I discovered today a site called WriteTheWeb, which is "a community news site dedicated to encouraging the development of the read/write web". Like me they believe the Read/Write Web "doesn't just mean writing words, it means any time the web experience becomes two-way." This is an important point, because a lot of people have no desire to publish writing on the web. I'm only interested in it because I enjoy reading and writing, and I love web technology - so writing to the web is the best of both worlds for me! But the Read/Write Web is also about interacting with websites and applications. It's a two-way communication where information and transactions are personalized, or at least able to be customized.

Mark Pilgrim: "I take in a lot of raw data, synthesize it, and spit it back out in ways that many people can understand."

Mark Pilgrim and Neil Deakin are two very smart web developers, but more importantly they both have the ability to document complex web technology in laymans language - so that wannabes can learn it too. This is different to technical writing, which means documenting a piece of software for its end users.

One of the best ways to learn something is to document it. The beauty of the read/write web is that it makes it easy to do this, and easy for everyone to contribute.

Revision 24/7/03: I struck out the sentence about technical writing, because tech writing as a discipline actually covers writing for both wannabes and end users - and many other types of audiences too.

What is my novel about? I'm still working on the plot, but I can say that a couple of the main themes will be Two-Way Communication and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The main character's name is Declan Atomz and he's a 30-year old Technical Support for a dot com software company. He's an amateur astronomer and a lifelong "tinkerer" with electronic equipment. In my current plans, I have him undergoing a big transformation later in the novel - which has a little something to do with the SETI theme ;-)

btw, one reason why I'm writing this novel is to explore themes - such as two-way communication - that seem to demand a bigger canvas than a weblog. I got the feeling during the "broadcasting vs conversations" dialogue last week that I needed a more creative way of expressing my ideas, as some people didn't grok what I was trying to say. Perhaps this was due to the way I said it. So I'm hoping the process of writing a novel in a month will not only enable me to fully explore these themes that want a wide canvas, but at the end of the process I'll hopefully be a better weblog writer for it.

Dave Winer: "Much weblog writing is functional, not artistic. Jon Udell...writes about SpiderPhone because he wants to tell you about a piece of technology that interests him. The writing helps him sort it out, even if no one were to read it."

One of my goals in my weblog is to write original articles, rather than simply link to lots of other weblogs. So I like the above quote from Dave Winer, because it sums up my attitude to weblogging. Writing about my chosen subject, the Read/Write web, helps me to analyse it. Publishing to a weblog pushes me to come up with new ideas, because it defeats the purpose to repeat what others are saying. I'm pretty sure no one is reading my weblog right now but, like Dave says, it doesn't really matter. My weblog is my creative outlet - not to create "art" but to understand and create new ideas about the Read/Write web. Who knows, maybe someday thanks to my weblog I will come up with the next killer web app! ;-)

I read with interest Jon Udell's OSCOM keynote slides. The main subject is how to write the web "in a rich way" - and by "rich" he means semantic. Udell talks about there being a lack of easy-to-use XML writing tools for the Web. Weblog tools are user-friendly and they are the killer app for web writing, but they lack the ability to create structured XML information. Content Management Systems on the other hand have become bloated with features, making it difficult for non-technical people to use them.

Udell suggests that simple doses of metadata, added consistently to common markup such as titles or class attributes, will help weblogs and CMSs alike bring semantic structure to Web writing.

I did a search around the Web on this topic. There seems to be some confusing terminology out there. Firstly regarding rich text editors - the word "rich" in these products refers to presentational markup. For example: bold, italics, underline, bullet, indent, font type. These products basically emulate what popular word-processing software does. Similarly when Macromedia talk about a Rich Internet Application, they mean a Flash-based browser application. I believe when Udell talks about writing "rich" Web content, he is talking about adding structure and meaning.

Writing to the Web is what weblogs and CMSs are all about. Being able to add metadata to Web content, without having to handcode XML or feed a CMS monster, is the holy grail for these tools. As a Davenet from 2000 stated: "...simplicity is the single biggest thing that's in the way of the Web as an easy writing environment". RSS2.0 is a good example of a simple and easy to understand XML format, which still has rich functionality. We need the same simplicity and richness in the tools we use to write to the Web.

My skillset covers:
- Web and technical writing (including software specs)
- Social media analysis and research
- Web 2.0 consulting: including strategy, specs, product design, RSS and blog development, end-user documentation and marketing literature.

