shawn rider dot com

I stumbled upon (not using StumbleUpon, just the regular way) a thing called Swicki. What is a Swicki you ask? Good question. Turns out a Swicki is a particular kind of search engine which returns results based on a preference profile it generates from user-feedback. And the Swicki site allows users to create their own search engines, which can be customized to return tailored results on any topic or agenda.

There are a lot of these already, probably too many to be useful. Some have cool names and topics, like Systemic Unlearning Meme, which is a Swicki dedicated to learning contemporary web design. If it returned better results… This is an example of a Swicki-in-training, as most of these Swicki engines are. A search for PHP on the Systemic Unlearning Meme Swicki yields a list of results that places PHP.net (the main hub for PHP information online) in 6th place, while Google puts PHP.net at the top of its search results (which are, albeit, preceeded by some ads and book search plugs). But I suggested a promotion for PHP.net, and PHP is a popular keyword for the Swicki, so hopefullly others have found more useful content at PHP.net than 43Things.com (which ranks second in the list of results).

On the other hand, the #1 All Hip Hop Swicki manages a bit better. On a search for Sovereign, the top results are all from major Hip Hop information outlets, and result number two mentions Lady Sovereign, my hoped-for reference. I suggested to the moderator to axe the results for Sovereign Financial and Sovereign Restaurant, so once again, I have something to come back and check on. Let’s see how this thing learns…

Along these same lines, I recently discovered Ning, through a link from BoingBoing to the CC Hits site, which lists Creative Commons-licensed music releases. The CC Hits site is very well-done and definitely on my watch list. I hope CC music isn’t all dominated by electro-remixes by kids with Acid…

Ning, however, is even more interesting. Like the Swicki site, Ning allows users to create their own user-driven websites. These are “web 2.0″ in the most conventional sense of the term (although that doesn’t make them necessarily unattractive or less useful). The CC Hits is really a standout from the browsing that I’ve done so far, integrating a media player and featuring a complete redesign of the site. Most Ning sites allow users to approve and/or disapprove postings in a Digg or Videobomb fashion. With CC Hits, this user-based evaluation should be very useful in wading through the many tracks available. Some of the other sites are, well, less obviously useful.

Ning allows users to either clone the Ning site they come across or create a brand new site based on a template. There are many different templates available, from photo and video sharing sites to social networking sites for clubs, dating sites, or even social networking sites for any member of the animal kingdom. Users can create their own Craigslist style “marketplace” site, for trading goods or services, as well as traditional blogs and discussion groups. Even more advanced sites based on or integrated with Google maps can be created.

These are two services that allow users with little to no knowledge of web design to create sophisticated websites. In a way, they are the ultimate epitome of how O’Reilly envisions Web 2.0: These sites not only allow and leverage user-interaction, they are literally skeletons for users to build their own applications that allow and leverage user-interaction to create valuable content. There is some level of meta-removal here that is pure poetry. And from a web design point of view, Ning and Swicki are examples of the beautifully modular web application design. Not only can one rework the visual, procedural and data components of the site individually and at-will, but one can completely spawn new sites and applications using a common codebase.

I’m excited to keep watch on these projects and see what develops…