After I wrote my [Reclaim Update](http://www.darcynorman.net/2011/09/10/reclaim-update/) post, [Tony Hirst](http://blog.ouseful.info/) made a comment with tongue firmly planted in cheek:
I mean, clearly I’m not about to get into the hosting business. I’ve toyed with the idea of a hosting co-operative, I believe after a suggestion planted by [Scott Leslie](http://www.edtechpost.ca/wordpress/). But that doesn’t go far enough. It puts some liability on the co-operative. If stuff goes south, everybody loses everything. That’s not far removed from the current corporate silo model.
But, Tony’s comment got me thinking again. I wrote earlier about a [mythical server appliance](http://www.darcynorman.net/2011/05/27/reclaiming-ephemeral-media/) that people could just slap into the wall at home (or work or wherever) and then light up the services they want, to host their own stuff. But server-grade bandwidth to the home is still not ready for prime time.
What if there was a meta-application, that could be easily installed on a commodity hosting account (Mediatemple, Dreamhost, GoDaddy, etc…), that would then provide a person with list of services that they could activate? This meta-application could then download the software, configure the database, and set it up.
There are existing models for how this could work. WordPress now has a [great plugin installer](http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins_Add_New_Screen) built in. Gallery has a similar one. List the plugins (software), select the ones you want, and let them download. Activate the ones you want when you’re ready, and they Just Work™.
This would go a LONG way toward getting people set up to self-host. One thing I’ve learned through my version of [Boone’s Reclaim Project](http://teleogistic.net/2011/05/kicking-the-twitpic-habit-with-wordpress/) is that it’s sometimes non-trivial to fart around with this stuff. You have to grok subdomains, databases, PHP, config files, htaccess, log files, etc…
But if there was an application that could be easily installed that abstracted the complexity away. Something like a CPanel, or MediaTemple’s 1-Click Installer:
combined with the Gallery module selector:
or, and this will likely set off some purists, something like the App Store:
So, some form of meta-app that acts a bit like a web-based front end for an `apt-get` like process, downloading software on demand and installing it in the appropriate location before configuring and activating it for the user. All apps could share a single MySQL database on the server, reducing the headaches there, and use unique table prefixes for each application or service. It could also be set up to add applications as subdomains or directories, depending on how people want things to run (blog.mydomain.net or mydomain.net/blog etc…)
This could make the difference for a whole bunch of people wanting to get into hosting their own stuff, but who are held back by the arcane complexities of hosting software on the web.
Cpanel was made for geeks. It would be interesting to see a tumblr style interface for servers. A pre-set spin up you could use on amazon (even though i hate them) ‘install this distro – it comes with the five things you might need preconfigured’
I wonder if we could get enough people together to contrib to something like that.
d.
huh. how about something like Simple Scripts?
or maybe something based on OpenPanel?
If it was possible for the services to share a common data model/data backend, that could make for all sorts of interesting possibilities… The app is then just a UI skin over your content…
How does Locker organise personal data? https://github.com/LockerProject/Locker
I’d invest (my meagre resources) in such a venture.
Cool! It’s definitely beyond my skill and free time. Decidedly non-trivial. But it feels doable.
So I donated money a while back to http://freedomboxfoundation.org/ – their motives are not identical, but the idea of using plug computers and plug apps as a simple “plug and play” solution to provide feedom to activists is not totally dissimilar either.
There is risk and liability in whatever model you chose. I would suggest that the solution needs to be evaluated NOT solely on “efficiency/effectiveness” or “economic” criteria (though OF COURSE these are important) but in the finds of social relations it also facilitates. Which is why the coop model is still I think of most interest to me.
But either way, thanks for blazing a trail and stoking the fires of this conversation, D’Arcy, it is important from multiple perspectives.
thanks. I had an eye opening experience the other night, helping a friend get set up with a blog. walking him through the domain registration and configuration process was enlightening. this stuff shouldn’t be so hard. there’s a pretty significant barrier to entry – not financial, but an entrance exam. what would happen if anyone was able to do this, without being stymied or rejected by an arcane geek test before being granted access?
and while a “scaleable” and “easier” process might be desirable, there’s something to be said to for the step you took here too, and the social relation it created. Not that I’m advocating “everyone needs a D’Arcy,” just that there’s something to be said for NOT engineering out the need for other’s help.
Sorry, realized I had more to add – Brian and I were talking about this in regards to the “user friendly” kerfuffle that errupted on twitter last week. I think where we got to was acknowledging the seeming truism that freedom/control and ease typically exist in some sort of tension, that ideally solutions/tools would embody both but often its instead a tradeoff. But that said, there are approaches that help people get some immediate feedback/satisfaction quickly BUT THEN DON’T LIMIT THE DEPTHS YOU CAN LEARN versus some that offer you those immediate gratifications at the price of never being able to go deeper. As examples I’d contrast a Macbook Pro running OS X (which I think many would agree has much to offer to beginners, yet under the hood is a unix and fully programmable computer) vs the iPad, which while it is “easy” and offers immediate gratification, you literally have to (jail)break in order to get some control back. All this sort of in response to Dave’s reaction above “cpanel too techy.” Maybe. And maybe (I’m not sure, I’d have to think more) his tumblr-like metaphor isn’t bad, actually, because it does seem like you can get under the hood if you want (though, to bring it back to your hosting example, you exactly can’t do this)
Anyways, good discussion. I’m up for some sort of experiment.