Last weekend I flipped the switch on the new version of Scripting News. It's a return to a previous format, this time built on standards. Each tab is rendered when the user loads the page from an XML or JSON file stored anywhere on the public Internet.

The formats are: RSS, OPML, River.js and a new one, for the linkblog, generated by Radio3. I think when the dust settles, and that's what I'm working on now, settling things down, this may become a popular way to do a personal web presence.

It's more than a blog. It's also a feed reader. Isn't that weird? Well, when you think about it, isn't that what a blog is??

It's more than writing

Anyway, as the guy writing for this site, I am delighted! What I love about it is that now my photos and cards and links all get equal billing with my essays. That was the goal all along. To put a picture on Scripting News I just have to post it to Flickr. There are lots of ways to do that. So now Flickr is part of my publishing system. I wonder what they think of that at Yahoo?

Blogging isn't just about writing anymore, if it ever was.

It's great for writing

And the writing is much more the way I wanted it to be. Get an idea, click an icon, start typing, publish, revise. That's the workflow. As simple as possible, and recognize that there needs to be a point where the writing is published, and revisions after that need to be easy and flow, in a different way from the initial composition of the story. I'm writing this now in Fargo, but it could be in any OPML-capable outliner. That's also important. A tools ecosystem can develop because the formats are open.

Insta-roadmap

Anyway, we're getting much closer now to the noteblog idea. Should have some new software for this, soon, I hope.