Matt just announced the release of a new theme that will make your WordPress blog into a Twitter-like environment. The theme is called Prologue, and is available on WordPress.com and as a download under Open Source GPL. (If you click on this link, it will take you to a page where you can download each theme file one by one. It would be a little more user friendly if it was all in one zip).

Update January 31, 2008: The theme is available in one zip file download at Sizlopedia.

Prologue Theme

In case it’s not clear, Prologue does not run on the Twitter engine; it is simply a WordPress theme that uses the WordPress platform to emulate Twitter’s functionality, with a few extra WordPress blog features thrown in.

This is amazing (and is another reminder as to why I love WordPress) because:

  • It is another example of the innovative brains at Automattic. Twitter has its uses, but can have many other applications with some tweaking, and currently has a few drawbacks. Automattic saw the potential, and created Prologue.
  • Prologue has the following benefits that Twitter does not:
    • Privacy: It can be private so it can be used for online project management or other types of business collaboration that should not be public. As Matt says, this type of tool can be extremely useful for communication in virtual companies, and could even replace online project management tools like Basecamp.
    • Publicity: You can create your own Twitterish network on a specific topic: you love canaries and want to connect with others who share your love? Create a dedicated online site where registered users can express themselves and share information at will on caring for canaries.
    • Comments: The ability to add comments to any item means that the main conversation contains the primary information so it stays neat.
    • Multiple RSS feeds: As Matt says, “There are RSS feeds for everything: the entire prologue, each author, each tag, and even combination or searches can be subscribed to in your RSS reader.”

Check out the demo here. I love the idea, and I can’t wait to try it out.

Introducing Prologue « WordPress.com