Although this blog is mostly to illustrate the uses of drupal, it is also a place to talk about some of the current trends.

As of March 2010, Blogger, Google's entry in the earliest on-line blog systems, will discontinue FTP editing for accounts hosted elsewhere. Blogger, still offers free blogs, and will allow a "custom" domain blog, presumably on their own hosting, but will no longer allow users to use the blogger editor to publish via FTP to their own domain.

While Wordpress offers a one-click update (at least most of the time), Drupal still requires the administrator to delete folders and update the whole installation. This is a roadblock for non-tech users who would otherwise user drupal for their sites.

While it is unclear whether this represents major changes to the underpinnings of the program, an abundance of caution, a rigorous demand that the administrator be tech savvy, or simply a method of simplifying coordination of a product with multiple maintainers, it is something to consider when thinking about what CMS to use.

Since 2005, when I set up examples of drupal, blogger and Word Press, these programs have changed. Drupal has developed in two directions, a trimmer CMS that has up to 5 fields for user "profiles", and a sister software at civicspacelabs.org,
2009 Update

It is 2009, content management systems continues to morph. Drupal has incorporated some of the user controls that were developed in Civic CRM, which is no longer an independent program. The last time I used drupal, it had 5 levels of user control, and the ability to add custom types of users, each with a custom level of access.

Somewhere I've read a fairly important piece of advice that can be paraphrased as "Be careful what you write on-line, it is forever". But you say, "It's only an electronic page, I'll just take it down". The fallacy in that is that the page you see is not the only copy of the material that exists. Web page information is stored in servers, which in the normally course of things make back-ups. Your rant on the boss may exist on a server in North Carolina, and because it was public information, it can be researched and reproduced.

Blogs may be entertainment for the reader, but they represent work for the author. Audiences devour content, and if they find it good, they want more.

Lucky is the author whose writing finds an audience. He can enjoy the feeling that his work is appreciated. But fail to produce more content, or produce schlock, and the audience can evaporate or change their collective opinion about the worth of the writing. So not only does he have to produce on a regular schedule, but he needs to find something interesting and original to say. That is harder than it seems.

This is an installation of Drupal, a content management system that has the capability to create blogs, books, forums, quiz, and allow users to vote on the topics (moderate) causing the article to rise or fall in the listings, depending on popularity.

It is comprised of open-source modules, and is extensible. Most famously deployed in the Dean campaign, it is capable of handling community discussions. Site administrators can grant privileges to allow participants at different levels create, and control their own content.