1.
reCycld
A portal for recycling crafters
Mithat Konar
14 Jan 2009

2.
reCycld
Rationale
Development
Implementation
Looking forward
Description

3.
Description

4.
Description
• reCycld
A self-consciously Web 2.0 working name for
a community-oriented portal dedicated to
facilitating the crafting of recycled materials.

5.
Rationale

6.
Rationale
• Any reuse/repurposing/recycling (RRR) of
materials
• keeps it out of landfills
• limits loss of value and value-added
attributes of the materials
• Encouraging this is reCycld's most obvious
purpose.

7.
Rationale
• Additional goals
• Underscoring the practicability of RRR
• Underscoring the value left in RRR materials
• Promoting cottage industries for trading in
crafted RRR products and raw materials
• Inspiring larger industries to use RRR
materials

8.
Development

9.
Development
• Activity analysis led to an interaction
paradigm that I am calling social blogging.

10.
“One-to-many”
The classic Web

11.
“Many-to-one-to-many”
Classic blogging

12.
“Many-on-many”
Social networking

13.
“Many-on-many”
Social networking

14.
“Many-to-one-to-many-to-many”
Social blogging

15.
Development
• User analysis revealed a need for simplicity
over flexibility.
• inclusion

16.
Development
• Context analysis revealed a need for strong
community-supported infrastructure.
• The intent is for reCycled to be
self-maintaining and community-driven.
• Proprietary and non-libre solutions are
incompatible with this aim.

17.
Implementation

18.
Implementation
• Ideally, design decisions alone would dictate
technological infrastructure.
• However,
• This project needed to be implemented in a
short time frame
• The result must be entirely community
supportable
• Rules out custom-coded portal infrastructure

19.
Implementation
• Best approach: adapt a mature,
community-supported CMS framework.
• WordPress-MU
• Multiple-user version of WordPress platform
• Designed to host several blogs under one
domain/install
• Requires expansion and modification

20.
Implementation
• WordPress-MU adaptation
• Using a variety of plugins and extensions
• Many have been significantly modified for
use here
• All have good community support
• No Flash®
• Flash®
<> libre

21.
Implementation
• “Socialization”
• Platform was adapted to a
community-oriented social-blogging site

22.
Implementation
• Entry page
• Slideshow4
• Links to new member pages5
• Links to new members6

23.
Implementation
• Within member pages
• Links to “friends”7

24.
Implementation
• UI simplification
• Default WordPress UI can be daunting to
new users.
• Several approaches taken to simplify UI
•Drop-down menu navigation1
•Dashboard simplification2
•Disabling theme and plugin selection3
•Miscellaneous internal configurations

25.
Implementation
• Other UI improvements
• Shadowbox.js8
•Lightweight alternative to Lightbox

26.
Implementation
• Themes
• The reCycld experience is defined as having
a central entry point from which the users can
explore and discover community content.
• Both the central entry point and member sites
are based on a blogging paradigm.

27.
Implementation
• Themes
• Needs:
•Distinguish between central entry point and
member sites
•Family resemblance between central entry
point and member sites
•Lightweight for low-bandwidth connections
• Themes adapted from community-supported
Blass9

28.
Looking forward

29.
Looking forward
• Hosting
• Host must be willing to offer large and
scalable storage (~1 GB per 100 members)
• Able to provide full domain hosting, a
complete AMP stack, and SMTP services.
• Development hosting at
http://mkonar.selfip.com/recycld

30.
Looking forward
• Expansion
• Increase inter-connectivity (“socialization”)
• e-Commerce
• Translation

31.
Notes
1 Lighter Menus. WordPress plugin, online,
<http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lighter-admin-drop-menus/> (13
January 2009).
2 Simple Dashboard. WordPress-MU plugin, online,
<http://wpmudev.org/project/simple-dashboard> (13 January 2009).
3 Plugin Commander. WordPress-MU plugin, online,
<http://wpmudev.org/project/Plugin-Commander> (13 January 2009).
New Blog Defaults. WordPress-MU plugin, online,
<http://wpmudev.org/project/New-Blog-Defaults> (13 January 2009).
Toggle Admin Menus Sitewide. WordPress-MU plugin, online,
<http://wpmu.org/toggle-admin-menus-sitewide/> (13 January 2009).

32.
Notes
4 Lazyest Gallery. WordPress plugin, online, <http://brimosoft.nl/lazyest/>
(accessed 13 January 2009).
5 AHP Sitewide Recent Posts for WPMU. WordPress-MU plugin, online,
<http://www.metablog.us/blogging/ahp-recent-posts-plugin-for-wordpres
s-mu/> (13 January 2009).
6 Listem. WordPress-MU plugin, online,
<http://wpmudev.org/project/Listem> (accessed 13 January 2009).
7 Friend-List. WordPress-MU plugin, online,
<http://wpmudev.org/project/Friend-List> (accessed 13 January 2009).

33.
Notes
8 Shadowbox JS. WordPress plugin, online,
<http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shadowbox-js/> (accessed 13
January 2009).
9 Blass. WordPress theme, online,
<http://1000ff.de/wordpress-theme-blass-english-version/> (accessed 13
January 2009).