Comments on: to facilitate self-hosting https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/ no more band-aids Tue, 23 Aug 2016 15:14:22 +0000 hourly 1 By: Scott Leslie https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201991 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:05:10 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201991 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.

]]> By: Scott Leslie https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201990 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:02:52 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201990 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.

]]> By: dnorman https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201989 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:55:53 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201989 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?

]]> By: Scott Leslie https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201988 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:52:33 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201988 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.

]]> By: dnorman https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201985 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:35:21 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201985 Cool! It’s definitely beyond my skill and free time. Decidedly non-trivial. But it feels doable.

]]> By: Stephen Downes https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201984 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:49:20 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201984 I’d invest (my meagre resources) in such a venture.

]]> By: dnorman https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201981 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:34:13 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201981 or maybe something based on OpenPanel?

]]> By: Tony Hirst https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201980 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:32:53 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201980 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

]]> By: dnorman https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201979 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:30:16 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201979 huh. how about something like Simple Scripts?

]]> By: dave cormier https://darcynorman.net/2011/09/12/to-facilitate-self-hosting/#comment-201977 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:05:43 +0000 http://www.darcynorman.net/?p=6071#comment-201977 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.

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