CSJ - Test 2.6.1

For the last few days I’ve been tinkering with a new beta version of Word Press (2.5) and it looks very promising. Everything desired might not be there when it goes live but the approach that Matt Mullenweg and the development team (DT) are taking seems to provide the flexibility to hack, tweak and plugin till our heart’s content.

My purpose in sticking my nose in was to look at the core design of what the development team (DT) is doing and I’m impressed. Fifty years in the IT business taught me that pioneers run a high risk of taking arrows in the back and from the commentary, complaints and suggestions I’ve seen at the WP Forum and through the “Testers Digest,” Matt and the team are taking their share but they’re handling the situation pretty well.

The thing that makes me so upbeat is the new open communications like the “Testers Digest.” In the past, the public was left completely in the dark and developers had to guess at what would be most accepted and least liked. I think when 2.5 (or whatever the name) is live, the DT will have a good handle on what the public thinks of their effort.

I decided to get peripherally involved because of my frustration over WP’s inability to handle multimedia files. The Net has evolved to the point that blogging and other web mastering now require regular inclusion of audio, video, Power Point, slide shows, applets, photos, etc., and WP just can’t handle MM unless the Web Master goes in and virtually hard codes the inclusion into the post, and even then the WM has to manage the MM archives outside of WP’s installation.

Also WP’s poor performance with search results and static pages is another serious concern.

I’m not privy to plans for hosted WP sites like Matt offers but the future looks good for separate installations like I prefer. I already see personal WP sites that are as exotic and sophisticated as large corporate portals but those are usually owned by IT pros or by people with the financial resources to afford slick, content-rich sites. I think the new direction will expand that capability to all WP users that are willing to put in minimal effort to learn how to use the expanded capability.

WP had reached a crisis point and Matt and the DT have addressed that. The package needed an overhaul to allow amateur-hobbyist Web Masters to effectively and quickly integrate their audio-video archives, photo galleries, static pages, Flickr, the newly announced Photo Shop Express, FaceBook, other Sociables, and other special features right into their sites. I think the new WP will be a good start down that road.

Here’s a video report from Matt. It’ll give you a hint of what the future looks like. You can also get a heads-up by keeping an eye on Word Press Planet.