Tag: Domain of One's Own

Bookmarked Now, On the Internet, Everyone Knows You’re a Dog (fpf.org)

Digital identification, integrated to greater or lesser degrees, seems an almost inevitable next step in our digital lives, and overall offers promising opportunities to improve our access and controls over the information already spanning the internet about us. But it is crucial that moving forward, digital ID systems are responsibly designed, implemented, and regulated to ensure the necessary privacy and security standards, as well as prevent the abuse of individuals or the perpetuation of inequities against vulnerable populations. While there are important cautions, digital identity has the potential to transform the way we interact with the world, as our “selves” take on new dimensions and opportunities.

Noah Katz and Brenda Leong provide an introduction to digital identity and where it maybe heading in the future. Connecting with so many different users, identity online is a challenge I face in my work in education. I feel my thoughts on the topic sit somewhere between Dave Eggars discussion of TruYou:

Instead, he put all of it, all of every user’s needs and tools, into one pot and invented TruYou—one account, one identity, one password, one payment system, per person. There were no more passwords, no multiple identities. Your devices knew who you were, and your one identity—the TruYou, unbendable and unmaskable—was the person paying, signing up, responding, viewing and reviewing, seeing and being seen. You had to use your real name, and this was tied to your credit cards, your bank, and thus paying for anything was simple. One button for the rest of your life online.(The Circle)

And Kim Stanley Robinson’s YourLock:

People began to share the news that you could transfer everything going on in the rest of your internet life into a single account on YourLock, which was organized as a co-op owned by its users, after which you had secured your data in a quantum-encrypted cage and could use it as a negotiable asset in the global data economy, agreeing to sell your data or not to data-mining operations out there who quickly saw the new lay of the land and began to offer people micro-payments for their data, mainly health information, consumption patterns, and finance. (The Ministry of the Future)

I guess the question is who owns the data?

Bookmarked Stepping into the portal – Austin Kleon (Austin Kleon)

You step into the portal and sometimes discover what you didn’t know want to know.

That is the gamble. The roll of the dice.

A book is the safest portal, and a diary is the second-safest portal. They are both private. When it comes to public portals, a blog, I think, is one of the safest, most forgiving portals.

I stepped into the portal a few hours ago and I discovered some things and made some connections that I hadn’t before.

Now I’m going to hit “publish” and step out.

Austin Kleon steps into the digital portal that is his blog as a means of reflecting about the spaces we have to imagine a different world. These include games, books and writing. Sometimes I wonder if we avoid some portals for fear we may not come back?
Bookmarked You Don’t Need Substack To Build an Email Newsletter (Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet.)

Put work you care about less—work for hire, short-form editorial, dumb jokes, random experiments—on platforms you don’t control, where the risk of failure is a distinct possibility. Leverage the resources of what else is out there. But when you’re working on the stuff that does really matter to you, put it in a place you have ownership of. Put it on your website. Send the newsletter using tools you run or manage—and be willing to pay for that right.

Ernie Smith goes beyond Substack and Mailchimp to discuss a number of options associated with managing newsletters. Whether it be using Mailgun, Amazon SES or EmailOctopus to send and Craft CMS, Ghost, Sendy or WordPress to host. Personally, I host my newsletter on my own WordPress site and send out a link via Buttondown.Email. However, Smith has me reassessing this, especially in regards to how I email.
Liked VCU: The Long Goodbye (Patterned but not Standard) by Tom Woodward (bionicteaching.com)

One one end of the spectrum with WordPress multisite might be a site that’s locked down. It has a narrowly defined purpose and very limited themes and plugins. You may find there is only one theme and the plugins are all network activated. Your choice in this space is still greater than what you’d get in Facebook or Twitter but it’s pretty tightly controlled. This can be good for some people and some purposes. It’s consistent. Very little can go wrong because there are so few choices. People are not overwhelmed by choice.

On the other end of the spectrum is what we tried to do with Ram Pages. You have a couple hundred themes and a couple hundred plugins. The goals is to make pretty much anything people wanted to do happen in that space. You can’t install your own themes/plugins but we’ve covered most of the bases and would respond to unmet needs pretty aggressively. If we didn’t find a theme, plugin, or combination that met people’s needs then we’d make one.

Replied to https://boffosocko.com/2020/07/15/55773625/ by Chris AldrichChris Aldrich (boffosocko.com)

Twitter is apparently facing a high-level attack right now, but fortunately I run my own corner of the web and can Tweet to my heart’s content on my own website. Come join me! #IndieWeb

Here here.
RSVPed Unable to Attend A Domain of One’s Own Meetup | July 23, 2020

I’ll be hosting a Domain of One’s Own meetup on Thursday, July 23, 2020 at at 10:30 AM Pacific / 1:30 PM Eastern / 7:30 PM CEST. Everyone who is interested in the topic is welcome to attend. We expect there will be students, teachers, designers, web developers, technologists, and people of all a…

Thank you Chris for the invite, but 3:30 in the morning is a bit difficult. I am also really terrible at catch-ups and events. Sadly, much of my time on such tasks is stolen, rather than planned.
Replied to https://collect.readwriterespond.com/pcpopup2020-1/ by Aaron DavisAaron Davis (Read Write Collect)

Warren Berger talks about the power of questions. One type that stands out is asking ‘What If?’ Here are my thoughts on what if the web were different?

What if people had some sort of ownership and control of their presence on the web?

A place where they could find their voice?

A place to develop over time?

