Netroots 101: Q and A

Last week I wrote about Netroots Panels at the State Convention and asked people to fill out a survey on what they'd like to see covered. The survey is open until Friday at Noon, so there's still time to send us your suggestions, but I thought I'd start addressing some of the items submitted for the Netroots 101 panel because 1) not all of you will be able to attend the state convention and 2) I'm on that panel so writing about stuff now will help me figure out what to say when I get there.

So, let's start with one of the submitted questions: blog or web site? which is better and whats the difference?

Well, first it is important to understand that the terms website and blog mean.

In simple terms, a web site is a collection of pages, images, videos, and other digital assets that are arranged under a common address and located on one or more computers known as servers which host all the aforementioned content. The content is then viewable by the public via web browsers (i.e. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera) and Internet enabled PDA's and cell phones.

A blog (short for web log) is simply a way of publishing content on a website that is organized in such a way that the most recent entries are listed first. Early blogs were manually updated and primarily took the form of online journals of people’s personal lives, hence the reason posts or articles written on blogs are referred to as diaries even though blogs today are used more for news and commentary.

Since the creation of blogware (software tools that provide content management functions to automate the maintenance of blogs) they've become much more accessible, require less technical knowledge and have opened the door to a larger population of users. Drupal, Wordpress, Blogger, Moveable Type, etc., are all examples of blogware.

In essence, a blog is just one of several different types of software applications or programs that can run on a website. Examples of other web applications include: chat rooms, contact management (email list), calendars, message boards, wiki, shopping cart, fundraising tools, newsletters, polls and photo albums.

If you have a blog – its located on a website somewhere – its just a matter of how you have it hosted online.

There are several options for setting up a blog:

1. Developer-Hosted - the blogware is operated by and hosted on the providers own equipment, requiring no installation by the person who will be authoring the blog.

All you do is go to their website, create an account, follow some very simple step by step instructions, and you have a blog up and running in no time.

Pros (+) and Cons (-)

+ free or relatively inexpensive
+ very easy to use, you don't have to be tech savvy
- may not allow you to use your own domain name
- may have to upload images or other files on a separate host

Examples: Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad, Soap Blox

2. User Hosted - you or your web developer download the software and install it on your own server or the server of your web hosting provider.

Pros (+) and Cons (-)

+ much of the software is open-source and free
+ you can add additional features to your site beyond what the blogware provides
+ you'll have space on the server to upload your own images and other files
- you'll need to be tech savvy or use a web developer to set it up
- you'll have to pay for a domain name and hosting fees

Examples: Drupal, Scoop, BlogEngine, Wordpress

3. Specialized Blog Hosting - a web host that specializes in hosting a particular type of blogware.

Pros (+) and Cons (-)

+ the web host will set up and install the blog for you
+ you may add additional features to your site beyond what the blogware provides
+ you'll have space on the server to upload your own images and other files
- you may have to do some customizations on your own, requiring some tech knowledge
- you'll have to pay for a domain name and hosting fees

For example, Wordpress lists a bunch of hosts who specialize in running their blogware.

4. Hybrid Solution - works like the developer-hosted in that the blogware resides on the provider’s equipment and the author doesn’t have to install anything, but it allows you to publish the files to your own server or web host. Blogger has this option, although you have to revert to their basic templates. Under publishing options, simply provide them with the address of your site, the username & password your web host gave you to login to your site, and the directory under your site where you want the blog published.

Pros (+) and Cons (-)

+ free or relatively inexpensive
+ very easy to use, you don't have to be tech savvy
+ you can use your own domain name
+ you can upload images or other files to your web host
+ you may add additional features to your site beyond what the blogware provides
- you'll have to pay for a domain name and hosting fees

If you're using a developer-hosted solution with no access to upload your own images or other files onto their system, there are some option available to you.

Image Hosting - these services have a simple interface to allow you to upload images from your computer onto their system and then provides you with the code that you can copy/paste to display those images on your blog: Flickr, ImageShack, Photobucket.

File Hosting - if you want to share files like word documents or pdfs you can use services like these: Media Fire or File Den.

Another thing to keep in mind, if you plan to have blogware installed on your own server or web host make sure to check the server requirements to make sure that it is compatatible.

Many of the blogging software services have extended their offerings beyond just offering you the ability to blog - you'll find that many of them come with lots of other intergrated features. So you may be able to find a complete package that meets all your needs.

As for what is best, that depends on the objective of the site.

A local democratic party, a political campaign, or an online activist may have very different goals and therefore utilize a different set of online tools. To determine what is best for your situation, you need a clear vision of what the site is intended to do, then write down a list of requirements that will help you get the job done. You may need a blog or you may not.

Here are a few non-blog specific options that serve political objectives: CivicRM, Civic Space, AdvoKit, Dems Link, Campaign Site Builder

I'm not recommending any particular products or services, but rather giving you an idea of what types of things are out there.

This is my first stab at this question. So any comments/suggestions on how to improve upon my answer are welcome. Also, if you have any further questions feel free to ask.