Stephen Judd

Stephen Judd

What People Are Really Doing When They’re on a Conference Call - http://bit.ly/1bBgOro - one reason to like Hangouts: keeps me honest

Stephen Judd

HTML Email Design Guide – The Basics!

Doing some work with EDM Designer to create email templates. This a handy short guide of things to remember.

Stephen Judd

Hard evidence: why pump prices haven't fallen as fast as oil has - http://bit.ly/1HDLeTt - oil is only part of the cost of gas

Stephen Judd

Owning your data

3 min read

Over the years, I've used many different tools and services to post information to the web. A non-exhaustive list would include: Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress.com, Movable Type, Google+, Buzz, FriendFeed, etc. While I've yet to find myself spouting profundities, I do often refer back to what I've shared for my own purposes. Frequently, a situation arises where I'd like to recall something I know I've shared in the past. The problem is where does it live, and is it still there (see Buzz, et. al.)

I've started to use Known as a tool to post my own thoughts and to share them with anyone who may be interested. I don't expect that to be a large group, but I do it for my own purposes and to help me make sense of what I read, hear, see, and experience.

I'm hosting Known on a webserver that I have full control of, so I don't have to worry what might happen if Known stops development, changes their terms of service, or gets swallowed up by another company (see FriendFeed, et. al.) I would miss the further development of Known, but I could continue with what I have and make changes myself (I'm not a PHP developer, but was able to make a couple of small contributions to the project already, through GitHub.)

Using this known-powered site, I can post lengthy posts (assuredly, these will be rare), post to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, interact with other capable sites, eschew advertising, change the style, delete, edit, etc. What I post is mine, and I can do with it as I please.

Running your own server (I pay for hosting, so I don't run the hardware) and installing and administering Known is not for everyone, but it could be. Services are better these days about letting you export the data you created, but knowing that you own it and control it is a nice feeling to have.

I admire the principles that drive people like the folks behind Known or Dave Winer and others in the indieweb community. In a way, it's a return to the early days of the web where people owned and managed their own sites. Today the tools are in place to allow us to do just that, while still allowing us to share with others on our social networks.

 

Stephen Judd

Collaboration, from the Wright Brothers to Robots - HBR - http://bit.ly/1CmQf2Z - shared space makes collaboration possible

Stephen Judd

Discovering Emergent Communities of Knowledge in your Organization - http://bit.ly/1y0IgTW - CoPs aren't created, they emerge

Stephen Judd

A haystack is no place to store your needles (findability in KM) http://bit.ly/1CUJCqW - and silos are for storing grain or silage

Stephen Judd

Blog discussions | Climate Etc. http://bit.ly/1CMnrD8 - why do some blogs generate more discussion than others?

Stephen Judd

U.S. Digital Services Playbook

Great guidelines for any digital project - found via a link posted to Google+ by Janyne Kizer