Eric Scoles: Meta Blogging

Haven't done a geek-post in a while. From Scripting News:

The Second Open Source Content Management Conference will take place "at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, from Wednesday, 25 September to Friday, 27 September 2002."

Here are some interesting links from the program:

Bitflux

WYSIWYG, cross-platform, browser-based XML editor, said to be used in the Wyona content management system (see below). Apparently, this is built entirely in JavaScript (and, presumably, XSL). This is very much like something that I spec'd out a few months ago, but never got moving on. I was behind the curve already, of course, but it's nice to know that I wasn't insane. (NOTE: Xopus [see below] also claims to be used in Wyona, and is also cross-platform and browser-based. Is Xopus a Java version of BitFlux?)

[abstract] [BitFluxEditor.org] [BitFlux.com] [BitFlux.ch]

Xopus

WYSIWYG, cross-platform, browser-based XML editor; when I looked at this the other day, I'd swear the site page said it was used in the Wyona content management system (see below), but I don't see that now.

[abstract] [link] [Q42.NL] [Xopus.org] [Xopus Group on Yahoo]

Wyona

This must have been where I got the impression that Xopus is part of Wyona -- there's an item on the front page to the effect that Xopus2 is shipped with Wyona. This looks like a very interesting product indeed. Built around Coccoon and Apache, it seems as though it may in face be a sort of meta-CMS. From the Wyona.org site:

Wyona is an interpreter of various XMLs, not just user's data, such as for instance articles, press-releases or addresses, but also regarding functionalities, such as for instance access controlling (IML and PML resp. XACML), revision controlling (RCML) or workflow management (WFML). The concept is similar to the one of a "HTML Browser". You should be able to switch the Content Management System at any time. The network is the CMS.

Based on their documentation, they seem to support several editors, including both BitFlux and Xopus.

[Wyona] [link] [link] [link]

OpenCms

Java-based, of course, and apparently JSP-centric.

[abstract] [Alkacon Software] ["An introduction to OpenCms, Version 4.6" [pdf]] [OpenCms.org] [link]

ZOPE, Nuke

Also mentioned are the ZOPE CMF and Plone, a particular implementation thereof that seems like it's worth looking into. Xoops and PostNuke are mentioned -- PostNuke in particular will be an important thing to at least look at with regard to the upcoming August Group project.

[abstract: Plone] [abstract: Xoop, PostNuke]

OS Search Engines

This would be a good session to go to, especially since I don't really understand why you'd need a search engine if you have a CMS. Drops names of several OS search engines: SWISH-E, ht://Dig, ASPSeek, mnoGoSearch and Lucene.

[abstract]

The Red Hat CCM Content Management System

Java/JSP oriented CMS system which seems to be based on earlier, possibly proprietary products. The supporting documentation could be educations.

[abstract] [link]

Miscellaneous

Other names dropped in the program that I need to check out:

WebDAV
Midgard

In five words or less: "We don't realize we're lost."

(...as well evidenced by the progression, above, from grim to positivistic. Wake up and sniff the koolaid: Can't you smell the bitter almonds?)

Belated Thoughts on the Killer App of Blogging

Dave Winer seems de facto to want to tie the concept of a blog to a specific format, or form factor. The truth of it, though, stares him in the face: It's not the software, it's the modality. Lotus didn't triumph by inventing the spreadhseet; it triumphed by modeling it.

The early electronic spreadsheets were imperfect analogs of the paper ones in much the same way that Radio or Blogger weblogs are imperfect analogs of paper notebooks, and BBS systems were imperfect analogs of common cork boards.

To communicate the real relationship, Dave should look at is own fascination with the outliner, and especially with OPML and "instant outlining." Radio's "instant outlining" feature comes closer to being the "platform" that will revolutionize blogging than Blogger/Radio/Manila/MT standard layout templates do. They are merely standard layouts; they don't let people reshape their work dynamically. Sure, if you're good with DHTML you can do all kinds of fun stuff; but where's the capability (just for example) to reverse the chronology so that you don't have to read backward through every weblog?

The real breakthrough in spreadsheets wasn't calculation -- it was presentation. Making the graphs; sorting the data. Back in the day, people would commit enormous amounts of time and effort to proprietary branches like Enable and Trapeze just to get presentation features that those programs could offer. It was Excel's outstanding (by the standard of the time) graphing features that gave it the crucial edge it needed to break in. I'd argue that, given WordPerfect's utter dominance in word processing at the time and Word 1.x's generally poor showing against it, that it was Excel that was responsible for Windows's early inroads on the corporate side.

