Sorry – figured a clichéd Web 2.0 title was long overdue. Labrhome Labourhome.org has come a long way since June 2006 when we launched, but we’ve been looking to maintain our competitive edge in this crowded arena – after all, we’ve got ConservativeHome, UKIPhome, and now Alex Singleton’s LibertarianHome.
We’re working to improve Labourhome on several massive fronts:
(fyi, eta: January 2007)
usability/user experience
We’ve taken note of the rather disjointed feel to the current process, and a new extensive reconstruct (layout and general design) is in the works. We were looking for a more natural feel to the work flow process, and we found that (in line with Web 2.0 trends), larger images (and by extension – less text) helped in this respect. A spruce-up of the entry/posting screen is also in the works. A layout that’s optimised for wide-screen monitors is also in progress, and we’re hoping to end up with a nytimes.com-esque design – minimalistic with an emphasis on content that just happens to look great. Content may be king, but distribution pays the king’s mortgage and also a Software development outsourcing could be the way to go for you, just to get your devices in order. The pre-existing ConservativeHome design simply doesn’t provide a rich user experience, although UKIPHome and LibertarianHome seem to be heading in the right direction. Enhancing all of this ought to allow easier
incentives to join
When LH came into play, our largest considerations revolved around making it easier for Labour’s non-bloggers to become bloggers – lowering the barriers to entry into the blogosphere (“where the action is”). If differing viewpoints (within the Labour ecosystem) were all allowed access to the web, a logical line of reasoning would allow for only the strongest of viewpoints (though in this case a quantitative measurement of the term ‘strongest’ lies in the eye of the beholder) to be promoted. To further these considerations, we’re working on a revolutionary system that will allow registered users to continuously import content from their existing weblogs.
How does this work, you ask? Users will be asked to submit an RSS formatted feed within their LH preferences page, and the contents of this feed will be pulled in as content into Labourhome. We’re only going to allow a short excerpt of each RSS entry into the Labourhome database. There will of course be a link to the original entry (on the user’s original blog) at the end of the excerpt, and no one will be allowed to comment on the story on Labourhome. Ergo, LH users will only be allowed to recommend/not recommend entries (as they presently do), and/or click on the link to the original entry.
A couple of quick points:
- Firstly, this negates the “Duplication of content” argument – Google doesn’t like it. More importantly, LabourHome has no right to rip off any user’s content.
- Secondly we’ve enabled/created a real discussion loop. By disallowing comments on Labourhome’s version/excerpt of the original entry, we’re sending both view-based and discussion-based traffic to a user’s blog. Regardless, we’re giving power back to the user. Brilliant, no?
Within the context of easing access to Labourhome, we figured this would either kick up a massive storm, or become the future comprehensive framework for user-driven content. What could be better than allowing a real architecture of participation to flourish?
We’re also working on general performance/efficiency upgrades, but nothing sexy there. Stay tuned for more updates.
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