Owning your own words online. It's easier said than done. The existing tools don't make it particularly easy. I'm interested in this from two angles. First, there's the practicality of writing in one place and syndicating to several or many others. It's just easier, at least in principle. And it seems to go with the grain of the Web. That is to say, the Web seems invented to allow one to many distribution, whereas the closed Web of Facebook and others seems to take control over distribution out of the hands of the original author and invoke mysterious algorithms for limited distribution. Second, there's the question of longevity. Not everything has archival value, but it would inspire me to blog more if I thought it would last - at least beyond five years. No one knows if Google Plus, Instagram, Twitter, even Facebook, will last that long. Certainly, link rot sets in well before that and the Wayback Machine is very limited.

It's not that I'm desperate to claim ownership. After all, deep collaboration is also an aspect of the Web, in which it isn't necessarily relevant to know exactly who did what. It's just a hunch that there's no need to relinquish more ownership than strictly necessary at this point.

Owning and sharing your words | Jon Udell

A Domain of One’s Own | WIRED

Connected Copies | Mike Caulfield

Claim Your Domain—And Own Your Online Presence | Solution Tree

Publish (on your) own site, syndicate elsewhere | POSSE

Self-hosting: more control, less connectivity | Jeffrey Kishner