BLOGGING FOR FREEDOM |
UNDERSTANDING RADIO USERLAND |
Downloading and installing the program Naming and setting up the blog Writing and publishing entries in Radio UserLand.Making photos appear in blog entries Getting news and linking it to a blog entry Choosing Radio UserLand or moving on Radio UserLand is an old-school blogging program that remains relevant.By providing what might have been the easiest way to start blogging — and power-blogging, at that. Now, you don’t hear people talking about launching Radio UserLand blogs as much as you hear about TypePad, Blogger, WordPress, and the social networks.
But Radio UserLand is still unique among the top blogging platforms; it offers power without the hassle of a server installation. The program gets installed on your computer like any other program (a new version of a browser, for example, or a downloaded music player such as iTunes). That program connects with the Radio UserLand online server and feeds what you create up to that server.
Radio UserLand started in 2000 as a program for building and sharing music playlists. The program did not share actual music, as the original Napster did just lists of favorite music drawn from music-file collections in the users’ computers. There was nothing illegal about Radio UserLand in those days,but lawsuits were banging away on other companies (such as the original Napster), and its owners grew weary of paying lawyers to keep the program on the right side of the law. So Radio UserLand kept its name and switched to blogging.
At the same time, Radio UserLand explains itself better than most advanced blog programs and does have that tantalizing advantage of power without the installation hassle. Read on to see whether Radio UserLand is right for you.
Understanding Radio UserLand’s Unique OperationRadio UserLand operates differently from every other blog service and pro-gram in this book. Here are a few clarifying points: Radio UserLand is a program that resides on your computer, just like Word or iTunes. Radio UserLand does not operate in its own window, like Word or iTunes. Instead, the program operates through your Web browser. Although Radio UserLand remains on your computer, your blog is stored on an Internet server. Radio UserLand uploads your entries to the server. At the same time, the program keeps copies of all your entries on your computer. Upstreaming (the process of updating your live blog on the Internet)
occurs automatically according to preset time intervals. You can also force upstreaming to occur. From these main points, you can see how Radio UserLand operates. You work on your blog in your browser, creating entries that are placed on your computer’s hard drive. Radio UserLand upstreams everything you create to your blog, published live on the Internet. The program is a liaison between your computer and the server storing your blog.