So the real breakthrough in blogging is yet to come. FWIW, I think that breakthrough will come as some kind of a combination of centralized, network-based storage, and a more full realization of Dave Winer et al.'s idea of linking Instant Outlining to Jabber/Gabber. But they've got to ditch OPML for a more general-purpose and less-fragile format, first.

From DayPop, a tutorial on accessibility techniques for Radio/MT: "Day 19: Using real table headers" [Daypop Top 40]

Verisign -- Because You Didn't Need That Good Night's Sleep, Anyway...

Dean Allen @ Textism has asked help to set us up the Google bomb on Verisign, in response to some of their latest acts of gross incompetence with regard to managing domains. (Other citations on Daypop / Verisign Googled -- not much action so far, I fear, though I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find the results a little skewed....)

It's a quintessentially libertarian tactic, and for Leslie's sake (and mine) I hope it works, but the real fix has to be Verisign fixing their broken practices -- or simply being driven out of business and their registrations turned over to more responsible vendors. Instead, I fear this will expose the weakness of a system driven by popular action. Verisign may be made up of arrogant putzes, but they've got tremendous resources and a history of dirty-dealings, so I won't be at all surprised to see them come out of it smelling like a rose. Governing from below is a great idea; unfortunately, the fact that there is an "above" will probably always subvert that ideal.

This story hits me on so many levels. On the one hand, as a domain registrant, I live in (mild, for me) fear that someone will hijack my domain and start getting all my email. On another hand, there's just the rich irony of it all: anyone who's been watching the playoffs (hockey or basketball) has seen the continuous loop Verisign commercial that's supposed to make you feel secure by flashing their brand on the screen.

Yeah, right. Anybody in the business has known for years that Network Solutions has always been not merely incompetent, but also arrogant. I'm just now learning, though (not having had to buy certificates before) that Verisign was always just about as bad. Which, I suppose, made it a marriage made in heaven. So I get a certain ironic paranoia from those ads, especially after reading about Leslie Harpold's troubles, knowing that, should I make a clever enough (and just clever enough would be clever enough, it seems) enemy, I can lose my domain thanks to their incompetence.

What does this do for Verisign's relations with their customers? Well, oddly enough, I think most CIOs (who are mostly finance guys used to letting the size of their assets get them ahead) won't bat an eyelash. Their Verisign reps will nudge-nudge, wink-wink and hint strongly that it's exactly what an artsy little anarchist deserves. (Hey, I'm not describing, just predicting.)

On the other hand, non-finance CIOs, and CTOs, and IT Directors (since IT's climb to C-level seems to have slowed with The Market) will smile and nod, all the while wondering how quickly they can migrate away from all their Verisign dependencies.

Or so I can hope. Much as I don't want to see more people lose their jobs, it would do my heart good to see Verisign fail.

From MetaFilter:

16730 » April 29 11:10 AM. Alexa, the internet depository that lead to things like the wayback machine was acquired by Amazon some time ago. A new service, Alexa Web Search joins the power of Alexa's archive with Amazon's proven interface and feature set with Google's killer-app level searching power. The results are fairly impressive, adding a related sites layer that may actually help folks browsing the web (as opposed to direct searching). [via anil]

TRANSLATION: Somebody has figured out a way to pour information about a site, gleaned from several different sources (using Alexa's dB), into an Amazon-style interface. I concur with one of the posters: It looks really weird. And it feels really weird, for that matter...

On the un-centeredness of edge services

John Burkhardt writes:

Most Web Services models are an extension of Client/Server architectures. The service lives in the center, and you call it from the edge. At Groove we are all about decentralization which leaves the power with the user. So I can have my information accessible from anywhere, but it is always under my control and on my devices. Of course, I do have to have a device connected somewhere to access it. But hopefully you get the concept.

Alas, I fear I don't. This strikes me as a manifestation of the same fundamental error of both Notes (which Lotus never acknowledged, except tacitly, through only the initial introduction of Domino) and Radio (which Userland and the legions of Radio zealots all present as a virtue): You can only use it from one machine.

Here's a paradox: The truly de-centralized groupware will be server-based.

Put another way: To live at the edge, you must live at the center.