From the CloudEngine blog.
I’m happy to say that last Wednesday (2nd February) my colleague Richard Lovelock put the new direct messaging function live on Cloudworks. It is something that Cloudworks users have requested and we have wanted for a while. Despite a quiet launch, it has already been taken up by the Cloudworks community. And, we’re excited about its potential for fostering private discussions that can lead on to public Clouds and Cloudscapes.
Richard researched what Facebook, Linked in, Twitter and a variety of other spaces provide. He designed a system that allows private messaging between multiple participants. I’m sure you will find it quite easy and at the same time powerful to use. We are very pleased with the results – thank you Richard!
After you log in to Cloudworks, you will see a link labelled Messages in the main navigation menu. The message main-page or inbox page summarises your discussions and who was the last to reply to each thread.
The compose message page provides a neat way to search for recipients by their full name, and a list of suggestions appears as you type.
The direct messaging code is part of the open-source CloudEngine software that powers Cloudworks. You or a friendly developer can now download CloudEngine 1.1 Beta, and find out how to create your own social network. Full documentation for direct messaging is on the Wiki.
There are numerous enhancements and fixes in CloudEngine 1.1 Beta, including a handy new maintenance mode to ease system administration. And, we have implemented the new HTML5 form attributes for validation, initially on the registration form. This is most visible on Firefox 4 beta, and Opera 9.6 onwards. We will be improving other forms and integrating HTML5 form emulation for other browsers as time permits.
I’ll be at Dev8D in London next week and happy to talk more about what we’re doing with CloudEngine and Cloudworks, and how you can get involved 
So there you have it. Major new functionality is available on Cloudworks, and we have a new Beta release of CloudEngine. Enjoy!