My niches are of course Web 2.0 and RSS. Feel free to email me at readwriteweb@gmail.com.

Marc: "The process is fascinating - an interview where you get to decide what's talked about, an intelligent discourse happens at your pace and you even get to read it before it's published.

This the way Interviews should be done."

And Lucas follows up with:

"I think that Richard's style is characteristic of writing that's native to the net. He's a patient and thoughtful guy, and his b.s. meter is pretty sensitive."

They're both right of course ;-) A little background about my interviewing style. I've done about 5 'formal' interviews now (including one yet-to-be-published). For each new one, I start by thoroughly researching the interview subject. Based on that foundation, I devise a set of questions - usually long-winded (oops, I mean in-depth) and on a general theme that I've decided I want to explore. Depending on the circumstances, I'll conduct the interview by email or phone - or both. The interview process is collaborative and, apart from writing the actual questions, I find myself "shaping" the content more so than writing it.

The reason for the content tabs is to provide topical ways to navigate through R/WW's content - and also to help focus our writing on those topics. One inspiration for the tabs was Gigaom.com, who implemented them last year in their re-design.

Let us know what you think, bearing in mind that we haven't 100% finished it yet.

I finished up at my day job yesterday, so as of today I'm working 100% virtually - with people and companies from Silicon Valley, Britain, perhaps even Australia. I do have a little bit of work here in New Zealand and in time I hope to put my Web 2.0 knowledge to good use in my own country. But for now, I'm using the Web to do my business. Skype, Gmail and now it seems Google Talk. These will be my communications nexus.

So what am I up to? Here are some of the things I'll be doing over the next few months:

- Traveling to San Francisco for the first two weeks of October, for the Web 2.0 Conference and to meet with people and potential employers.

- Writing a book. I wonder if you can guess what the topic is? ;-) The publishing contract is all but signed, so I'll give you more details soon.

- Freelance analysis and writing work. Here are just some of the projects I've already done:

- Spec Writing for Broadband Mechanics
- A research assignment on RSS/Search/Aggregation in the media space
- A competitive analysis and product comparison / benchmarking for a magazine website
- Analysis of 'The Long Tail'
- Report on defining the RSS vendor landscape (nb: I will be publishing the data for this soon, here on R/WW)

So if you have any work along those lines, please let me know :-)

I have other irons in the fire, which will be brought to light in due course. Plus I intend to re-design Read/Write Web, as it's due for the next phase of its life too!

For now, I'm going to relax and enjoy my new freedom and my birthday with my family. After that I need to sort out the admin parts of self-employment (home office set-up, taxes and so forth), catch up with blogosphere news, and go to work!

Sorry my weblog writing is taking a back-seat this month (not to menion my reading!). My novel has some interesting themes though, especially of communication. Even if the end result is a dodgy novel, the process I'm going through will be worth it (one hopes).

No the All Blacks didn't exactly hammer Wales, but hopefully the process of having a tough game will be worth it for them too ;-)

One of the things I'll be doing is co-writing a book for O'Reilly Media on the topic of Web 2.0. I started writing it this week.

I've also just started a ZDNet blog, called Web 2.0 Explorer. There are two posts up there already, including one I wrote tonight entitled What is Web 2.0.

With all this Web 2.0 writing I'm doing, you may be wondering what's going to happen to Read/Write Web? Don't worry, my focus here on R/WW will remain on Web 2.0. Indeed I will be doing more detailed analysis and theory posts on the topic. There'll be more deep thinking and I'll be blogging ideas that I plan to cover in the book. I've been impressed by Chris Anderson's ability to develop ideas and gather feedback from the blogosphere about The Long Tail for his book, so I'm hoping to do something similar here.

Oh and I have some exciting new features to try out on Read/Write Web. Stay tuned ;-)

So, over the coming months I'll be drilling down into Web 2.0 on R/WW, in a book, and on my new ZDNet blog. The next step is probably to get a Web 2.0 tattoo.

Over the holidays I will read Erik's Nanowrimo entry, plus any other ones I can find. If anyone reading this has posted their Nanowrimo entry online, let me know as I'd love to read it. As 2004 approaches, I'm thinking about how to further develop my writing...and, not unrelated, develop my career in web technology. It's my goal now to get something published in paper form, perhaps even earn some money from writing. That would be the ultimate goal for me, to earn my living and support my family from writing. But one step at a time, I have a lot of work to do.

