.