NewsCloud's Community Starter Blog

NewsCloud Open Source Code Meetup in Seattle: Facebook Newsroom Module

We're having our first code meetup in Seattle. This is the first in what will hopefully be a monthly series on open source code development and the NewsCloud platform.

At the first session, we'll be talking about LAMP-based open source development tools and the open source Facebook Application Newsroom framework. If you're interested in learning more about Facebook application development, this will be a great introductory session.

I recommend that you have basic PHP/MySQL skills to get the most from this session.

Please RSVP for the location and so we can keep a headcount of how many people to expect.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 22, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
WHERE: Belltown (RSVP for exact location)
QUESTIONS: email us

Technorati Tags: facebook applications, meetups, seattle

Browse incoming stories from around the Web

NewsCloud has a new Incoming Stories page which allows you to browse feeds from around the Web. On the new page, you can browse stories that readers have posted to NewsCloud or wire feeds from our partner sites, other mainstream media and even reader blogs! You can also visit your account page and add your own blog to share with NewsCloud readers. If you don't have a blog, you can get a free WordPress blog at NewsCloud.

Technorati Tags: rss, newswires, incoming stories, free blog, wordpress

NewsCloud Now Offers Comment Rating

Now you can rate the comments of other NewsCloud readers. You can also sort a comment thread by date or ratings. Link to example

Technorati Tags: comment ratings

Open Source Facebook Newsroom CMS Application Beta

Today, we're releasing a beta of our new open source Facebook Newsroom CMS application framework:

The Facebook Newsroom CMS framework is generic Facebook application code which can be quickly and easily installed, configured and customized for any small organization wanting to establish a sophisticated Web presence within the Facebook community. We hope this framework will drastically reduce the barrier to entry for organizations wishing to leverage Facebook. See our demonstration site at Facebook.

While Facebook has Groups and Pages that are easy to set up, they are also quite limited in functionality.  These features are not conducive to community-building, engagement or organizing. Until now, building a Facebook application with broader capabilities required a significant investment of $5  - $15,000 minimum. This framework provides the easiest, most customizable and economical solution for small and/or non profit organizations to run an application on Facebook.

It's essentially a start up kit for small organizations wishing to build a Facebook application without spending thousands of dollars. It's also a great starting point which can later be enhanced and extended with additional features. With just a few hours, a Web developer with basic PHP skills can launch your application. Hosting can even be obtained free for one year at Joyent (waiting list may exist for free accounts).

Since the framework is open source, it can grow over time as the development community contributes new capabilities. You can download the source at SourceForge or learn more at our Wiki.

Available Features

The default framework provides some basic pages (like a basic Web site or Drupal or Plone installation) e.g. Home page, Newsroom, Photos, Wall, Discussion Forum, Invitations page and About page. It also provides basic content management (CMS) features for customizing the site from within a Web-based management user interface which many users are already familiar with. Pages can be turned on or off or content edited in place.

The news features include integration with your organization's own RSS feed (from a blog or Web site) and the NewsCloud Newsroom which provides real time community-driven news content on a variety of topics. The NewsCloud Newsroom can also be fully customized. If you have a Drupal-based Web site, check out the Drupal NewsCloud module.

The CMS supports HTML blocks and iFrames to allow you to integrate advertising e.g. Google AdSense, fundraising e.g. ChipIn, photos e.g. Flickr slideshows and more.

See the generic demonstration site on Facebook for examples.

For updates, please check back at the NewsCloud blog or subscribe to our feed.

Newsroom Wiki Project Page

Download the code from SourceForge

Drupal Newsroom Module and demonstration site

Requirements

Facebook Developer account
Linux hosting with PHP 5.x (4.x with minor changes)/MySQL 4.x

Possible hosting options:

Joyent
JohnCompanies
Amazon S3  (may be a bit expensive for some organizations)

Questions?

Set up instructions are included in the readme file with the code download. As usual, please contact me via email at jeff@newscloud.com with any questions, bug reports or feature requests. Thanks all!

Talk About This feature added

We've introduced a new feature at NewsCloud called Talk About This which emails readers when there's an important story to discuss (no more than every 2-3 days). If you wish to turn off this feature, you can opt out at anytime by changing your subscription settings in your profile. Talk about this will help stimulate discussions on hot topics and breaking stories within our community.

The first two stories were: Studies: CO2 output must cease altogether and Tibetan monks 'surrounded' by Chinese troops ... join the discussions there...

Technorati Tags: comments, talk about this, email alerts

Rich text editing for comments and story captions

We're experimenting with adding the open source FredCK editor to NewsCloud comments and story posting. The editor makes it easier to edit and format rich text comments and and captions. Please give it a try and let us know what you think. You can see it here and here.

If you run into any bugs or problems with it, please email me.

Technorati Tags: fckeditor, rich text formatting, comments