Asymptomatic

Alex and I have been going back and forth in comments over the areas of our interest that overlap. In his recent post, he asks, "how long can organic communities self-moderate?"

I admit that I haven't read the Starfish and the Spider, although I did just one-click it into my Kindle, so it's doomed to suffer my analysis. Nevertheless, I had some comments about how leaderless organizations can thrive, particularly in open source communities, of which I happen to be a part of a couple.

Obviously, one of my passions is working with Habari and the people that have come together around that common goal. When we started, there were just four of us, each with various levels of ability and availability. I think you can pretty well call that "leaderless", since we all worked in tandem, and any small change any one person made was easily detected and reviewed by the other three. But as the project has grown, I think there is some kind of tragic irony in that the size of the operation inevitably leads toward a need for at least an informal management structure....

Ah, the heck with it. I don't write a lot about a whole lot here any more, because most of what I am excited to share revolves around Habari. But then, all of the people who talk about what to write about on a blog tell you to write about things that you have passion about. And I've never not done that, but I'm purposefully filtering out a lot of Habari stuff because I feel like my audience doesn't care. Which is just a weird thought. Anyway, no more of that madness.

Something that has been tryingly amusing lately are a certain type of email that shows up on the mailing lists. As I've mentioned to people in person a few times, Habari certainly isn't talked about as much as some other blog software, but I've been tracking the usual channels for Habari buzz, and there are usually 50 to 70 new people noticing Habari every day. Which I think is pretty good, and would love to see increase.

As a result of that ramp-up of attention, we're seeing an influx of new users. A lot of Habari's users are polyglots and English isn't their first language. So when folks start messages with, "Habari is bad," I am forced to wonder whether they're using their limited English skills as best they can, or whether they're coming from some other software and just looking to pick a fight. Either way, let's talk about a better approach....

It's hard to make headway against the "leading brand" without showing exactly what sets you apart from them; what you do better. I think that Habari needs and can provide many examples of how we've taking what everyone looks toward - probably most rightly - as the "standard" in blog software, and done something radically better. This is one example that stands out firmly in my mind.

I am not the only person who has noticed that WordPress is released under the GNU General Public License. In the license, it very plainly states:

You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

The only conclusion is that if your theme executes functions that are provided by WordPress, then your theme is indelibly connected to WordPress, and must itself be made available under the same terms as WordPress. more

A while ago I nominated Habari for the SourceForge Community Choice award for Best New Project. Unless you're a first-time visitor, it should be clear that I think Habari is a great tool, and I'm really happy to say that we've managed to make the cut of finalists for the award! So now I need your help...

It's actually one of my goals to get myself nominated for a web award. But technically, this award isn't for me -- It's for the community of folks who have put together a really great blogging package. Allow me to live a bit vicariously and suggest that winning the award for Habari would be just as thrilling for me as to be nominated for my own award (which seems a long way off in coming, if ever).

If Matt Asay would stop by any of the places where our group congregates, he'd learn how deserving of such an award both the software and the community is. We're not fringe, we're up-and-coming!...

On IRC a few weeks ago this question was posed by an unassuming visitor:

What makes Habari different from any other blog application like WordPress?

I blew a mental gasket sitting at my desk, but managed to scrawl out a few words that managed to be quoted here and there by folks in the community. It may have sounded profound to others, but it was really offered up in haste and without much consideration.

Since then I've been thinking: If I had to give a serious elevator pitch about Habari, what would I say? more