own your data - IndieWeb

own your data - IndieWeb
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This article is a
stub
You can help the IndieWeb wiki by
expanding it
with
relevant
information.
own your data
is an IndieWeb
principle
with two key parts: 1) your data lives primarily under your own
domain
, and 2) you are able to
retain your access
over time.
If you’re looking for the primary technique for owning your data on your domain, while distributing across platforms so your friends see your posts where they read streams, see:
POSSE
— Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere
Why
First, using your own domain gives you
control
over where people find and interact with you online. When you migrate to a new
hosting provider
or
CMS
, if your site stays on the same domain, everyone will still find you, regardless of whether they follow your site in a
reader
, land directly on your
permalinks
from other sites or search engines, or even type your domain directly into a browser.
Second, they say that
change is the only constant
, and web sites are no exception. Whether you stick with a
host
or
CMS
for a year, a decade, or a century, you're likely to change something eventually. When you do, you'll need usable access to all of your existing data. This includes
export
and
import
, data
formats
and
standards
tools
protocols
, permissions, rate limits, and more.
Also see
why
How
The Basics
Getting Started
own your links
Per Silo
Commit to owning your data by using your site, instead of a silo, for each silo you currently use.
Each silo you stop directly using (
POSSE
is ok), and use your own site instead, is a step forward in owning your data.
Per Post Type
Commit to owning each kind of post you publish, by using
only
your site to publish particular
kinds of posts
(again,
POSSE
is ok).
Each kind of post you stop posting directly to
any/all
silo(s), and use always use your own site to create instead, is a step forward in owning your data.
Per Post Type Per Silo
A more incremental but still significant step is stop posting a particular type of post to a particular silo, and always use your own site to publish that type of post instead of that silo.
IndieWeb Examples
Add yourself here if you:
have an indieweb site, and
are using it
exclusively
to post either
a particular kind of
post
(e.g.
notes
), and/or
if you are posting to your site completely
instead of
a particular
silo
(e.g.
) and note:
started when: what date you started
owning your data
of what kind(s) of posts, or instead of which silo(s),
backfilled since when: what earlier date (if any) you have backfilled your data from, of what kind(s) of posts
For the purpose of this page, please succinctly list,
only
specific silo(s)
you have replaced usage of with your own site. E.g.: I use my own site instead of Twitter (notes, replies, favorites)
post type(s)
you use your own site for instead of / before any silo posts. E.g.: I post notes on my own site instead of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
post type(s) instead of specific silo
- what post type you use your own site for instead of / before a specific silo. E.g.: I post notes & replies on my own site instead of Twitter.
Optional details, for each of the above post types / or "instead of silos", optionally note which
projects
or tools help you do so.
Examples of what doesn't count:
You post some notes on your own site, and some notes directly to
Why: All or nothing. Either you've committed and are following through with posting
all
your content of a specific kind to your own site, or you don't yet "own your data" of that type.
Examples of what belongs on your user page instead:
owned other things besides post types / instead of silos (sites, domain names, project installs)
what other sites you post to
Examples of what doesn't disqualify you:
A small number of
test
posts on any given silo of any given content type, especially if you're doing it as research for how to best
POSSE
to that silo, especially if you
document
the results of your research here on the wiki. Though for research purposes, you really should create one or more separate test accounts on silos.
gRegor Morrill
gRegor Morrill
has:
owned
articles
since 2002-01-26.
[1]
owned
photos
since 2017-04-15
[2]
POSSE manually to Instagram, occasionally POSSE to Twitter with Bridgy Publish, backfeed via Bridgy
Tantek
Tantek Çelik
has publicly:
owned his
articles
since
2002-08-08
owned his
notes
since
2010-01-01
owned his
events
since
2017-06-26
instead of
, posted on his own site:
notes
since 2010-01-01
, POSSE to Twitter
since 2010-01-26
@-
replies
since 2013-05-12
, POSSEd to Twitter (same day).
favorites
as
likes
since 2014-12-31
, using Bridgy Publish to POSSE likes of tweets to favoriting those tweets on Twitter.
instead of
GitHub
posted on his own site:
issues
since 2018-02-21
replies
to issues (
since 2018-02-19
post about
replies to comments on issues (
since 2018-02-21
reactions
to GitHub comments (
since 2018-02-24
), to GitHub issues (
since 2018-02-26
), to GitHub pull requests (
since 2018-07-09
Notes:
not yet ownyourreplies.
