Another Blog?

By: Ted C. Howard on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 9:41 AM

I'm in the process of building a new blog. In fact, you're looking at it right now. Why am I building a new blog? That's a question that I don't have a good answer for. I have an answer, I'm just not sure it's a good one. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A blog should be about the content, but this blog exists because of the technology that powers it. Perhaps this technology will be more condusive for writing which will cause me to produce more content. Then it will make better sense. But for right now, I'm just playing with a new tool. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

There are three components to this blogging tool: Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The Authoring Tool / Outliner Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The Publishing Tool / Server Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The Content Host / Amazon Simple Storage Serice (S3) Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The Authoring Tool: Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I'm using a piece of software called "OPML Editor" to write these posts. On the surface, this software appears to be a tool for creating ane editing outlines, but it is actually a swiss army knife of an application. For the purposes of blog authoring, it's outlining functions are the main feature. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Each blog post is an outline. This allows me to take a non-linear, iterative approach to authoring. I can build out the structure of the blog post and then go back and easily fill it in and re-arrange the comments. This is what it looks like: Permanent link to this item in the archive.

My Blog Workspace Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The Publishing Tool Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The publishing "server" is actually my old 12" Powerbook running a copy of the OPML Editor. Remember how I said that software was a swiss army knife? The same program can function as a server. The Editor on my laptop connects to the Editor on the "server" to create and modify blog posts. The Editor on the "server" generates all the html and xml needed to create the website ans stores it on the content host. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The Content Host Permanent link to this item in the archive.

This entire blog is hosted on Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3). S3 is an easy and inexpensive file store on Amazon's "cloud". Lots of web sites use it for storing static content like images, movies, and downloadable apps. I'm using it to host this entire blog. This may not mean much to you, but as a computer nerd, I think it's pretty cool. Permanent link to this item in the archive.