Ok - in line with what I'm attempting to do, I have run through quite an array of cloud based applications and thought long and hard about what I want my new online presence to be like.
To that end I took a look a few online web services. First an foremost, I understand that the web is about to undergo a pretty massive reinvention. In particular, it'll have to reimagined for touch computing (both in the form of phones and tablets). So I let the question, "how does it work with a touch interface" by my guide and went looking for components with which to build this new online presence.
Since I was uncertain what that would look like initially - I started with a webservice that was free, promised an intuitive interface(that looked touch promising). The only thing that jumped to the forefront was Webnode. And while it did as promised - I thought back to my experience with maintain websites and thought - no, I want my new presence to be more nimble than this. From somewhere around 1997 I've had some kind of blog, and the thing that is pleasant about using them is how easy it is to post. On top of this the written interface has grown. And depending on which service you use, the blog page itself serves as a basic HTML page. So really the notion of a traditional website is redundant when you think about it. More on that later.
Next I looked researched cloud applications that could provide some form of static means to update or post something I wanted to share. Again I looked towards touch computing and considered what was available. The most promising solution seemed to be SpringPad. After setting up an account and trying it on, I came to the same conclusion - it was cumbersome to use and again replicated (in a broken, slow page loading way) the functionality of a blog. So again... even though it worked as promised and would get along fine touch computing, it just wasn't what I was looking for.
So I found myself asking, what *AM* I looking for? What SHOULD the web be in a touch computing world? And, what is it that stops blogs from being a more useful web presence (as far as organization and the ability to find specific information).
The answer to both questions was the same. The web is what it claims to be... a web. So in terms as representation, it should BE a web. This is how I arrived at PearlTrees. It was a way to organize the web in a way that resembled a web, AND would be touch friendly. In terms of navigation and organization it was excellent.
It also served to answer the other question. The reason blogs aren't useful is, rather than being organized categorically, they're linear. So the more you write, the more you leave in your wake. At some point it becomes difficult to find a specific entry - or to locate the resources. If a blog is coupled with a pearl tree - the pages can be picked as "pearls" and then put together in a meaningful way.
So then the question became - which blog has the best browser/android interoperability? Can I update on my phone nearly as easily as I could at a computer?
And the solution there, is the Blogger, the very resource I'm using to produce this blog. Upon its completion I'll add it as a pearl to my pearltree and link all of the mentioned (hyperlinked) items mentioned this article.
So there you have it - the answer to the modern mobile touch enabled web presence. You can find all of the items I'm using by clicking navigate to the right and clicking on the pearltree sitemap. Just navigate to Web Presence Tool Chain. As my toolset evolves to cover my needs, I'll maintain a link to whatever I'm using there. Likewise, whenever I discuss the tool chain - I'll add the blog entry as another pearl so that they're archived with the tools.
[I failed to mention e-mail since you will need an e-mail address to sign up for accounts with these services. However you can use any one you like and it'll work fine. My personal preference Gmail because it provides a flexible e-mail interface with ample storage. Access to Google Docs (and a myriad of other cloud resources) comes with a gmail account. Since the documents editor can craft web pages, I also thought it may be handy if I ever need to produce a more sophisticated blog entry. Likewise google reader is a good way to organize your feeds. Gmail integrates right into Android and most of the other features have some freely available app to provide access. But you get the point - I can take it all with me and access it anywhere.]
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