I’ve identified a critical fact today about the ownership of user data. Ning has the 100% ownership of all the data I generate through my social networking site. This is a huge problem, because I cannot have any control over what my users do and post on my site. What if I want to change something (i.e. delete some photos from galleries if they seem inappropriate) or add some features (i.e. create add-ons based on the content type or tags)?
That led me towards JomSocial, which is one of Joomla components I was initially planning to implement. It costs $99 a year, but it’s supposed to really good, according to opinions I got from Joomla user forum. Many users suggested “it’s worth every penny”. The most importantly, I have 100% ownership of all data. That’s a huge difference between JomSocial and Ning. It seems that I can get a full refund within 30 days of purchase, so I will give it a try and see how it goes! I will be developing my Ning site simultaneously though, in case my JomSocial screws up.
It is an exhausting process to grow a potential user base on Twitter for my thesis project. Especially when you’re talking about people live who are on the other side of the planet. After crashing in my bed and waking up early in the morning, like 4am, I went back to my Twitter account to connect with more nail art enthusiasts in Japan. So far, “42 following, 22 followers” in five days. Not so bad. I had to unfollow some of users, who seemed to be tweeting some offensive and sexual messages. At some point, I plan on asking my Twitter followers about possible features they would like to see in my community site.
On March 22, I created a twitter account @nailistsalon specifically for my thesis project to identify other Japanese nail art enthusiasts who are tech savvy or at least comfortable using Twitter. I think the initial adopters of my service/community site will be people who are already using some type of social networking tools, such as Twitter and Mixi. I already have some friends on Mixi who do nail art, so I wanted to create a user base on Twitter as well.
The number of my followers has been growing steady since then. After four days, I’m following 35 users, and have 13 followers. Some users started communicating with me, replying to my tweets about nail art or other random talks. For example, I tweeted about curry soup I cooked last night, and one user replied, saying “手作りカレーは最高ですね♪数日の保存食⁈（笑）にもなりますしd(^_^o)”. A good sign. Whenever I talk about nail art, there is at least one response.
It’s quite a challenge to establish virtual relationships with people I’ve never physically met before. When I start following them, I usually send polite “hello, I’m following you because I think we have common interests in nail art” tweets. I don’t want to be rude and intimidating, you know.
So far I am getting a good vibe though. Some users may be interested in my project when I make an official announcement about beta testing in coming weeks. Until that X-day, I will keep up with my tweets and build a good relationship with my potential users.
Project name
My project name is “Nailist Salon”, a salon for people who do nail art. Nailist is a made up Japanese-English word that refers to manicurists and nail art technicians. It is widely used and the most common word among nail art enthusiasts in Japan. Since my target audience is Japanese, I thought “nailist” makes the most sense.
Change of plan
My initial timeline for thesis production was to design pixel-perfect wireframes before start developing the site. I figured designing UIs and wireframes does not work well if you don’t know the back-end or technical capabilities. It was so hard for me to come up with wireframes, because I didn’t know where to start! I knew that I would have to adjust wireframes when I start coding the actual site, because I cannot code everything perfect. There are certain things I cannot handle. So I changed my plan, and decided to jump into web framework testing to get the idea of what I am capable of, and come back to wireframe/UI design. Read more
I thought of using CodeIgniter framework for my thesis project, but I had been worried that CI might not be good for building user forums. I found other services such as ExpressEngine, but they are paid ones, which I want to avoid for the first prototype.
Then I found Joomla, an open source php-based CMS. It offers pretty easy-to-understand admin panel, and allows to use different extensions and plug-ins for customization. I can tweak CSS to control the front end. It seems that I can definitely add AJAX and other components if necessary. It supports Japanese language. There are over 10 extensions for building user forums. Many extensions are available for media sharing and user profile management. The most encouraging part is that there is a list of example social networking websites, including GabberTube, a video-sharing community site, and MTV’s Quizilla, MTV’s community site for polls and quizzes. Their websites look pretty solid and have features I want to have on my website. I went over some video tutorials for Joomla too, and felt comfortable with the instructions. I think I am going to go with Joomla. Now it is time to download the Joomla package and start testing the framework.
After a midterm thesis presentation, I had to re-consider the choice of web framework. Many people responded to my initial selection of Drupal, suggesting that Drupal has a huge learning curve. They were right. This week I spent some time going over tutorials for Drupal, and concluded that it indeed has a complex structure. So I started hunting for the alternative.
PHP/MySQL web framework comparison. Source: http://www.phpit.net/demo/framework%20comparison/chart.php
Given that I want my framework to be based on PHP, I looked into major PHP-based applications including CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symfony, and Zend. It seems that Cake and CodeIgniter(CI) are the two major players in the php framework battle. Cake offers more automated and well-structured framework, while CI offers light-weight and flexible solution with a low learning curve. A web developer Paul Shen makes a good comparison between the two in his blog. A developer Ekerete makes a good point in his blog about the benefit of using CodeIgniter by comparing it to Zend. Another developer Jonathan Snook supports Cake in his blog. I went to Cake and CI’s websites, checked their basic MVC structures, and felt more comfortable with the documentation and tutorials for CI. So I may start with CI and see how it goes.
For a quick site development, there are online platforms for creating social networking sites, such as Ning and BigTent. If I want to focus on widgets or apps, there is OpenSocial. I created an account for Ning to see how they structure their platform. It’s an easy, one-click solution, but does not have enough flexibility for controlling UI and functions. I will come back to Ning if I end up screwing up my framework development, and need a quick fix to my project. OpenSocial may be an interesting platform to use if I want to add some widgets or add-on features to my site.
Drupal will be my best friend for the next two months.
After I presented my finalized thesis idea last week, I started searching for different web application framework, hoping to find something suitable for my thesis project. I figured Drupal is a good place to start with. Drupal is an open source content management framework with built-in functions and add-on features including social networking, image file management, and user forums. It’s based on MySQL and PHP, languages I am very comfortable with, and supports Japanese! Yes! I need the Japanese support, because I am targeting Japanese nail enthusiasts for the first prototype. There is a fair amount of documentation available on Drupal’s website, and user forums are pretty active. Corey, one of ITP residents, told me that Amanda Bernsohn, ITP alum, used Drupal for her thesis project http://itsallaround.us/. It’s encouraging. I can always ping her if I need some help.
Here is a list of features I would like to learn more and assess if I want to incorporate them into my thesis project. It is a lot of information, so I will take advantage of the spring break, digesting all documentations and tutorials to familiarize myself with Drupal framework. I want to be able to start coding a prototype after spring break.