As we klog, we communicate in structured ways that make sense in our little cultures. Document templates embody knowledge about what, how, when, how much, and to whom information should go.

For example, I have a collection of IT project management templates. Some, like the Flash Report, are weekly reports. Others, like a Project Initiation Document, are more like weblog stories, subject to rounds of editing.

Wish:

Let me template a post the way I can launch a Microsoft Word document with a template.

Think of templates as Shortcuts triggered before editing an item instead of after.

I envision:

Creating a new post with a template.

1. Having a list of templates to choose from.
2. Pressing a New Item button.
3. The editing page opens, with the edit box filled with content from the template.

Creating a new template.

1. Select an existing post to edit, or start a new one.
2. Revise edited content to be generic.
3. Press the "Save As Template" button.
4. See a WYSIWY preview of the template and the Edit Box (like Manila's newsItem editor).
5. Revise the template until its preview is correct (usually stripped of anything non-generic)
6. Continue by:
   • naming the template
   • describing, in a sentence or two, who should use this template and when
   • choosing to share it (with nobody, with my RCS or with the world),
   • creating a new category where all posts with this template belong,
   • choosing one or more existing to categories to default-checkbox when this template is launched
   • Press the "Save Template" button.
7. The template:
   • Now shows up in the New Item list of templates
   • Has an html rendered version for previewing

Sharing my templates.

• My Radio should generate an OPML file listing templates I'm sharing.
• I can see a list of all of my templates on My Templates page.
  • Along with a check box for each so I can:
  • change the "shared with" status
  • delete the template.
• Templates should have an attribute showing where they came from, like themes do.

Getting templates.

• Discovery:
  • Probe a UserLand RCS site for templates
  • Probe another RCS for templates
  • Probe my subscribed RSS sites for templates
  • Probe my neighborhood for templates
• Results are in a Template Gallery.
  • I see a page listing discovered template names, descriptions, sources, revision dates, and a link to a preview page.
• Probe with search criteria
  • show me templates updated in the last n days/hours, containing the word "expense report", in English
• Templates preferences page:
  • Check news RSS subscription sources for template.opml files that change.
  • Discover now.

In the future:

• The templates may be XML payloads, compliant with an industry or application specification. (For example, an SAP purchase request.)
• Before editing, more processing may take place to create a form to capture more strucutured data elements.
• After editing, more processing may take place to copy the data to a template-dictated category (SAP Purchase Requests) or to otherwise distribute the post (perhaps to SAP via SOAP). 

Am I getting this right? Suggestions please. <A title="Add Phil Wolff to your AIM Buddy List" href="aim:addbuddy?screenname=evanwolff">AIM Y! @Ryze

[aka Blue Sky Radio]

Paolo: "It's important to consider that 'set of news sources' could also mean reports generated by your accounting software, status of your servers, posts in a discussion group, orders from your e-commerce site, updates from your co-workers workflow management software.." Thanks Paolo, that's absolutely true. [Scripting News]

Wow. Have a dashboard running that is tied into the opml feeds of your workers and you can track their progress on the projects they are working on. Tie it into their blogs and you can catch documentation changes in realtime. Tie it into your database and you can be alerted to status changes instantly. SWEET!