Now back to the one thing at the end of my novel that needed fixing. I realised a day or two after I'd finished that I'd left Declan typing at his computer while his partner Florrie was getting ready for their date. It didn't seem quite right, but at the time I was too tired to fix it. However Andrew reminded me of it the other day, pointing out that Florrie was being treated unfairly again. This is a very valid point and one which I have fixed up tonight, simply by adding a few more sentences. I will re-post the PDF tomorrow, but here's the amended ending which places the final emphasis back on Declan and Flo's relationship - where it belongs:

Declan read the email from the alien a couple more times. He pondered it for a few minutes, his brow furrowed in serious thought. Then Declan's eyes relaxed and he smiled. He hit the "Reply" button and started writing.

"Declan?" Florrie was standing at the door. Declan turned around and smiled at her. "Flo, you look beautiful", he said and Florrie blushed. Her brown eyes glistened with a mix of tiredness and happiness.

Declan saved his email and then switched the computer off. He got up and took Florrie's hand.

"Shall we?" he said.

The second in my JupiterResearch blogging series is coming up later today, but I thought I'd mention my new sponsorship drive in the meantime. Basically I've set myself a goal of being self-employed in blogging-related activities by the end of this year. This will primarily be from writing (not just on R/WW), but also probably consulting and software design.

My strength though is writing - and thoughtful, analytical writing at that. Exemplified (I hope) by all the hard work I've been putting into R/WW over the past 6 months.

Up To 25% From R/WW

So to get me kick-started on my self-employment goal I'd like to try and earn some money from Read/Write Web - perhaps up to 25% of what I need to go full-time with blogging activities, perhaps less. I doubt it'd be much more than that.

For R/WW sponsors or advertisers, I am particularly targeting Web 2.0-style companies who want to reach influential, smart, decision-making people. And yes my dear readers, you can take that as a compliment ;-)

I have a couple of things in mind:

1) Obtaining a sponsor specifically for the Web 2.0 Weekly Wrap-Up. This would involve a banner at the top of each Wrap-Up article and perhaps a "proudly brought to you by..." mention. Nothing inside the editorial though.

2) Permanant sponsor banners in the right-hand gutter. NB I may need to think about re-designing my blog, as the 3-column design can be restrictive.

Any thoughts about all this? Feel free to let me know in the comments below. Plus of course if you'd like to be a sponsor, send me an email :-)

Jason followed up in a later comment with this:

I wrote the following as a comment in Jason's weblog, but I think it's worth publishing here too. It's an interesting issue and I'd be keen to hear your feedback. Here's what I wrote (tidied up slightly):

I wonder if weblogs are making our reading and writing habits temporal and 'always unfinished' (to twist the term 'always on')? Having written an article for Digital Web Magazine (and I must get around to writing another one), I can confirm it takes at least a couple of weeks to 'craft'. Whereas with my weblog, although generally I write carefully crafted long-form posts, it's still of-the-moment and a lot of times it's an ongoing theme I'm exploring (ie it's not "finished").

I would probably write more "finished" articles for my blog if I didn't feel so much (social?) pressure to continually update my RSS feed. As it is, I only write an average of 3 posts per/week anyway, but still...

And same goes for my reading. To participate in the blogosphere you have to keep up-to-date with the RSS feeds in your circle of influence. Which leaves less time for reading "professional" and finished articles.

OK here are my excuses:

1. I only found out about it tonight, after 10pm, which gives me precisely 3 days to prepare and come up with a plot and characters.

2. I have a full-time job and a two-year old daughter to care for in the evenings (and tonight she didn't go to sleep until after 10pm).

3. I have no idea whether I'm capable of writing a novel.

4. 50,000 words is an awful lot of words. That's 1,700 words per day.

5. It sounds slightly less scary to put it into pages: 175 pages in 30 days, or 6 pages per day. Um, no, that's just as scary!

OK, so those are my excuses. What about my motivations? How about:

1. I was an English Lit major. Nuff said.

2. The NaNoWriMo contest values word-count over artistic merit. What matters is quantity (50,000 words of it), not quality. So that takes some of the pressure off.

3. It will be an interesting process to go through and document here on my weblog.

4. I have 3 days to prepare, I have a full-time job and a baby daughter to care for. I don't have time for this. What about my weblog writing and my web developing? What about the garden? Summer is nearly here in New Zealand, it'll be too hot to write. The World Cup rugby finals are on in November!! ...hmm, you know this is crazy enough it might just work.