Using WordPress as a Diary, Collaboration Tool
I love it when someone points out a way to use a particular tool in ways that are fresh. One such tool is the WordPress blog, which someone has figured out can do more than just be a blog. I recently pointed out that I follow novelist David Hewson, and that he is now happily working on a netbook. David is not reluctant to try out new technologies, as witnessed by his great idea to use WordPress as a work tool.
WordPress is a blog host / editor at the core, but David got a unique idea to use it in a whole new way that I believe has tremendous potential. He wanted to have an online book diary, someplace that he can chronicle his research and work on each novel as he is writing it. He wanted a familiar tool that would work with any computer he might be using at the time, and he wanted it to be private.
It would never have occurred to me to create a private WordPress blog for such a use, but David thinks outside the box. He has detailed his process for creating and using his book diary blog, and it sounds like a really killer tool (pun intended). He is refining it as he goes and sharing that process, too. He’s going to think I am stalking him, but the truth is he has great ideas and shares them freely.
What makes this work is the ability to access the “blog” either as a privately published web page, or through the WordPress editor. This opens up multiple scenarios for interacting with the “diary”, and I can see a lot of fabulous uses for this. Imagine using this method to create such an internal blog for a major project.
You could use this as a central repository for everything about a project, of any type. You could enter, or copy/ paste information you want to save with the project. You can add links to other information, save images for later reference. All of this can be done in a totally private way, accessible to your eyes only.
You could create a private blog and add your team members as authors, and have an instant collaboration tool. Everyone can refer to the information at hand, and add anything of value to the project.
Using a WordPress private blog as a diary or project center gains a lot of usefulness through mobile applications that exist for interacting with them. There are WordPress apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry and just about every mobile phone out there. The information is thus always at hand. I can see lots of uses for a private blog.
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Um, I don’t think an “online diary” is a whole new use for a “web log”.
You are correct Sumocat, but it is for this type of private diary. It would never occur to most folks to create a private blog, never to be seen by others.
I’ve used a private Blogger account for about a year to capture my daily blood pressure readings and my workout routines. I’ve shared it with my doctor so she can go in at anytime and take a look. It’s easy to update because I just send it an e-mail any time I need, and presto, the info appears there. Highly recommended!
Interesting idea! Plus I’ll bet the doctor can input notes as well, sort of like collaborative health. A friend of mine uses a private blog to input bowling scores and various notes for his team, with each game’s results an entry in the blog. They use them to determine if people are improving, if people need to focus on certain areas, who is going to represent the team at specific events, and so on. Pretty nifty!!
The more I mess with WordPress the more it seems to me it’s a kind of Meccano set for multiple uses, some of which go well beyond the simple blog-cms-web site (and to the first commenter – yeah an online diary isn’t new and if you read the article you can see it’s not what I’m talking about).
With very little work and a few plugins WP has turned into my private information store, brainstorming area and a few other things too. Plus, if I wanted, I could share all or part of that with an editor, collaborator or research source. There is nothing else like this anywhere.
I just posted today about how you can then turn THAT into effectively a desktop app with something like Prism. It’s a million miles from the way I viewed WP until a few months ago.
Also I’m sure I’m still missing a few things here so do tell me what you are. And I don’t mind being stalked, James. Really.
David, give the iPhone WordPress app a try with this book blog. I think it can open up great things, i. e. catching info via photo for later referral.
I’ve used a private wiki (wakka wiki) for awhile now for similar purposes and love it. I can upload and edit from almost any internet browser and I can keep it all private or collaborate with others for only the pages I want to. Having a way to link notes and images and organize ideas into coherent outlines with built-in search is a great way to organize projects and ideas.
While I agree that this is an interesting, useful, and novel use of wordpress, I don’t see any major advantages of using this compared to something like Evernote, Google Notebook, or (the upcoming) OneNote Online. I’m not sure how much granularity these give you in terms of access control, but Google Notebook has sharing of at the notebook level, publishing to public web pages, etc. It also allows commenting and tagging on notebook entries.
Google Notebook, however, has the disadvantages of requiring a google account, and (I believe) being dropped from active development. Also, I suppose WP has the advantage of greater customization.
Great Article. Have you tried out Injoos Teamware. I would reckon that they have the most comprehensive integrated collaboration platform. With their latest release they have added a new twist to track and execute projects “the social way”. Checkout their Blog http://injoos.com/blog/2009/10/09/seamless-collaboration-with-release-35/
Yes, WordPress works very well for this purpose. I’ve used wordpress in this manner for about 4 years now, and I have never had reason to use anything else.