Do you know how easy it is to get a Content Management Software (CMS) website up and running? I’ll tell you how easy it is. Recently, I decided to create a website for my family and I wanted it to be an open source CMS with good user management module, available templates and lots of plug-ins or add-ons. I also wanted to put the site together as quickly as possible with minimum coding. The reason for the website is to create an environment for sharing and staying in touch. My family members live in various parts of the world and if we are lucky, we see each other once a year. Now with the generation Y kids growing up, I thought it was time to network and get to know each other better, especially the next generation. Hence, the idea of a common website.

Joomla came to mind as a CMS platform that I can install and try out. Although Joomla wasn’t my first choice. The hosting company I am with, Bluehost, provided multiple CMS installs that I could choose from and install was easy using Simple Scripts or Fantastico Deluxe.

Within minutes, I had installed Joomla 1.5.8 using Fantastico Deluxe. Once the installation was completed, I login to the Administration site and started putting the site together.

The beauty of using Joomla CMS is its vast availability of extensions and the community developing, supporting and building the product for its user base. Joomla’s extension directory has over 3,500 extensions which you can download, install and configure for it to appear on the front-end of your website.

Here are the extensions I downloaded and installed.

1. ccBoard Forum to add a discussion forum in the CMS
2. Event List to create and display a list of birthday reminders
3. Phoca Gallery to add a photo gallery and photo management on the front-end
4. yvComment to allow users to post article comments
5. JoomlaWorks Simple Image Rotator to display rotating pictures on the website
6. ShoutBox to add interactivity by allow users to post short messages/shouts on the home page
7. JoomlaWorks AllVideos plugin to embed online streaming videos inside the content items as well as video or audio content that resides either on the server or some remote server.
8. Finally, I added the Community Builder extension which extends the website user management systems and management of users.

Key features of Community Builder : extra fields in profile, enhanced registration workflows, user lists, connection paths between users, admin defined tabs and user profiles, image upload, front-end workflow management, integration with other components, like PMS, Newsletter, Forum, Galleries.

Just by configuring the extensions and tinkering with sections and categories to appear on the front-end menus, I put together a CMS website without having to add a single line of PHP coding. The power of Joomla is in its CMS framework and its vast resource of extensions. Now Joomla has got me all excited about creating more website.

Here is a screenshot of the family website using Joomla.

Next: More on Joomla’s Community Builder extension

Another great giveaway from SitePoint.com. For 14-days, they are allowing you to download a free copy of The Art & Science of CSS e-book if you follow @sitepointdotcom on Twitter

Here is preview of the Table of Contents.

What are you waiting for? Get your copy now.

Google Insights for Search is a search tool that shows you search volume patterns across specific regions, categories and time frames. I decided to try out Insights for Search to see for myself. I did a search on WordPress Theme, applying a worldwide filter and looking at a time frame range between 2004 – present. The search result was quite interesting.

If you look below, you will see a steady growth between 2004 and now which is as expected considering weblogs become popular in recent years but what is more interesting is to see that the majority of regional interest in WordPress Theme is from the Asian region, mainly Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singapore, etc. (Take a look at the screenshot no. 2).

The assumption I can make based on the search result is the growth of Broadband usage in the Asian region and the availability of lower cost shared hosting have contributed towards the interest in creating a self-hosted blog, hence the search for WordPress Theme.

Screenshot no. 1

Screenshot no. 2

The rising search terms gives even more interesting insights into my search on WordPress Theme. Clicking on WordPress Magazine Theme reveals that a Western region interest and the interest picked up in 2007.

Screenshot no. 3

Screenshot no. 4

Google Insights has just revealed very useful information for me which I can use strategically if I am planning to advertise WordPress Theme products. The key search phrases reveal a completely different regional audience.

My analysis tells me that the Asian region WordPress users are still searching for “free” themes but in the Western region, users are more interested in magazine style themes and are more likely to pay for these themes.

Another reason could be that the Western region users are using WordPress for business and the magazine theme is more appealing and professional looking while the Asian region users are mostly personal blog users.

The revelation is Google has given another powerful free tool for users and web strategist to learn more about search patterns. It is a tool that should not be overlooked.

Link: http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Here is your chance to win a brilliant Design by Humans t-shirt of your choice. For a limited time only I will randomly select a winner who will get to choose a t-shirt of his/her choice from Design by Humans if you subscribe to my Web Technology feed by email.

All you have to do is enter your email address in the box below and click on subscribe. You will receive an email from Feedburner which requires confirmation. If you subscribe and confirm before 25th December 2008, you will be entered into the contest to win a Design by Humans t-shirt.

