Become the Media

I'm considering offering an OPML Community Server here on Become the Media.

When I registered this domain, my intention at the time was to run a Frontier/Manila server and offer free weblogs in the form of pcook.becomethemedia.org like a number of other services offered at the time, including my very own Manila hosting service Web Surf Hawaii.

However, a Frontier license was $800 a year and hosting other's people's stuff is serious business. For Become the Media to really blossom into something interesting, initially affordable to me, and beyond simple weblog hosting, I needed some unique reason as well as a solid plan behind it to make sure it would work and be well received.

Regarding the OPML Community server, Dave Winer says..

I'm kind of trying to drive things that way, so that at some point the idea will occur to a business-person, hey I could offer these people a service and make some money. It hasn't happened yet, but I hope it will someday, hopefully soon.

I see running an OPML Community Server, and other offerings, as two things.

1. A way to build community.

2. A way to make money.

I've got to make a living and online communities are what interest me most. At this point, I'm just brainstorming but I'd like to come up with a way to offer a compelling community space for OPML Editors who want more out of a host than just a place to upload their files. I can imagine that once you become a member of the Become the Media community, you get OPML Editor weblog hosting, a campfire, perhaps an email address and other community minded tools. I think a well designed, instantly usable space for communities to gather, thrive, and then depart if desired, would be an interesting and exciting place to gather.

If an OPML Community Server were offered on Become the Media, would you be interested in hosting your OPML site here? What else, besides a place to point your OPML Editor to, would you want or expect? I'm looking for feedback so I can best consider a path to follow.

Before Radio UserLand was called Radio UserLand, it was called Pike. I've been a Radio user since the day it was born and I've enjoyed the power and flexibility it has afforded me over the last four or five years.

It's been my pleasure to create this manual and I've learned much more about Radio than I ever would have had I not determined to create this weblog.

It's been especially gratifying to get feedback from people. Trying to help out where I can, either here or in the Radio forums, is something I enjoy.

However, with Steve Kirk's announcement today that he is no longer UserLand's Radio product manager, I see the writing on the wall. I've seen it for some time actually. UserLand is obviously focused on Manila, not Radio. The day UserLand hired Steve Kirks was the day I started the manual. And today, I am ending the manual. Radio was like the unfortunate child that showed so much promise but was unfortunately abandoned due to it's father's health crisis. The father tried to give Radio to a good home but the new parent's were more interested in Radio's big brother, Manila. Radio stumbled along with a minimum of updates and attempts by Steve Kirks to drum up a developer community to bring Radio in league with many of its weblogging brethren did little to achieve many of the items on the community's wish list.

Steve did a great job! Don't get me wrong. Steve single handedly moved Radio forward at a time when it could have easily remained frozen in time. Rather, Steve led improvement in commenting, trackbacks, code bugs, aggregator functionality, user support, and more. Despite his attempts though, I got the impression that UserLand was content to keep Radio hobbling along just enough. That's fine but I'm interested in platforms that are moving forward, not remaining stagnant or tended to "just enough."

Thanks to all my readers. It's been a wonderful experience. I wish you well with your Radio UserLand weblogging. Radio is still the little desktop publishing engine that could so keep on using it for your blog if you like it! I, however, have moved on and now it's time to officially close the doors here. I will leave the site standing, yet frozen. There will be no more updates to this blog.

If you would like to follow my other endeavors, I invite you read my personal weblog, Donovan's Run, a WordPress powered site. I'm also available for web site development.. see my business site, Getting Sites Built. Become the Media (home of this manual) is going to become more active this year so keep tuned in to that site. And finally, I'm experimenting with thoughtStreams using the OPML Editor, which has been lots of fun. Check it out.

Thanks for reading! - Your Host, Donovan Watts.