Re: [MLUG] blog software?

[Jeremy Hinegardner <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 06:44:00PM -0600, Mike Miller wrote:
> By the way, as one who has never done any blogging, I'm wondering how it 
> works.  Does the user log onto an account on the system to do it?  How is 
> data transmitted to the server?  Is it a secure system?

In grand consulting fashion I must give the standard answer.

    It depends.

A blog is can at its basics just be considered a concept.  But I think
wikipedia does a much better job of explaining what a blog is from a
concept[1] standpoint.

Some people run blogs with just static web pages they edit.  There are
innumerable applications that make blogging easier.  Some are hosted
solutions like LiveJournal[2] or Blogger[3].  Some are web based input
like WordPress[4] and can be as secure as the web environment.  There are
also XML-RPC based posting processes (MovableType[4], metaweblog[5]).  In
general, for web-based input its as secure as any other webapp.  Think
form submission and you're in the right ball park.  That can be
tremendously insecure, but it can also be fairly secure.  There are even
specialized desktop applications that speak various blog posting APIs so
you can write up a blog post on your desktop, hit 'publish' and it gets
put into your blog via whatever protocol it speaks (MarsEdit[6],
BloGTK[7], etc)

There are also blogging systems that require access to the server, you
edit a file and either a cgi picks up the file, or you 'publish' out
static webpages.  Probably one of the simplest and most extensible
systems I've seen is blosxom[8].  I'm surprised no one has mentioned it
yet.  For blosxom, you just get your 'post' to the webserver by whatever
means you want (SFTP, WebDAV, rsync, etc) and the cgi script will use
that as its input.  One of the oldest that I know of is greymatter[9]
and it still seems to be active.

I play around with one called hobix[10] which can be more thought of as a
template publishing framework.  You edit a file in a certain format,
execute the 'update' command and you have static webpages generated.

So essentially, again "It depends".  These days you can pretty much pick
your programming language, data storage method,
rendering/publish/display method and there will be a blog system to
accommodate your needs.

> Is it easy to set up a system for family members (with very limited 
> computer skills) to share info and photos with one another?

My boss just setup WordPress to do exactly this for his family and he
said it worked out great.   

Just my $.02.

enjoy,

-jeremy

[1]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
[2]  http://www.livejournal.com/
[3]  http://www.blogger.com/start
[4]  http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/
[5]  http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi
[6]  http://ranchero.com/marsedit/
[7]  http://blogtk.sourceforge.net/
[8]  http://www.blosxom.com/
[9]  http://noahgrey.com/greysoft/
[10] http://www.hobix.com/

-- 
========================================================================
 Jeremy Hinegardner                              EMAIL:PROTECTED 

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