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*whew*

Ok…after a ton of background work, I think I’m happy with the first draft of this. I’m working on another, more complex layout, but for now this will do.

The actual upgrade to WordPress 1.5 was easy and smooth…it was basically a matter of uploading, pressing a few buttons, and it was done. The hard part was rescuing all the customizations that I’d done to my old template. 1.5 has a completely different (and I must say, non-intuitive) templating system. Once I wrapped my head around it, it was fine. Actually, it was good…it basically compartmentalizes a great deal of the layout into subfiles, and then lets you deal with each. But at first it was confusing as hell.

Coolest new feature: the background image of the header is a dynamically generated PNG file that reflects how busy my blog is. More posts/more comments, the higher the pulse, thanks to a kickass plugin called WP Pulse. It will be interesting to see how it works.

Second coolest feature: WP 1.5 supports page creation…WYSIWYG page creation using the WP engine, but outside the blog timeline and independent of it. So I can create quick stand alone pages using the WP template of my choice. Very cool feature, and moves WP into almost a full fledged Content Management System.

Love to hear any feedback from you guys, and those of you that are running WordPress…dive on in, the water is fine!

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

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