Blojsom (multi-user blogs revisited)
Blojsom it is, then. As discussed earlier, I was looking for a multi-user blogging app that let users register and that allowed multi-author blogs. Thanks to David Czarnecki’s attention and help, I’ve deployed a blog server that gives all students and faculty a blog by default. Here’s what the last week involved:
- toting the old Blackboard server over to my area
- downloading, buning ISO’s, and installing RedHat AS 4 operating system on the old Bb server
- installing java and tomcat; setting up tomcat to run as non-root user; writing startup script for java
- downloading and installing the blojsom.war–by far the easiest part of the process!
- customizing the default theme in blojsom (very minor–just removing the email link)
- modifying a script to batch create blogs (using the same data file I use to batch create Blackboard user accounts)
- ripping off the smileys/emoticons from Wordpress for use in blojsom
- creating a new website to help students use their blogs
So this is really a pilot run I’m trying with a couple of classes to see how it works. I’m not advertising to all students that they have access to a blog.
What sold me on blojsom? In no particular order:
- the prettiest themes in blogdom
- ease of creating blogs en masse
- active development and very helpful lead developer
- potential–a recent plugin contest yielded some great plugins, and a theme contest is underway
- a summary page is now possible thanks to the internal-aggregator plugin (I still need to figure out how to use this)
- overall configuration options available to users
- it’s hard to beat having entries in a plain text file
I need to write some real text for the home page, which will be http://blogs.zanestate.edu, and I think I can consider this project done.
