Thank you, double feature

This week's Philly PHPMeet-up was all about Drupal. The night was jam-packed with many wonderous things, including some of the latest and greatest drupal modules, philly-based sites powered by drupal, and even the drupal song (DANGER:ITS UBER-CATCHY and has remained firmly embedded in my brain since I first listened to it over-and-over again)

Two of the most interesting non-drupal things I first heard about last Tuesday night were Habari and Snag-it. Habari is an open source blogging platform that is being developed right here in Philadelphia, and Snag-it is a wonderful little program that allows you to quickly and easily take screen-shots and pimp them up all nice-like in one simple step.

I am so jazzed about both of these, that I decided to install Habari and produce a step-by-step tutorial using Snag-it. (The tutorial's target audience is a total n00b with a hosting account with Site5, who wants to get in on the early stages of this home-grown 'next-gen' blogging platform)

Here goes:
First, download the package here. Then extract all the files.


Next, create a new directory on your site, and transfer the files using FTP. If you need a good FTP program, download FileZilla - its super-easy to use and totally free.



Now its time for database stuff. Lucky for me, my Site5 account makes it nice and candy for anyone one who can point-and-click to manage databases. Simply log-in to site admin, and select 'mySQL Databases' --> Manage Databases. Scroll down to the section labeled 'Create mySQL database', and give it a name.



Once you have created the database, go back to 'mySQL databases' --> 'Manage Users'. First, create a user, and assign a password. Then, go to the section labeled 'Grant Permissions' and select the database and user you just created.



Now for the fun part! Your first look at Habari's simple-chic interface. To complete the installation, all you need to do is view the directory that you uploaded your Habari files to in a browser.



Fill in the information about the database name, user, and password that you just created. Give your new Habari Blog a name, and click 'Install'.



Voilà! - you have a shiny new home-grown blog!

So there you go - one night, two awesome new-to-me tools, one colorful tutorial. Now I'm off to get my hands dirty hacking into Habari to see what I can find.

woohoo!

Open Source Values

I just came across this great post on ZD|NET Blogs about Open Source Values. This article pretty much pins the key underlying concepts of Open Source that excite me so much: Transparency and Consensus.
Our access to information means that we demand to know more about who we are dealing with - who they really are - and it's easier than ever to find that out. The power of Open Source Intitatives in this modern landscape lies in their actions:
Tell the world what you do - update them daily.
Let them know what you value and how you are building value.
And share as much of it as you possibly can.
Work in teams, collaborate, and let ideas run rampant to see what they can become.
Invite everyone to participate, and nurture that community.

More than just being honest and giving as much as you can to each to day, an endeavor that strives to be transparent and open, while thriving on consensus, is a very beautiful thing. I want to give my all towards something great.
(Soon enough)

Open Source Frameworks

Thursday night's presentation of Open Source Frameworks was awesome. The talk was organized by the Philadelphia PHP Meet-up and the Philadelphia Area Drupal Group in conjunction with PANMA.
Four Open Source Frameworks were presented, and the meeting concluded with information about Drupal Development. The personalities that presented served to showed how diverse and lively the PHP programming community is in the Philadelphia Area. It was very encouraging to see this kind of brainpower coming together to share knowledge in the form of a laid-back, good natured evening presentation.
Events like this really re-affirm that opportunity that lies in every corner of this incredible city.