I need your help. I have a new project that will include features of Wordpress that I’m not that familiar with and I need some ideas on what plugins you’ve used in the past to accomplish these types of things.  The site is being built for a Chicago-based group of individuals who just want to get together and have fun by posting topics to the site, and displaying information on upcoming events in the area.  The owner of the site would like to see the following sections:

Streaming Music

Music files, likely in MP3 format, will be loaded dynamically into a player on the site where the visitor can turn it on or off at will.  The idea is to give the visitor a taste of Soca music from the Trini community.

Social Events Calendar

The events calendar, preferably a page on the site that displays upcoming events in the area, will be the highlight of the site and the events need to be advertised throughout the site in order to gain interest in attending them.  Site admins can enter the events through the WP admin.  An option to register for the event is a nice-to-have, but not necessary.

Photo Gallery

An easy-to-use section to visitors to upload photos to a gallery that can be displayed to all visitors.  This requirement is somewhat vague right now, but I imagine that each user who wants to submit photos will have to have a registered account on the site, and upload the photos after they’ve logged in, making them instantly visible to anyone who comes to the site.

Contacts

I’m thinking this list might be a directory of individuals who have chosen to allow their profiles to be publically available, showing their contact information at various social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.  The Media Page plugin does a nice job of displaying the media links of the site owner, but doesn’t break it down into individual user profiles. Possibly an extension of the user profile would work nicely here.

Check out my progress on the site as I update it to match some of the suggestions that you will provide here.  Visit Croiseepeople.com.

Giving in to the hype from other iPhone users, I downloaded the Qik application through Cydia on my jailbroken iPhone, and recorded a couple of very pointless videos to test it out.  I may play around with this a little more, but don’t expect anything too fancy.  My life just isn’t fascinating enough for you to watch everything I do.

My initial thoughts on Qik:

1. This seems very cool for those who are on the go and want to share what’s going on with friends or followers, assuming you have something of importance to share, which so far I have not.
2. I find it interesting that the Qik iPhone app is technically capable of streaming live video to the web, even over the AT&T Edge network, yet it can’t view the videos that it has uploaded. Perhaps this was a design flaw, or maybe they’re holding out for an official App Store release.  Who knows?
3. It appears to be simple enough to add your Qik videos (both the live stream and recorded sessions) to a web page or blog using the code that is provided with every video.
4. It’s a place to hold my iPhone videos so they don’t have to be stored on the phone itself.  I tried the Cycorder apps, but frankly didn’t have time to figure out how to add it to a stream on my website.  Qik does this automatically, so what more could I ask for?

See my video samples at http://www.qik.com/webguyatwork if you’re up for a good laugh (or not).

I’ve had my iPhone since April, and while I probably should have held back and waiting for the 3G to arrive, the original iPhone is holding its own in the world of very useful applications.  The ability to extend the phone with custom developed applications is what originally drew me away from its competitors.  Having the iPhone has certainly opened my eyes to the usefulness of the social media scene with its location-aware services.  Below is my short-list of favorite location-aware applications from 2008.

#1. Twinkle – http://tapulous.com/twinkle

I created my Twitter profile during a presentation on social media at the Burton Group Catalyst conference in June.  The presenter showed the site and I immediately signed up and started sending messages and building the start of my network.  Since then, I’ve discovered Twinkle, my favorite Twitter client on the iPhone to date.  Part of building a good social network is to find people around you who are posting messages.  Twinkle’s “nearby” feature can be tuned from as close as your local neighborhood (mine’s pretty quiet) to everyone in the world.  I’ve found a lot of good people by using this feature, and it’s one that I frequent throughout the day, every day.

#2 Brightkite – http://www.brightkite.com

The Brightkite application is very simple to use and allows you to view what’s going on in nearby locations, including integrated photos.  The nice thing about Brightkite also is that it posts your updates to your Twitter timeline so you don’t have to post similar updates in both applications.  This application was just updated on December 15th to resolve an issue with using placemarks on the iPhone.

#3 – The Weather Channel – http://www.weather.com

Though I don’t use this one on a daily basis, it is very cool that it knows where I am and will automatically get the weather for my

current location without me having to type in my zip code every time.

#4 Google Earth – http://earth.google.com

This application is a bit bulkier than the built-in maps feature of the iPhone. However, it’s a very cool little maps application for locating yourself quickly and finding your favorite places around you.  Tilt the phone up for  a more level view of your current location.  From my house, I can tip the phone up and see Lake Michigan, some 60 miles away!!!

What are your favorite location-aware applications?  Maybe you will persuade me to try some of them out.  Submit your replies below.

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post on building a sidebar widget for the “Social Media Page” plugin from Philip Norton.  After playing around a bit more with the widget code, and taking a look at another widget example, “Twitter Widget”, I managed to break my code out into another separate file which I will describe here.
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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.