Radio UserLand is a news publishing and routing tool that runs on the desktop, patterned after the “weblog” concept pioneered by UserLand. It supports Web service protocols such as SOAP and XML-RPC, co-developed by Microsoft, Developmentor, IBM and the open source development community. Because Radio supports XML-RPC and SOAP 1.1, you can run software that links into new distributed XML-based networks, being created by developers on all platforms, in languages such as Python, Perl, Tcl, Visual Basic, PHP and AppleScript. Even C, Java and Microsoft .NET software can wire up to the Radio desktop over the Internet.
Radio comes with a built-in XML-based application that streams news from authoritative publications such as Red Herring, Wired News, Salon, CNN, Reuters, the San Jose Mercury-News, Motley Fool, Internet.Com, and from news sites such as Tomalak’s Realm, AppleSurf, Slashdot.Org, XML.Com, Freshmeat and Scripting News. Thousands of compatible XML-based news feeds are available in RSS format, co-developed by UserLand and Netscape, according to Dave Winer, CEO of UserLand Software, in a press announcement.
“Radio is a turning point for the Internet,” Winer said in a press announcement. “It provides information distribution power that was previously centralized on services like Yahoo and eBay. Radio is as familiar and easy to use as the popular Web sites, and since the software is running on the user’s desktop, it offers unprecedented performance and security. Having control of your data means that you can easily switch to new services, and your data is safe on your computer under your control.”
UserLand is working with Microsoft and others to facilitate both XML-based interoperability conventions and a new generation of Web Services built on those standards, according to MacTech magazine.
Radio can also be used as a Web writing tool. If you’ve been using Blogger or Manila, it will be familiar, according to the folks at UserLand. It’s integrated with the news streaming feature and can sort news into categories for people in an organization and Internet-based work groups.
Radio UserLand is available for free download. An upcoming version, due in the third quarter of the year, will be a commercial product. To use the product on a Mac, you’ll need to have a Power Mac, Mac OS 7.5.5. or higher, 32 MB of RAM, 9 MB of free hard disk space, and an Internet connection.