Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
I’ve noticed some Typepad beta weblogs here and about.
Linotype is one weblog that looks like it tried to find my FOAF.rdf file, if I read the sidebar comments correctly. I didn’t know that Typepad was incorporating automated support for FOAF files. Additionally from this weblog, you can check out a Photo blog created with Typepad’s automated photo weblogging features.
Danny Ayers is also testing the Typepad waters with a site devoted to the Echo Project. Interesting concept of highlighting the important N/Echo discussions and changes, as weeded out from what are primarily fussy edits.
(Danny also commented on the disappearance of John Robb’s weblog – exactly who pulled the weblog pages?)
I’m rather hoping that some of the Typepad features get included into Movable Type. In fact, my biggest concern is, if Six Apart is focusing on Typepad now, how much effort will the company be putting into Movable Type in the future? Typepad is more than just a new weblogging tool – it’s also hosted support. Will there be a commercial version of Movable Type that has the Typepad features, but without the hosting?
I may have missed this discussion somewhere – but I’m still curious.
This leads me to N/Echo. We need the tool interoperability, including export/import and the open API, of N/Echo more than ever now. Many of the weblogging tools are undergoing management changes, which eventually may have webloggers wanting to move from one tool to another. Some webloggers will always want to stay in a hosted environment – it is pretty simple and carefree. But others are going to want to move on, and this includes users of Typepad, Manila/Radio, Blogger, Live Journal, JournURL, Bloghorn, and eventually AOL. We as users must insist on, nay demand interoperability, or risk getting locked into one specific tool.
Saying this isn’t picking on the tool makers, and isn’t being disloyal. I see that missing weblog of John Robb’s and I’m disturbed at how easy it is for months of writing to just disappear. Sure John may have been the one to delete the weblog entries – but when you don’t control your pages….pffft!
You don’t need technical know-how to know that this is Not a Good Thing, no matter how much you like the tools…or the tool builders.