The standalone TrackBack implementation is now released. This tool allows anyone with a server capable of running CGI scripts to send and receive TrackBack pings, and display those pings on their public site. Instructions for integration with other content management systems are included in the documentation. It is also a good reference point for any other tool developers interested in integrating TrackBack into their own systems.

This tool is being released under the Artistic License.

The standalone tool can be downloaded from here, and the documentation for the tool is available both in a README inside the distribution, and in HTML form here.

We are also releasing updated technical documentation for TrackBack. Hopefully this will provide more information to aid tool developers in integrating TrackBack.

Bill Humphries has set up Con dot Jose, a TrackBack enabled metablog for those attending and posting about WorldCon:ConJosé. In addition to standard MT TrackBack functionality, Bill has enabled Non-MT users to be able to ping to site.

The BlogMD Initiative has been launched, "devoted ... to advancing the work of making the Blogosphere an easier neighborhood to get around in". We're all for defining (and following) standards in APIs and metadata across weblogging tools. We look forward to seeing and implementing the ideas that the initiative produces.

We are releasing the TrackBack threading tool, which displays a tree display of an entire TrackBack-enabled discussion. Rather than showing just a flat, one-level list of related entries (as in the TrackBack popup window), this shows the entire thread. You can download it from here.

Installation instructions are in the README inside the archive.

Here is sample output of the threading tool for the thread that begins with this entry.

The tool is released under the Artistic License. The tool should be fun to play around with in itself, but our hope is that it could be used as the basis for other TrackBack-related tools. Possible performance enhancements could be had by writing the HTTP requests to run in a parallel fashion.

We also have plans on releasing more in-depth TrackBack documentation (about the system itself and how it can be implemented), along with a standalone version of TrackBack that does not rely on Movable Type. These will be released soon--we have a few more changes to make to them.

Because of the decentralized nature of Movable Type, it is very difficult to gauge the number of users actively using the system. We're conducting a survey to see if we can get some sort of estimate.

Please answer our 7 question survey

If you chooose to leave your email address (it's optional), you'll be entered to win one of five recently updated keys.

Please spread the word about this survey so we can try to collect a fairly accurate number.

The newly redesigned Blogroots has a new TrackBack-enabled section of the site called Blogpopuli. Paul Bausch, one of Blogroot's creators, writes:

"We hope it becomes a central space for collecting news related to weblogs. Using TrackBack, any weblog author can contribute to the flow of weblog information by pinging our server when they post about weblogs."

They've also put up a nicely compiled how-to for their users and a web form for non-MT users to ping.

So, if you're weblogging about weblogging, make sure to check out Blogpopuli.