Dave Winer raked Burning Bird over the coals today for falsely claiming that in order to set up a weblog with Radio, you have to use Userland as a host. This is of course, incorrect. In fact, if I wanted to I could use Radio to post to my web site which isn’t on a Userland Host and doesn’t uses a content management system produced by Userland (though the CMS does run on top of Frontier).
But both Movable Type (which Burning Bird uses), Conversant and a number of other CMSes are decentralized in a way that Radio is not — namely, they are not wedded to a desktop client.
I can post to my web site from anywhere in the world. I usually post on most days from both my home and work computers, and occasionally just about anywhere else I can find a web connection — because that’s all I need to post, is access to a web client (or e-mail client or news reader).
I was talking with someone today who is an educator and teaching an online class who was describing how important that is. This professor is teaching courses in-state and out-of-the-country. And regardless of where he is travelling, he can update his course, reply to student inquiries, etc. anywhere he has access to a web browser.
The promo. material for Radio says, “It’s an easy-to-use Weblog tool that runs on your desktop, so it’s fast, and ready to go when you are.” Except when I leave my desk — then I’m left out of the loop (or left trying to synchronize data among different desktops — ugh!)
Centralizing the client-side of web site creation by requiring a desktop client just doesn’t make any sense. Forget the websites on the desktop. I want my web site on my desktop, my laptop, the computer at the library, my 802.11b equipped PDA — if I can get a web browser or e-mail client running on it, I should be alb to post to and update my web site.