I will announce the winner on Christmas day and the t-shirt will be shipped to the winner once a design and size is selected. So subscribe and win!

Design by Humans

Someone wrote me an email yesterday sharing a link that streams TV and live Radio Stations to your desktop/laptop using your Broadband connection. It is UK Media Hub site so you will get to watch the BBC channels, ITV channel and news channel like Al Jazeera.

Here is what was written in the email:

http://www.easyonlinetv.com is a UK Media Hub Site that provides a selection of the best UK TV online and Internet Radio. There is also a Page that provides Links to all the Major UK Newspapers online. You will need a Media Player installed to connect with the streaming TV and live Radio Stations. And the best is – it’s all free!

This morning I received an email from John Reese of BlogRush. The news I received is that BlogRush is shutting down the service and will not be selling the company and product to anyone although there have been offers.

I took down the BlogRush widget months ago because I didn’t see that it serve any purpose on my blog. It just didn’t bring me the traffic I thought it would.

For you guys who are still using the service, it is time to take down the widget. I think it is worth mentioning that BlogRush was a brilliant idea but it is unfortunate that it couldn’t survive. In reality not all Web 2.0 projects can survive the test of time.

Here is the email I received from John Reese:

After careful consideration, we have decided to shutdown the BlogRush service. If you have the widget code on your blog you will need to remove it.

John Reese

Wordia.com is new and it is an online website that presents word definition through video clips. It is a participative website where you create an account then create your video describing a word, e.g. Beer, Hangover, etc. and then upload it to the site.

This website is unique because dictionaries have always been textual. Before dictionaries were made available online, we used to own hard cover dictionaries that weigh heavier than a decent laptop. With Wordia.com, it displays the meaning of a word in text, its synonym and then you watch a video of someone describing the word. It adds another dimension to the joy of learning words. I think some of the videos on Wordia.com are done by professional actors. So if you are up for it, you can create a video, add humour to it and upload it to the website.

It is an interesting start-up. I hope the website will grow virally like YouTube. I included two videos describing the word invention and beer. If you have a few minutes to spare, do watch the video and let me know what you think.

Invention

Beer

Thanks to HongKiat.com, I learnt about Design by Humans, the cool tee shirt site designed by humans for humans.

Anyone who is interested in design can upload their design to Design by Humans and if it gains popularity, the design will be printed on tees. If you like a design, you can vote for it. For example I like these two designs so help me by voting for these designs so that they will be printed on tees.

Click here to vote:
http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/31367
http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/30864

The tees are priced around $20/$25 and if you order over $70, they will ship the tees to you free. They come in men and women sizes which I think is great. I am fed up of getting tees that are too big for me because they only come in one size (L)!

Here are two tees that I like – An American Werewolf in London and CMYK.

Don’t forget to vote:

http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/31367
http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/30864

Streaming on-line multi-media content is a hot topic of discussion this week. Just a few days ago I read that IMDB is allowing their readers to watch full length movies on-line. Today MySpace Music made an official announcement that it will allow the entire back catalogue of artists to be streamed online through their website.

Until now, an artist is only limited to stream four songs on their MySpace page. With MySpace Music you can listen to all the music you want when you are logged on to the site but if you wish to download the songs, you’ll have to pay 79p per song. Although there is no mention of song quality.

The service is set to be available in the UK before Christmas. The rivalry is heating up for Apple iTunes. I’ve been buying all my songs from iTunes in the last couple of years, I think this Christmas I will download the No. 1 hit from MySpace Music for a change.

I signed up for a Twitter account some time ago but didn’t really get into it. Why? I don’t really know why. I guess it didn’t appear as an interesting Web 2.0 application at that time. I was spending more time on Facebook, Orkut and other social networks but today I decided to give Twitter a go. I login to Twitter (I amazingly login without forgetting my password ) and started using it just for fun.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is not a social network. It is more of a micro blog. I say that because you can twit as much as you like as long as it is 140 characters or less per twit. It is amazingly simply and straight forward to use and quoting Chris Pirillo, Twitter is organised chaos. As a Twitter, you can follow other Twitters and get updates whenever they twit. Other Twitters can also follow your updates.

How do you Twit?
You can twit directly from the Twitter website, use IM, mobile phone SMS or install a mobile Twitter application or a desktop Twitter widget on your computer and use it to twit whenever you want.

Twitter resource
Caroline Middlebrook has written a comprehensive guide on Twitter called The Big Juicy Twitter Guide. Read about it here.

Chris Pirillo’s video Follow me on Twitter is available on YouTube.com

Twitter in plain English by Lee LeFever gives you an overview picture of what Twitter does.

Follow me on Twitter
My twitter profile: http://twitter.com/ashchuan