I've been working on a new blogging platform called Habari. At least, if you very loosely define the phrase "working on". I help out with little things where I can, but mostly I watch in awe as this project grows and develops.
I don't have the kind of name recognition that some of the other people working on the project have, and there's good reason for that. These people have been working their collective butts off on what can only be described as a labor of love. And love in the grown-up sense, not the adolescent infatuation sense. Love is hard work, sometimes painful, sometimes aggravating. But you believe it is worth your time and energy to make it stronger and better. Because everyone working on the project is a volunteer, the time they are putting in is a sacrifice of time they could be using to do other things. Potentially, more rewarding things. Yet in a few short months they've created something that runs well enough in its infancy to run this site (as well as many others). And they haven't even begun to be satisfied.
There seem to be a few fundamental goals that the developers of Habari share. The first is that they want it to work right. That means the system does what it's supposed to do with as little fuss as possible. Next is they want it to look good. Not just what you see if you read a Habari blog, nor what you see when you run a Habari blog. But they want the code to make sense, the file structures to make sense, the way things interact with each other to make sense. They want the most advanced users to be able to make it do exactly what they want, but at the same time, the most inexperienced user to be up and running with little to no stress. The final thing, and most important thing to me, is that they want the project to belong to itself. If someone has a better way of making something happen, they honestly want to know and use those ideas. Granted, sometimes people (being people), have a difference of opinion as to what's a "better way". Sometimes those differences become arguments. But they also know when to step away from an argument, take a break, and move on.
It's still early, but I think we'll see some very nice things come of this. I'm proud to be a part of this project in my own small way.
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