Kottu Soft Launch
I’m hesitant to launch this cause we’re still hacking (re: breaking) the code, but Kottu.org is functional and I use it all the time.
It basically takes like 30 Sri Lankan blogs/sites that Me, Mahangu, and the World Bank picked. There’s no editorial board as such, if you want to add or remove a site just email me or Mahangu or ask for admin access. I stress remove as well. As the Manolo debacle illustrates, some blogs are better left personal.
Kottu.org is running on Gregarius.net a brilliant server-side aggregator by Marco Bonetti. If you’re unclear what that is it’s OK, Kottu is meant for reading. I’ve been testing for Marco and giving him feature requests which he’s filled brilliantly. I love the tags, especially the display that makes the font bigger if the tag has a lot of posts in it. And it uses AJAX, which lets you.. nevermind. Here’s an early FAQ:
What does kottu mean?
I understand it as the Sri Lankan version of poutine. For non Quebecois readers, it’s like a big mess of roti (uh, like a pancake) and chilis and vegetables and assorted meats. It’s made by some guys chop-chop-chopping the ingredients on the board. If someone could define ‘Kottu’ on wikipedia it would be useful, I’m not really qualified.
What is kottu.org?
Modern websites spit out the content of their posts as XML (specifically, RSS, Atom, or Wu-Tang). Those feeds can be pulled into other places. Kottu.org pulls in feeds from like 30 Sri Lankan blogs and websites so you can get a quick glance at the Sri Lankan blogosphere. It also uses tags, which let you add keywords to posts. For example, all the flames (bitchfests) between people are tagged ”flames’ and filed here: http://kottu.org/feed/tag/flames.
How do I add a tag?
Under the titles it says ‘Edit Tag’. Click that and it’s pretty easy. Separate multiple tags with spaces, and try to use tags that people have already uses. That is, use the most general tag possible.
How do I add my blog, website?
Email me (indi AT indi.ca), Mahangu (mahangu AT gmail.com), or the World Bank (kottu AT worldbank.org).
Do you exercise editorial judgement?
Do we have editorial judgement? If it’s Sri Lankan and has a feed it can go in the Kottu. I guess stuff like advertising and attacks on other people could come up, but it hasn’t yet.
How do I remove my blog, website?
Email me (indi AT indi.ca) or Mahangu (mahangu AT gmail.com)
How do I get a blog?
Try Blogsome or Blogger for good free and fast options. I prefer Blogsome cause it uses WordPress. If anybody really wants I can give them FTP access to part of a server i run, but not much more support beyond that.
If you’re a company you probably want a professionally designed site. Vesses is a good Sri Lankan firm. I do design as well. As far as I know everyone else in Sri Lanka sucks.
How is this better than a personal Feed Reader?
Besides the community aspect, it’s not. Get a Feed Reader.
This FAQ is by no means conclusive. I’m just tired of writing.
I started off not really liking General Sarath Fonseka, him being part of the aggressive war effort. I didn’t support the war (largely cause I thought it would fail), and I thought Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Fonseka were gleefully stomping everything. Fonseka even came out and said “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people,” in 2008 (
General Sarath Fonseka was arrested on a bunch of trumped up charges, but mainly for daring to threaten Mahinda in a Presidential election. Despite his poor health, Fonseka was arrested in February 2010 and sentence to three years. Word on the street now, however, is that he’ll be released soon. Like any day now. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told 
I’ve been testing a lot of apps. A very interesting one is iPlayboy, from Playboy magazine. It’s bad porn but a good magazine, especially since you can read issues from its cultural heyday – the Mad Men era of the 60s.
I’m going to get back to blogging. I buy a shitload of stuff on my iPad. Not that I like spending money, and the exchange rate terrifies me, but it’s just so easy, and so good. For example, I’ve been reading comics again. Spiderman, and 
Hey, I’m Larry Page, from Google.. I’d like to buy your site. Would that be ok? I’ll pay 500,000 USD$. We’d also like to employ you and Mahangu at Google Labs. How does 5000$USD a month sound? Alright, I’ll throw a BMW in as well. I’m a good mood.
Well let me know. I’m constantly finding new uses for paperclips.
Ciao.
if you’re going to make shit up ask for more than 500$/month. I’d rather go back to Ohio and bag groceries. Desi Media Bitch got fake-bought for 60 lakhs.
Why you ungracious commie! Do you know who I am? I have a good mind to ban you from google. And that will be the END OF THE WORLD FOR YOUR LITTLE COMMUNITY, twerp! Muhahaha!
Now, where are is that box of pringles?
[...] the 1000 day mark sometime during Dec 31st 2007 and Jan 4th 2008. I calculated this based on this “soft launch” post by Indi which places Kottu.org’s “birthday” as 5th April 2005. The soft launch date is [...]
Please join my site to your blog.
I try to display 3d modeling and trutorials
thanks
upul