My Name is Kate

More on Choosing a Blogging Platform plus a Serendipitous Lesson about Graphs

Following on my post yesterday about choosing a blogging platform for small and medium businesses, Catherine Winters asked if I had any market share data about the different platforms.  Good question.  So I did a little searching and Señor Google did have a few interesting things to say ...

First, I liked this piece by Pingdom on the blogging platform of choice for the Top 100 blogs.  About 2/3 of them use a self-hosted service - so those aren't really relevant.  But a 1/3 or so use a hosted platform and it was interesting to see those results.

 

I liked the Pingdom piece (even if the data is from Jan 2009) because it included only "real" blogs - there are a lot of spam blogs out there.  This is what concerns me a little about the report from BuiltWith (a site I totally didn't know about that tracks technology changes and trends).  It looks at the whole universe of blogs and I feel fairly certain that a large number of them are spam.

Wordpress is certainly the most popular - especially in articles about which blogging platforms are the most popular :)  There are a lot of those articles out there.  This one from Fuel Your Writing was the best written one I found.  While he doesn't quote market share stats, David selected four platforms that he was familiar with (Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr and Posterous) and shared his well-thought-out pros and cons.  I only wish he would have included Typepad since it would have rounded out my recommendation list nicely. 

David comes to one of the same conclusions that I did - you need to choose your platform based on your needs - which is why I was trying not to focus on "feature set" in my blogging platform recommendations, but on other "meta" issues around blogging.

Oh ... here's the other neat piece I discovered.  ProBlogger has done a survey of the blogging platforms used by his readers for the last few years. Great data - again, Wordpress on top.  What I was delighted to discover what this companion piece by Jon Peltier where he uses ProBlogger's data to improve the graphs used to visualize the data.  If you're interested at all in data visualizations and how to use graphs to improve your content, read Peltier's piece - I love how step-by-step and clear it is.

And I'm still looking for any "meta" criteria (vs features) that you would add to my list when choosing a blogging platform.

I'd fall down a rabbit hole for this any day ...

I have long loved Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. My bookshelf holds a few copies, including the the Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner (one of my favourite mathematicians & logicians) - a fascinating read, just for the annotations themselves. I've also been enjoying The Annotated Pride and Prejudice (not by Gardner, rather David Shapard).  There is something quite delightful about annotated volumes.  Like having the Coles notes built right in. Though I do take issue with some of Shapard's interpretations of the language in Austen.

But I digress ...

I am very keen on the upcoming release of Tim Burton's film Alice in Wonderland - it should be a far cry from the Disney version I grew up with. One thing, for certain, the animated version didn't have Swarovski creating a very fancy jewelry collection to celebrate its launch. 

In celebration of the highly anticipated Walt Disney Pictures film Alice In Wonderland, Disney and Swarovski, the world’s largest producer of cut crystal, are launching an all new collection of jewellery which captures the spirit of each character in this whimsical Tim Burton film. The line features vintage and gothic details inspired by the outlandish personalities found down the rabbit hole, each demonstrating the attention to detail that Swarovski is famous for. 

You can see the look book for the whole collection. But here are closeups of two of my favs.

The first is the signature piece in the collection - the “Sparrow” pendant, inspired by the pendant worn by “Alice”, (Mia Wasikowska), in the film. The pendant features a fine chain with round, rose-gold-plated links and a magnificent Smoked Topaz cut crystal with the silhouette of a small swallow at its centre.

The second is the piece that plays tribute to the “White Rabbit” (voice of Alan Rickman), a character who is always running late, is depicted in the collection through a playful rabbit’s head, a trumpet and a white epoxy pocket watch, all three of which feature crystal pavé. 

Click images for larger versions.

The collection should be available in March 2010 in Swarovski boutiques nationwide.

Note the First - I'm not usually a fashion or  accessories blogger, but I really adore this jewelry.  That Sparrow necklace is definitely going on my birthday wishlist.

Note the Second - the above links to Amazon.ca are affiliate links.

Note the Third - I totally took a screen shot of the "Look Inside This Book" functionality on Amazon for the Annotated Alice pic.  But I feel like this is fair use :)
 

New blog design on MNIK

September is really the new year for me - not January. Perhaps it's too many years of purchasing school supplies (mmmm ... shiny new binders). So, when I wanted to refresh my blog, I decided to do it for the fall.

I am thrilled (THRILLED!!) that my friend, Shannon Chiarenza (she's @ShannonC73 on Twitter), did a custom illustrated header and footer for MNIK. Shannon is a triple threat - she does web design, is smart about the online space (her piece on why people won't follow you on Twitter is very popular) and is starting to focus more on illustration with an upcoming fall launch of a kid's book that she illustrated.

I wanted a different look than what I had before and the illustrated design that Shannon created is definitely different. I'm hoping it will inspire me to write more regularly.

So, if you're reading this in the feed or email, please take a swing by to see Shannon's great illustration!

Beautiful Bar Codes

This is a bar code tree.  A very smart German fellow takes the data that lies behind a bar code and applies it to the Bezier curves of a tree structure.  Each bar code has a unique tree.  If you go to his site and try his application, you will also hear a tune played using the data while the tree is drawn.

Via FlowingData (I adore this site!)

Super cool Steampunk Keyboard

Love this.  Want this.  Delightful!

Check it out over on Steampunk Workshop.  The keyboard (functioning!!) is by Kevin and is up for auction on eBay.  Originally seen on BoingBoing.

Save Yourself Some Work! Check out Yahoo!'s Design Patterns

I really like it when someone else has done all the hard work.  And I can use that hard work to look smart.  And, now, so can you.  Via David Crow's super-interesting, finger-on-the-pulse geek blog, I discovered Yahoo! Developer's Design Pattern library.  What is a design pattern?  Well, according to Yahoo, it's "a pattern describes an optimal solution to a common problem within a specific context." (more at the IAWiki)

I'm going to hearken back to the old dressmaker's concept of a pattern ... remember those?  All the pieces needed to make a shirt or a dress or a Princess Leia costume (ahem) were drawn, jigsaw-like, onto that beige-coloured super-crazy-thin paper.  And you could use the same pattern to fit a range of size, all you needed was some clever folding.

Well, the Yahoo! Design Patterns aren't *quite* like that, but similar.  They are patterns for interaction design ... detailing the essential pieces for key interactions online.  There are sets for interactions like Navigation and Browsing.  Most recently, they've launched a set for Reputation activities ... so if you are trying to create different types of interaction on your website/social network/Facebook app that allows participants to build their reputation, you can browse through their library of different reputation-building design patterns to see which might be appropriate.

The patterns include not only situations or instances where you might consider using this pattern, but also examples of implementations of the pattern so you can see it in action.

But wait, there's more!

Yahoo! Developers have also put all the pattern elements into wireframe templates so you can mix, match and customize to your heart's content.  And the templates come in 5 different forms including both Visio AND OmniGraffle!  Awesome!

So check these out.  At the very least you can use them as a starting point for brainstorms or other preliminary discussions around your site or product's overall value proposition.  Best case, you can get your product to market a heck of a lot faster

Also, if you're considering social media apps for *inside* your organization, take a look!  These reputation models are equally applicable, and perhaps needed even more, inside the firewall.

Photo Credit: amanda bel

My latest "must have" gadget isn't a gadget at all

Oh, no.  Pantone® mugs.

 

And Pantone® espresso cups.

Currently only available in the UK. 

Sigh.

h/t Chip Chick.