---
title: "Grade School Report for my weblog"
date: 2003-08-17
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2003"
    url: "/tag/2003.md"
---

# Grade School Report for my weblog

Actually in New Zealand, we don’t have “grade schools” (they’re called Primary and Secondary schools here). But I wanted to subtly reference [Jon Udell’s influential article](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/misc/oscom/intro.html) called “Grade School CMS”. i.e. I’m just being a smart ass 🙂

Things I want to do with my weblog:

1\. Contribute formal articles on the subject of the [Two-Way Web](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.thetwowayweb.com/). I’m still thinking about this, but one idea is to write a weekly “(insert Two-Way Web subject) for Newbies” article. eg “RDF for Newbies”, or “The RSS Wars for Newbies”. The Two-Way Web is on the cusp of becoming mainstream. Lots of people will soon take up blogging, moblogging, and other [New School Tools](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://blogs.it/0100198/2003/07/27.html#a1551). People will want to know what it all means, without getting into the minutiae of XML Namespaces etc.

2\. Develop my [Web of Ideas](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/07/24.html#a84) application. I’ve set up an [experimental Movable Type weblog](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://ideas.readwriteweb.com/) to develop this notion. If anyone wants write access to my MV weblog to help develop it, you’re more than welcome – [send me an email](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/mailto:ricmac@hotpop.com).

3\. Continue my **Literary Web Development** articles, as I enjoy writing these. e.g. my [Moby Dick/Semantic Web](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/08/09.html#a96) post was quite popular, although personally I was just as pleased with my [XML as Literature](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/08/07.html#a88) post (which nobody linked to).

4\. Re-design my weblog. I’ve gotten some inspiration from the recent re-designs of [Julie Wiggins](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://radio.weblogs.com/0119318) and [Keith Robinson](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/). I need to make my weblog unique-looking, plus I wouldn’t mind testing out some modern [CSS design](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.digital-web.com/tutorials/tutorial_2002-06.shtml) techniques.

5\. Synch my weblog blogroll with my RSS Aggregator subscriptions. This seems an easy win and a sensible thing to do.

Above all I want to keep following these principles when I write to my weblog:

1\. **Be Original.** Contribute something **new** to the Web of Ideas, don’t just regurgitate what other bloggers are saying.

2\. **Keep it simple**. OK I admit I’ve been influenced by [Dave Winer](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.scripting.com/) and [Jon Udell](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/) here, but I do believe that successful Web Development is all about **making things work**. If it works for the user, becomes popular, and there is room to [bootstrap](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://davenet.userland.com/2000/11/30/bootstrapping) to new levels, then that’s a success. This is how [Tim Berners-Lee](https://web.archive.org/web/20040106181428/http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/) built the Web (and he’s probably my main influence).

3\. **Automatic for the People.** This isn’t really relevant for my weblog writing, but it’s another principle I believe in for IT/Web Dev. Where possible, automate it. Of course, this is where most of the challenge (and fun?) comes in with Web Development!

Wow, I have lots of things to do! Isn’t the Web great 😉

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/08/17.html#a99))*