#pcPopUp2020 #DoOO

Replied to

Great point Austin. Own you comments, own your thoughts. Domain of one’s own.
Replied to https://boffosocko.com/2020/03/24/55769613/ by Chris AldrichChris Aldrich (boffosocko.com)

I’m actually happy to pay the relative pittance to renew my Reclaim Hosting account to keep my websites, wikis, and other online services. Owning my own domain can sometimes be a challenge, but it’s completely worth it.

Completely agree Chris. Been really happy with Reclaim. Hosting your blog may not be for everyone and I have had many who followed me revert back to WP.com and Edublogs, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey.
Bookmarked Feeling Sad For Those Who Gave Away Their Authorship To Medium | Kin Lane (Kin Lane)

I am glad I didn’t go all in with Medium. I may have gotten more page views at the peak, but I think over time the long tail will be greater within my own domain. I am also feeling the same thing about Google lately. I used to cater to the SEO games, but after a couple of algorithm changes I haven’t been able to keep up, and my numbers are half of what they used to be. I find my time is better spend focusing on learning about the interesting things across the API sector, and writing a steady stream of stories, than it is tweaking the knobs and dials of the SEO beast. Google has become an ad engine, and I’m not in the business of generating revenue from ads, so it really doesn’t make sense for me to be playing that game full time.

Kin Lane reflects on his decision to persist on his own domain, rather than moving to Medium.
Bookmarked Reflections on Domains 19 by John StewartJohn Stewart (John Stewart)

If act one was the development of the technical, financial, and human resource models for building Domain of Ones Own projects, act two will I think focus on answering the existential challenge of integrating Domains into “normal” pedagogical practices.

In light of #Domains19 finishing, John Stewart reflects on the achievements of domain of one’s own and the challenges that still need to be overcome. These include the seeming demise of blogging, problems of privacy, the fear that EdTech does more harm than good and the ongoing challenge of getting buy-in. Stewart suggests that for domains and digital literacies to thrive, then they need to become more ingrained:

I do not think Domains can thrive or that digital literacy more broadly can thrive, if we are only teaching digital literacy skills in DS type courses. The idea of consciously constructed digitally intensive courses that slowly contribute to the students’ digital literacies throughout their matriculation, seems more realistic. Just as no student is likely to become a great writer after their comp101 course, no student is going to grok the problems with social media, the difficulties of web sec, the affordances and production of multi-modal communication, the promise of new media, and the challenges of surveillance capitalism after a single digital studies course.

I think that this is a problem facing all facets of education, especially how we provide structured experiences, not just information.

Bookmarked Into the Personal-Website-Verse · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer (Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer)

It’s, of course, safe to assume that a web of personal websites will never be an equivalent substitute for a social network like Twitter. But that’s also not the goal. Personal websites are called personal websites because they are just that: personal. Thus, the primary objective still is to have a place to express ourselves, to explore ourselves, a place that lasts while the daily storms pass by. A place of consideration, and yes, a place of proudly sharing what we do, what we think, and what we care about. A place to contribute your voice and help others. A home on the internet. A place to tell your story.

Matthias Ott discusses the power and potential of having your own personal website. This reminds me of Martha Burtis’ keynote from Domains 17. The only question I was left wondering is the worth of a site for those who are not developers?
Replied to Myspace lost all the music its users uploaded between 2003 and 2015 (Boing Boing)

It’s been a year since the music links on Myspace stopped working; at first the company insisted that they were working on it, but now they’ve admitted that all those files are lost: “As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos, and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available on or from Myspace. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest that you retain your back up copies. If you would like more information, please contact our Data Protection Officer, Dr. Jana Jentzsch at DPO@myspace.com.”

Opps
Replied to E-Learning 3.0: Conversation with Ben Werdmuller by Jenny Mackness (jennymackness.wordpress.com)

I have used both Dreamweaver and GoDaddy to create websites in the past and found them hard work. I have considered whether to move this WordPress site to Reclaim Hosting, but there is very little cost difference (I only pay for two plugins which I renew each year on WordPress) and I am very happy with WordPress. I find it easy to use. I do use a template which I am not 100% happy with, but I don’t feel strongly enough about it to take full responsibility for my own website.

Interesting reflection Jenny on owning your own domain. I am an advocate for this, being both immersed in the IndieWeb and using Reclaim Hosting, however I am mindful that one size never fits all. I always come back to this post from Mike Caulfield.
Bookmarked Owning Your Content – Blottings by John Philpin (blottings.philpin.com)

To me, the ‘owning your own IP’ (because at the end of the day that is what it is, your Intellectual Property) is the key.

Do you own it? Is it protected? Can someone lift this entire article and post it as their own? THAT’S the ownership debate.

John Philpin reflects on content, ownership and intellectual property. It reminds me of the discussion associated with domain of one’s own from last year.
Bookmarked End of an era for old Harvard blogging site (insidehighered.com)

Weblogs@Harvard, as it was then known, was considered pioneering. Facebook didn’t yet exist. Social media was in its infancy. And starting a blog usually required some knowledge of code. Harvard’s blogging platform, now known as blogs.harvard.edu, made it easy.

Lindsay McKenzie discusses Harvard’s recent announcement that Harvard is closing down blogs.harvard.edu. This piece collects together a number of perspectives from academics. Mike Caulfield wonders about the temporal nature of institutional and self hosting. He discusses the multitude of sites that have now disappeared as they were either closed or corrupted. This is something he has discussed before. Tim Owens and Jim Groom use this as an opportunity to take a wider look at blogging and archiving.