I downloaded Wordpress 2.7.1 today at work with the intention of using it as a collaborative tool for my team to track development plan items for discussion. We have our own renegade web server with a LAMP stack installed, so it only took me about 5 minutes to put the whole thing together. Wordpress is so stinking simple to install as long as you have easy access to your database.

So by the end of the day, I had a running copy working on our production portal and had user accounts assigned to the 5 of my team members along with a welcome post to kick off the conversation. I’ll update you later as to the success of this experiment. I have a feeling it will go over pretty well since the team is pretty tech savvy and really strive to get more Web 2.0 tools into the company.

We are also toying around with the notion of building a wiki to store all of our documents and processes. TWiki and MediaWiki are the two that we’re working with at the moment. Are there any others that we should be considering? Since we’re a small group, just about any tool will be easy for us to install. I’m interested in your feedback, so let me know your results from testing both blogs and wikis in the enterprise.

Are you testing a new Wordpress theme or plugin that you don’t want to release to the world until you’re completely ready?  Test your Wordpress blog offline by setting up a simple test site using actual content from your live blog site using the import and export features of Wordpress.

Setup

If you aren’t familiar with the process of setting up your own offline webserver with PHP and mySQL, you can check out some free resources on XAMPP, which according to the website:

“XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.”

Find the XAMPP software at: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Export Your Live Blog Posts

Your Wordpress blog (version 2.x) has a built-in feature that allows you to export your entire list of posts into an XML format that can then be read into another blog, which you will already have running offline.

On your live blog site:

• Open the Tools menu
• Click on “Export”
• Click the “Download Export File” button and save the XML file

Import Your Exported Blog Posts

Now, log into your offline site and import the file:

• Open the Tools menu
• Click on “Import”

You will see a list of options like the following (click to view full size):

To work with the above exported file, choose “Wordpress” from the list and continue below:

• Browse for the location of your exported file from the export steps above.
• You will have the option to download and import all of the linked images as well, which is a good thing to do ONLY if you have a small set of posts that you’re importing, otherwise this step could take quite a while to complete.

That’s it! Hopefully, you will now have a copy of your production blogs posts in a non-production blog site running on your local PC or laptop which you can then use to try out new code and themes without affecting the users who are currently on your site.  Happy Blogging!!!

Thanks to a quick-posting Rachel Baker (twitter.com/rachelbaker), I was alerted to an upcoming upgrade to Wordpress 2.7 that is being pushed to users of their blog site tonight at 5pm PST.  Unfortunately, the personally hosted version is not slated for availability for another month, the release candidate 1 is available for download now at http://wordpress.org/development/2008/12/wordpress-27-release-candidate-1/.

The upgrade took me only minutes to perform.  Try it out for yourself (offline first, of course):
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If you’re up on the latest trends in social media on the web, you’ve no doubt heard of Twitter, the site that asks you “What are you doing?”.  Well, some people take this question a little too literally, and others abuse the hell out of the system.  So I’ve put together a few do’s and don’ts in regards to using Twitter in a friendly manner.

• DO: Post relevant topics to your local area or questions for others around you to answer.
• DON’T: Follow people because they have a cute profile picture.  That’s creepy, dude!
• DON’T: Use Twitter as your personal blog. If you want to post things for others to read only, WRITE A BLOG, DAMN IT!!!
• DO: Make an attempt to respond to those who acknowledge your presence by asking you a question.
• DON’T: Use Twitter as a chat client and post 1-on-1 messages in the public timeline in a rapid fire format.
• DO: Follow people who have similar interests, and even introduce yourself or let the person know that you found one of their previous posts interesting.
• DON’T: Let the world know when you’re taking a trip to the restroom, or describe it when you come back.
• DON’T: Ask people for photos.  How old are you again?
• DON’T: Lure people to pornographic websites.

I know, I know, just who do I think I am making up this set of rules? Well, I’m Brian (Webguyatwork) and I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon in June of 2008 and have personally witnessed all of the above “DON’Ts” in the public timelines.  I’ve also noticed others address these in their responses, so I know I’m not the only one who’s irritated by them.

Some folks probably won’t agree with all of these points, others will be just as irritated by them and will be willing to add to the list.  If you care to have your points listed, reply below or simply “Twitter Me” with your bullet point and I’ll add it.