I spent a little over 30 minutes at work talking to two different people about blogging software. The conversations reminded me that web publishing is getting easier, but it’s still not automatic. I know the most about Radio Userland, since that’s what I’ve chosen to use, but I quickly realized that there are plenty of things I don’t know how to do yet… and Radio requires less knowledge about servers, etc., than most. (I know there are plenty of other choices, and Blogcomp, the comparative tool certainly offers a nice rundown. I wish Radio had search built-in, for instance.) We’re a few years in, and the economy’s fall hasn’t lowered the boom on the explosion of voices, but it’s still not as easy as it might be.
On a similar note, I find iPhoto to be aggravating. Like most parents — especially those with family far away — I keep a website with photos of my child. Is photo sharing what brings people online the most, after email? A thought for another time. But iPhoto assumes a lot about how you want to publish your photos, and it’s complicated my process enough that I haven’t overcome my general inertia/laziness/procrastination to post photos for months. Part of this is the gentle (?) push towards .Mac for publishing your photos, but another part is the storage mechanism: all your photos live within iPhoto, so breaking them out requires some thought. I’m actually not being fair to the program, but… and this is the main point… it’s not as easy as it should be.