Habari Project Offers a Fresh Approach to Blogging Software

Since the buzzwords of the day seem to be microblogging and lifestreaming, it seems like good, old-fashioned blogging is a thing of the past -- but it isn't. In fact, user-friendly blogging software applications have turned into full-blown content management systems (CMS) thanks to Web 2.0  technology.

Tried-and-true CMS options like Drupal and WordPress will always play a big part in the world of blogging, and do a great job of adapting to the changing needs of bloggers. If you're looking for an option that's new and fresh, however, Habari is an up and coming next-generation blogging package that's worth keeping an eye on.

 Habari, Swahili for "what's the news?", is a community-driven project that aims to include the newest tools and functionality right from the start, rather than options added as plugins after installation. For instance, recognizing that the Atom is a preferred publishing method within the FOSS community, developers have included it as a core feature of Habari, not an addon users have to track down and tinker with after the fact.

According to the project's documentation, "Most other blogging packages have been around long enough that their responses to things like comment spam and Digg site overloads are bolted on after the fact; whereas Habari is being written from the beginning to take these things -- and more -- into account."

Habari relies heavily on user feedback and involvement. To encourage participation, dedicated users who provide a high-quality contributions are given increasing amounts of responsibility within the project. Developers say they aren't simply creating Habari on a whim. "To be sure, there's a lot that many blog packages do right, and we'd be foolish to re-invent the wheel simply to be different. But many existing blog packages have made fundamental decisions that limit what can be done, or how, with the system. Rather than try to work around those limitations, or try to remove what's broken, we'd prefer to start fresh and import those ideas that are good. "