BlogChat

[Brent Ashley]

Hi Tom et al

It's possible depending on your scope that your particular needs will exceed
the reach of BlogChat, but I will definitely keep the issues in mind and
will let you know as we move along.

I say that because BlogChat's niche is a one-to-few type of chat.  Internet
Relay Chat (IRC) is better suited to supporting heavily-trafficked
many-to-many multi-user requirements and serves that space well.  Also,
Jabber is an opensource  messaging platform which not only supports IM and
IRC-style chat, but will be the basis for audio and video based chats as
well.  These are directions that I don't envision BlogChat taking - I want
it to do one thing extremely simply and well and not aspire to being all
things to all people.  Of course, that vision will last only as long as my
independence from VC funding!

At any rate, it's early days yet, so BlogChat could yet evolve in unforeseen
ways.  Watch this space!

Thanks for the interest, Tom.

 - Brent -

-----Original Message-----
From: tom poe [mailto:tompoe at renonevada.net]
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 4:07 PM
To: Brent Ashley
Cc: Alex; CommStudios; Don; Reno_Perl_Group; Ram
Subject: Re: Interesting concept - would like to learn more


Hi:  Verbose is a good thing with email.   So, as you move forward, do me a
favor.  PUBDOMAIN BREAD is a weblog at:
http://www.studioforrecording.org/blogger.html

What your project is, from where we sit, a most useful tool for conferencing
on issues within our nonprofit organization.  So, see what you can work out
for pricing for nonprofits that could really benefit from your work, and if
it's affordable, we'd like to hear from you.





On Saturday 13 April 2002 12:54, Brent Ashley wrote:
> Hi Tom;
>
>   I haven't yet got the FAQ and intro pages together, but here's the
poop -
> possibly more detail than you want, but I've a verbose kinda guy!
>
>   BlogChat started 6 weeks ago as an experiment of mine whereby I wanted
to
> enable direct communication with my weblog audience but without imposing
IM
> software or membership requirements on them and without necessarily
> establishing persistent "buddy" relationships.
>
>   I hacked together a simple version over a day or so, then launched it on
> my blog.  Doc Searls came by and blogged about it, and over the next two
> days, I had an entire community of people visiting and using the very tool
> itself to give me feedback on the development process.
>
>   Once I had a stable BlogChat going, I released it as open source under
> the GPL.  That version is still available and will remain so.  You can
find
> it at http://www.ashleyit.com/rs/blogchat/blogchat.zip - it requires PHP
> and MySQL on the server side.
>
>   Over the next few days it became apparent to me that there were many
> people who wanted a BlogChat but did not have the knowhow or resources to
> host it themselves, so I'm in the process of creating a fee-based service
> to host BlogChats for that audience.
>
>   That brings us to where we are now, in a beta stage to determine loads
> and work out process and UI.
>
>   The requirements for hosting your own BlogChat are:
>
>   Windows, Linux/Unix or Mac OS/X
>   A web server - IIS, Apache, any webserver that will support PHP
>   PHP4
>   mySql
>
>   The zip file has a readme - generally it's reported that it takes about
> 20 minutes to get it running if you have PHP/mySQL on your machine
already.
>
>   The requirements for using the BlogChat hosted service are:
>
>   A web browser (IE/NS6/Mozilla on PC,Linux/Mac).
>   A way to let people know where to find your BlogChat.
>
>   Generally, the idea is to have an indicator on your blog or web page.
We
> provide you on signup with some example HTML to include in your page. You
> can also have an embedded chat like I do.  You may just want to send links
> to friends or colleagues via email, though - it doesn't *require* a
> webpage.
>
>   You go to a Host application webpage and then "the doctor is in".
People
> visit the Visitor page and they can chat with you.
>
>   So, come on by and you may find me in at http://brentashley.blogchat.com
> if you want to find out more.
>
>  - Brent -
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tom poe [mailto:tompoe at renonevada.net]
> Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 3:03 PM
> To: beta at blogchat.com
> Subject: Interesting concept - would like to learn more
>
>
> Hi:  Dave Weingberger's blog pointed to this blogchat page.  I'd like to
> learn more.  Is there a web page that explains, and download, and stuff?
> Thanks,
> Tom Poe
> Reno, NV
> http://www.studioforrecording.org/
> http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/
> http://renotahoe.pm.org/