Dave McDermid

Over the years, Headscape has built and worked on a lot of websites, probably somewhere in the hundreds, no-ones counting. I, on the other hand, have been with Headscape for just 16 months. Currently we have 4 full time developers plus a contractor. Usually we are all working on different projects, each with their peculiarities and oddities. Often a client requires us to make changes to an old site, upgrade hosting or change the way features work, and without knowing the history of a project, this can be a minefield.

So we needed a solution. Turn’s out wiki’s are quite nifty at this.

We tried out a few, and being a .NET company, experimented with a few free or open source options, but ended up settling on MediaWiki. It’s easy to setup and get started, reliable, and there are heaps of plugins floating around. The hardest part is content population, but once a couple of us got excited about the idea, we soon had the foundations of a knowledge base.

The benefits of a wiki are clear, being able to link information together and categorise it is invaluable, and the principle of quick editing is ideal. This allows us to gradually build up the fragments of information that hold a project together. Projects that are linked by a technology or hosting platform can be easily referenced, enabling a developer to solve problems faster and track down solutions smarter. Eventually, maybe. The experiment is too early to see how well it’s going to work, but it should be interesting.

The downsides to this approach are learning curves and structure. MediaWiki is designed for managing large numbers of isolated pages, so naming conventions are crucial to finding information and avoiding confusion. Fortunately, wikipedia has already developed conventions ready for adoption, so this is a good starting point.

Before installing MediaWiki, I had little experience with wikis, so it took some learning to get up to speed with formatting, but it soon came naturally. This can be a stumbling block for others, so the next step is to ensure everyone has a basic understanding of editing a page. Having knowledge of wiki editing is a skill in it’s own right, so the time spent learning is worth it.

We’ll see how things pan out.

I couldn’t find a plugin, and thought it would be very web 2.0 to have my current location on my blog, so decided to write a plugin. Turns out it’s much easier than I anticipated, location is pulled from the published XML and stuck into a static Google map. Easy.

Seeing as it was so straight forward, I went the extra step further and made it customisable from the plugin admin section. If it’s of any interest to anyone, here it is:

Download iBrightKite

Update: The plugin has been approved by Wordpress. Success.

Update: I’ve made some changes, the plugin should now be compatible with PHP4 (in theory) and locations can now be cached. If it didn’t work before, please try again.

Following Future of Web Apps I felt inspired to start blogging properly. By properly, I’m not gonna start writing novels, or even short stories. Just short notes, about things that interest me. Starting with things that interested me from FOWA London 2008.

Where we are today with Web Apps.

Right now we are at a point where we all regularly use web applications, not just for novelty, but as a system we rely on. While Google docs doesn’t even come close to Microsoft Office, and Splashup ain’t no Photoshop, the way these site are built are like applications, not websites. 280Slides is a classic example of a web app that looks and behaves like a desktop app, and with newer browsers running javascript faster and following more CSS rules, exciting times are ahead.

What was really interesting was a comparison between Combo VCR / DVD recorders and Silverlight / Adobe AIR. Adobe AIR takes the web app to the desktop, so web designers can build websites that run like desktop apps, is this bridging the gap between your desktop and the web? It’s kind of a backward step to help bring people forward, if that makes sense. If everyone was always online, and web apps shared and co-operated better, we wouldn’t have such a need for a desktop. Eventually. There is a lot of buzz about ‘Web only operating systems’ and most of this is naive or rubbish, but people are slowly changing their perspective. We just need to build the tools.

Good times / Bad times

At the moment, there is much talk of the crunch. Tim Bray made some interesting comments about surviving, most memorable for me was being flexible. If you’re a Ruby developer, learn PHP. If you’re already a multi-talented developer, learn CSS, or photoshop. If people have to be let go, the 1-trick-ponies will be the first. It never hurts to learn a new skill.

The importance of an online presence was also heavily stated, first thing many prospective employers do is Google your name. If you have a blog, twitter, or contribute to open source projects etc. you will appear more interested in the web and a stronger candidate. This is partly why I’m blogging (interest in the web, not because I’m looking for a job!!)

The importance of networking

I was genuinely surprised by how many people had heard of Headscape, the company I work for. Paul Boag has been busy. As a result, Craig & did meet a number of interesting people, and had an awesome time. Networking is vital in an industry as competitive as web design / development.