Noël / Noel Jackson is a DJ, producer, designer, and polymath from Detroit.

Tagged: themes RSS

    P2 – It is not a mere theme, it is the future.

    Noël Jackson @ 5:05 am on 6 May 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Over at Automattic, we’ve been hard at work on P2, a, dare I say, revolutionary “theme” for WordPress. I’m very proud to have been involved with the development and design of it – I work with some amazing people and this has been an especially fascinating project.

    I put “theme” in quotes, because P2 is not just a “theme.” It is a way of thinking. Specifically about “themes,” but also about what WordPress is – it’s obviously much more than a CMS or a blogging system. Calling P2 a “theme” just doesn’t do it justice.

    As trial will show, it’s done a lot for Automattic alone. In just the past few months our modes of communication have drastically changed – more so than I would have expected – all because of P2. Also, our productivity and transparency (both internally and externally) have grown fantastically.

    WordPress “themes” are finally moving away from set formulas to attacking problems and adpating to workflows… they are doing what design is supposed to do: solve problems. Themes are becoming applications. And, something tells me, we’re going to see some amazing things from the WordPress community in the near future. I’m excited.

    Get P2 at WordPress.com or for your self-hosted blog.

    via How P2 Changed Automattic — Matt Mullenweg.


    Tags: , , , thefuture, themes,   

     

    • Tim 10:30 am on 7 May 2009 Permalink

      Thanks for the work you guys have been doing! I’m in the process of testing out the new theme on a site for my church’s youth group. We’ve been looking for a solution that would allow for this kind of flow of conversation to talk about current topics, lessons, and activity updates. What I’m doing is implementing this theme AND a membership plugin. Sounds like the simplicity of the theme will help make this happen for us!

      As always, I’m looking forward to the next new thing from my friends @ WordPress and Automattic!

    • Here’s what Noel has to say about P2! h… « WordCamp Columbus – P2 12:16 am on 9 May 2009 Permalink

      [...] am on May 9, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply Tags: P2 Here’s what Noel has to say about P2! http://jcksn.com/2009/05/06/p2-is-the-future/ [...]

    • Blantonious 9:59 am on 9 May 2009 Permalink

      Noel, great work on this. Absolutely fantastic. Is there any plans or is it already possible for me to have my twitter stream automagically post to my blog using P2? I do this on my FaceBook page using a FaceBook app already, but it would be nice to do it to my own blog also.

      Really looking forward to hearing you speak at WordCamp Columbus next week.

      • noel 7:56 pm on 11 May 2009 Permalink

        Thanks Jason! You can use one of the many twitter plugins out there, or write your own, like I did. TwitterTools is pretty popular, but there are some simpler ones too.

    • Sheri 11:11 pm on 12 May 2009 Permalink

      I don’t think people will realize the coolness factor behind P2 until they actually start using it. Revolutionary is the right descriptor when it comes to defining it in terms of a “theme.” What a cool project. Kudos!

    • Rutger 8:31 am on 25 Sep 2009 Permalink

      Very inventive!

    The Future (of WordPress Themes)

    Noël Jackson @ 7:04 pm on 3 Mar 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Once upon a time, I created web pages with some WYSIWYG editor created by Corel. It was horrible, but it allowed me to make my site look however I wanted it to. And, at the time, that meant really ugly. But I was happy as a clam, running home from school (yeah, this was a *long* time ago) I couldn’t wait to play art director.

    So, along comes the CMS revolution. It automated content, but made it harder for people to customize their sites. The art director in all of us died a little. That may have been a good thing… *cough* MySpace *cough* But in all honesty, control is what people crave and need, automation was what they thought they needed ;)

    Empowering users with the ability to play art director and control as much as they can, from within a theme, is the future. And without doubt, Jason Santa Maria was one of the first people to really pull this off and make us all think a little bit harder. Oh yeah, I made a plugin to help out with this too!

    Inline with that thinking, we need to empower users with the ability to not only control *how* the site looks, but *what* it does. We need to think about themes as more than the paint on the walls, but as the structure of the building. WordPress is about more than words. Photoblogs, videoblogs, tumblelogs, stores, applications – we need more diversity in not just the look, but the type of themes in the WordPress world. I’m not sure “theme” or “template” even covers what it is a “theme” does.

    The future is looking at the past and understanding what made the web so interesting in the beginning, and then figuring out how we can help WordPress users do just that.


    Tags: , themes,   

     

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