As an experiment, I decided to build WPTopics which aggregates from established blogs that are providing useful, influential content on a regular basis. The format is a lot like AllTop, but with a voting plugin that lets the community decide which sources they value most:

(Note: the feeds do cache, but the loading can be a bit slow while they’re being called. I’m still working to find the best way to optimize things)

Ultimately, I’d like to be picky about the feeds displayed and keep the number < 50, but there is also a suggestion form for sites I may have neglected. Obviously the content could be consumed by via RSS reader, but aggregating it publicly and fine-tuning it with voting has its advantages. Again, it's all kind of an experiment.

I'm going to add some more features and design touches in the next few weeks, but until then, I'd love some feedback on how the idea may or may not be useful, what it needs and what it doesn't.

Big thanks to Ben and Bill for helping get the caching and character encoding issues sorted out.

Traditional newspapers continue closing their doors as more journalists are striking out on their own to start blogs, news aggregators and hyperlocal community sites built on open-source platforms like WordPress.

Dispatch is a new WordPress theme for those independent writers seeking to establish themselves professionally online. In the classic style of online newspaper layouts like NY Times and Portfolio, Dispatch offers minimalist design with an emphasis on whitespace, typography and photography.

• Product Page
• Buy It Now

Benefits for Writers

1. Credibility. Whether your new website aims to publish one writer or a team of ten, Dispatch has the visual impact of an experienced news organization with a professional understanding of the medium.
2. Reputation. In a themes market crowded with hobbyist designers, Dispatch and its parent theme Mimbo Pro were built by web professionals with a solid reputation in the WordPress community for building news and magazine themes, including the first of its kind (Mimbo).
3. Speed and Control. Because it’s an add-on for the powerful Mimbo Pro theme, Dispatch inherits its custom dashboard, carousel options and 5 widgetized panels which let users configure their layout with no technical knowledge required.
4. Support. Forum support is already offered as part of your license, but we are making special efforts for writers just getting involved with WordPress. Need a designer to help you, or hosting recommendations, or general WordPress advice? Email me with questions and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Benefits for Developers

1. A Baseline Theme. The clean simplicity of Dispatch makes life easy for multi-license developers who use Mimbo Pro as a starting point to rapidly build client sites.
2. Commented Code. The neatly organized, heavily-commented stylesheet makes it easy to dive right in.
3. Actions and Filters. The newest version of Mimbo Pro includes a helper doc (/tech_docs/actions_and_filters.txt) explaining the various functions that can be filtered. This means you can edit Dispatch’s functions.php file and change the display of content without ever touching the core MP files.

What’s Next?

Dispatch is a small step toward branching out and developing more seriously for the changing news-journalism-community niche. Based on its success and user feedback, we’ll release more themes this summer.

Meanwhile, Ben is coding a monster of a new theme framework that we will use for future projects. Developers will love the set of filters geared specifically toward creating modular, customizable homepages similar to the BBC. There are also a dozen custom widgets built in—no plugins required. The filters will allow all of these features to be handled via child themes. Once again, the core files won’t need editing.

Suggest a Feature

If you’re a writer or run a local community portal and you’ve got ideas for features you’d like to see in a WordPress theme, feel free to drop me a line.

Lately a few Expression Engine clients have needed to display their photostream dynamically in a way that’s compact and eye-catching, so the carousel format came to mind. Since the site isn’t live yet, here’s a sample:

View the Demo

It’s built on a mix of CSS, jQuery and a special module for EE. So how does it all tie together?

1. jCarousel. First download the script and insert the proper links in your <head>
2. eeFlickr. Go install this module for Expression Engine and read up on the custom tags it allows
3. Thickbox. Install this script or substitute your lightbox script of choice, just make sure to reference it in the <a> tag below

Finally, insert the following code in your EE template:

{exp:eeflickr:photosets_getPhotos photoset_id="72157617516363606" per_page="50"}
<ul id="mycarousel" class="jcarousel-skin-tango">
{eeflickr:photosets_getPhotos_loop}
{exp:eeflickr:photos_getInfo photo_id="{id}"}
<li><a href="http://farm{farm}.static.flickr.com/{server}/{id}_{secret}.jpg" title="{title}" class="thickbox"><img src="http://farm{farm}.static.flickr.com/{server}/{id}_{secret}_s.jpg" alt="{title}" /></a></li>
{/exp:eeflickr:photos_getInfo}
{/eeflickr:photosets_getPhotos_loop}
</ul>
{/exp:eeflickr:photosets_getPhotos}

So long as you specify your photoset_id parameter in that first line, you can pull the latest from the photoset of your choice. Then specify a per_page parameter to determine how many photos to display at a time.

Note: you’ll need an API key to make the EE module work. You may also experience a delay between setting everything up and seeing the images display for the first time.

This spring brought a few surprises which inspired the site redesign. The biggest was that my wife got into grad school in NYC so we’re currently scrambling to find an apartment and start new lives. It also means I’ll be taking the plunge and beginning a freelance design career.

Officially I’ll be making the switch in about a month. There are some cool WordPress opportunities in the pipeline so far, as well as some iPhone app stuff and potential startup work up in Manhattan. With a freelance schedule, I’ll also finally have time to dedicate to designing new products for the ProTheme store. After doing strictly service-based client work for 10 years, I’m plenty excited to be making my own decisions and working at my own pace.

In terms of other collaborations, I’m keeping an ear out. I would love to hook up with developers working on web-based apps and services that need some interface design love. I’ve always liked how Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain markets himself for this role: “Creative Services for the Design-Challenged Developer”. Get in touch if you think we’d be a good match.

Meanwhile if you live in New York, I look forward to seeing you at some WordPress meetups soon enough.