Write Technology

Yesterday I talked about creating a mobile web site using MobiSiteGalore. Once I created a mobile version of the Write Technology main web site, I got curious. Was there a way to take my Typepad blogs, such as this one, and create mobile versions using the same content? It seemed to me like an easy and great way to repurpose RSS feeds.

My research led me to Winksite. Winksite is a product of Wireless Ink, run by David Harper. Winksite is a free service allowing you to build a mobile web site. Like MobiSiteGalore, it’s customizable. There isn’t much yet in the way of Help or published Support (hey guys, I’m free at the moment!), but I assume it’s coming. Although Web 2.0 apps in general aren’t very good at providing documentation.

Winksite differs from MobiSiteGalore in several ways. Winksite depends a lot on RSS feeds, which is a pretty fantastic idea. First, content is controlled via channels, in addition to being able to create pages. I haven’t yet found a way to combine multiple channels on pages or more importantly to me, reorder predefined channels. However, with a little help from David Harper, I was able to easily reorder custom channels. Although it does allow you to set a background and color, you can’t customize the site with logos, headers, and footers as you can with MobiSiteGalore. Both sites are quite easy to use. When I needed support at MobiSiteGalore, I found my answer in their user forums. When I needed support at Winksite, I sent an email through their site and received rapid support.

The two sites seem to be aimed at different audiences. Whereas MobiSiteGalore sticks to strict site building for the mobile set, Winksite has broader aims. WinkSite allows you to build a mobile community.You can implement mobile messaging and collect "friends." You can also, as I did, easily "mobilize" your blog. That feature alone makes Winksite worth using. It simply takes your RSS feed and turns it into a mobile page. You lose all the fun stuff, such as the information in the right column on this blog, but it’s mobile. You don’t want all that stuff in the way.

I’m intrigued by the idea of creating a Winksite for mobile learning. You could create a community of similar learners or a class of students, all able to communicate on-the-go through this one, easy to use mobile web site.

For the Write Tech site, I’m using MobiSiteGalore to create the content web pages for the business site. Within that mobile site, I link out to a mobile version of this blog, created and hosted by Winksite. It’ s a perfect combination for me.

I also "mobilized" our wine site. For that particular site, I’m strictly using Winksite to pull in RSS feeds from both the wine blog and the wine Twitter feed.

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