For some time now, myself and my brother-from-another-mother - Joe Whittaker - have been toying with an idea for yet another social networking website. What will make this one different (how many Venture Capitalists have heard that opener!) is that it will be aimed solely at creative individuals (from any field) with the purpose of encouraging collaboration on projects.
Well we’ve talked and talked, and we think we’ve got most of the finer details sorted out. We’re not going to be asking for funding for this - it’s going to be a labour of love, in our own time (which is kind of the whole ethos of the site anyway). I’ve started work on the technical side of the site, and hope to launch it very early in the new year. In the meantime, we’ve set up a group on Facebook to serve as a temporary home for the service (the irony of using another social networking site to launch our own is not lost on us!!!).
So, what’s this site all about? From our Facebook group…
The Digital Collective is a place where creative individuals from any field can meet, network and - most importantly - collaborate on projects. The Collective will provide all the tools necessary to successfully collaborate on projects - from online file storage to live chat and project tracking utilities - absolutely free of charge.
The Digital Collective is a not-for-profit organisation whose only aim is to encourage and nurture creative collaboration. Membership to the Collective is free (although we will be accepting donations!), with all income being generated through sponsorship and advertising. Eventually, as the Collective becomes financially buoyant, all profits will be ploughed back into the service, providing monetary assistance to help get projects going.
The first phase of the Digital Collective website is currently under development and will launch early in the new year. In the meantime, we’re using this Facebook group to get the ball rolling. The Collective is just that - a collective free-for-all. If you have an idea for a project that you would like to collaborate on just share it here and see who’s interested in getting involved. Once the main website is complete, sharing these ideas will be much more structured (and hopefully simpler!).
In the first instance we’re going to use some fantastic online services that already exist for the project management tools. Eventually, we will be developing our own. If you’re interested in getting involved with that, just voice your interest on the appropriate discussion thread.
There are no entry requirements to the Collective - so long as you consider yourself to be a creative individual, or work in a creative field (hobby creatives are most welcome!). Artists, musicians, writers, designers, photographers, software developers, advertising execs… you are all welcome here!
We will be ’seeding’ the initial idea pool to get everyone’s creative juices flowing - please feel free to add to it. We’re currently drafting the Digital Collective charter/manifesto/mission statement, and will get it up online ASAP.
This is NOT going to be just another networking site. It will NOT be trying to replace Facebook or Virb (but hey! you never know!!). This is going to be a networking site with a specific purpose. If you have any thoughts or comments, add them to the wall (but please be polite - there’s no place for rudeness here).
Let’s get collaborating, shall we?
Interested? Why not join the group here…
UPDATE: I’ve started work on the ACTUAL Digital Collective website - so while you’re here, why not mosey on over to http://collectivehq.com and become a member. You won’t be able to do much once you are a member, but that’ll change shortly!
I updated my version of Firefox today, only to discover that the nifty bit of javascript that formats all of the images on my site breaks. It still works just fine in Safari etc, so whilst I figure out a patch for Firefox (and other browsers using the Gecko rendering engine) I have turned off the script and applied some rudimentary CSS - it’s not ideal, but what are you going to do, eh?
I’ll post my solution here when I sort it out.
UPDATE: Okay, I’ve done a bit of sniffing around and it turns out that it is a problem with Firefox (version 2.0.0.10 to be exact) and NOT the javascript (hence why it still works on all other browsers). You can download an updated nightly build from ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/2.0.0.11-candidates/rc1/ which has corrected the problem, but I think I’ll just try to work around it with a tweak to the design until the fix becomes an officially distributed release.
UPDATE…AGAIN: My copy of Firefox has just kindly updated itself to version 2.0.0.11, so I’ve reactivated the scripting to give my images that polaroid-esque look. If you’re having problems viewing my images (just check the Flickr feed in the sidebar) I suggest you update your browser version now. Cheers!
I am sooo busy at the moment, I hardly have time to check my emails, let alone share my thoughts with the masses. Which is a shame, because I have an ever growing list of things that I want to write about.
Having lived with my Sony Ericsson K850i for the best part of a month, I want to do a definitive review of the handset. I know I’m not exactly a respected pundit of technology and gadgetry, but I have received a number of inquiries regarding the handset, and with all the iPhone brouhaha going about I think it’s only fair to share the love (but not blindly, of course - the K850i does have some sticking points).
I’m still finding my confidence when writing about programming and web development. Although I have no formal training or qualifications in the field (who does these days?), my knowledge and experience is pretty vast (no modesty here!) - I just need to get my head together and figure out what is worth sharing (that is, what will be useful to others and will add something to the collective knowledge). I have a lot of experience working in both PHP and Ruby on Rails, and probably know more about MySQL and Apache than I realise. I just need to figure out where to start!
I guess that fear of rejection or ridicule has always stopped me from contributing to the Open Source community, and that has got to change. I already have a fairly decent list of contributions that I can make - ranging from custom-built functions for WordPress (which I just need to polish off into plugins), to a full-blown Content Management System (which, whilst some ways away from being comprehensive, is already powering a number of commercial websites!). I just need to start getting them out there (my new WordPress theme represents my first baby steps towards that…).
As well as my Open Source contributions, which are generally personal endeavours, I am also excited to write about my work - the stuff that, more often than not, pays the mortgage. I have the privilege of working on some exciting projects, and there are many more coming into view on the horizon. It’s shameless plugging, I know, but it is my website after all!
I also have opinions (some quite strong) about a lot of topics - design, social networks, current affairs etc - that I would like to inflict upon you good people.
I know that it’s probably a little early to be making New Year’s resolutions, but I know that I’m not going to be able to flip a switch overnight and change my behaviour, so I think I’m going to try take a bit of a run up at it over the next month and a half. One of my resolutions for 2008, then, is that I am going to find/make more time for writing and sharing. Wish me luck.
Gavin Strange is one of those sickeningly talented designers that is comfortable (and exceptional) in a wide range of disciplines - graphic design, web design, Flash, freehand artwork, video… And he can skateboard.
Everyone I know secretly aspires to be a bit like him. Git.
So, a round of applause for Mr Strange… http://blog.jam-factory.com/
PS Check out his main portfolio site at http://www.jam-factory.com/
The imaginatively named ‘Big Picture’ is my first attempt at a reusable WordPress theme, based on this sites own theme. It will largely focus on accessing and displaying graphic (photos etc) elements (hence ‘Big Picture’).
I’ve only just started to work on this theme, and it will be a while before it is fit for general consumption. However, I have uploaded an initial alpha candidate for people to try. Be warned, though - it has zero configurability, the CSS styling is all over the place, and I cannot guarantee compatibility with Internet Explorer. My markup has very few helpful comments, too!
This will all change, of course - I just wanted to get something online ASAP (following the advice of Google: release early, release often). You can download the basic theme here as a zip file (just unzip the contents to your wp-content/themes folder), or if you’re really keen, get the most up to date source code from my Subversion repository at Googlecode.
Watch the project page for changelogs, feature lists, development roadmaps etc.
Enjoy!