I can't say I yet I follow "ownyourdata" for ALL my replies, as I still post replies directly to
posts, and the past have posted replies directly to posts on
(stopped in 2020), whereas I should be posting even those replies on my own site first, and then POSSEing them to Facebook manually. Thus I've scoped my "ownyourdata" of replies to only being a replacement for my use of Twitter and GitHub to post replies.
not yet ownyourlikes.
I also can't yet say I follow "ownyourdata" for ALL my likes, as I still like photos directly on
, and posts on
(stopped in 2020).
not yet ownyourRSVPs.
While I have owned my public
RSVPs
(especially "going") since 2017-01-01, I still RSVP to private events on Facebook. I’m not sure how to avoid this short of giving up on private FB events. I also have been clicking the "I’m Going" on
IndieWeb HWC Events pages
without always posting an RSVP on my own site.
not yet ownyourissues.
While I’ve owned 100% of my public issues posted to GitHub, I still post issues directly (and without my own copy) to
Bugzilla
no private posts yet.
I don't have a mechanism for publishing
private posts
yet, so I am still manually posting those elsewhere, like
Swarm
checkins
, comments, and likes, and private GitHub repos for example.
Snarfed
Ryan Barrett
has:
owned his
articles
and
notes
[3]
since 2003-06-29
[4]
owned his
photos
[5]
since 2003-03-06
[6]
owned his
replies
comments
[7]
since 2013-10-02
[8]
owned his
likes
favorites
[9]
since 2014-02-02
[10]
owned his
reposts
[11]
since 2014-03-13
[12]
owned his
events
[13]
and
rsvps
[14]
since 2014-01-15
[15]
instead of
posted
notes
and
photos
on his own site always,
replies
[16]
since 2013-10-02 ,
favorites
[17]
since 2014-02-02,
retweets
[18]
since 2014-03-13
POSSEd via
Bridgy Publish
, backfed via
Bridgy
read his Twitter stream via
twitter-atom
and responded via
web bookmarklets
and
Android flow
instead of Twitter's own web UI and app
instead of
posted
articles
notes
, and
photos
on his own site always,
comments
[19]
since 2013-10-02,
likes
[20]
since 2014-02-02
POSSEd via
Bridgy Publish
, backfed via
Bridgy
PESOS
backfilled articles and notes between 2009-10-15
[21]
and 2012-10-28
[22]
with
freedom.io
read his Facebook news feed via
facebook-atom
and responded via
web bookmarklets
and
Android flow
instead of Facebook's own web UI and app
instead of
, posted:
posted
photos
on his own site always
[23]
, POSSEd manually, backfed via
Bridgy
read his Instagram stream via
instagram-atom
instead of the Instagram app
instead of
Google+
, posted on his own site:
articles
notes
, and
photos
always, POSSEd manually, backfed via
Bridgy
Bear
bear
has
owned his
articles
since 2003-12-18.
[24]
owned his own
replies
since May of 2014.
owned his own replies to others since November of 2014 but until I add
in-reply-to'
markup I cannot call them
comments
Aaron Parecki
owned his
articles
since 2006-04-14
owned his
bookmarks
since 2010-12-17
[25]
owned his
notes
and
replies
, and POSSE to
since 2012-08-19
[26]
[27]
twitter copy
owned his
photos
since 2014-03-08
[28]
(launched at
IndieWebCamp SF 2014
) and occassionally manually POSSEs to
since 2014-05-06
[29]
on Twitter
owned his
biking, running
, and driving since 2014-07-30
[30]
owned his
videos
since 2014-09-10
[31]
owned his food & drink posts since 2014-10-17
[32]
owned his
cat
since 2014-11-01
[33]
owned his
reposts
since 2014-11-02
[34]
owned his
likes
since 2014-12-26
[35]
(launched as part of the
2015-01-01 commitments
Kartik
Note: kartikprabhu.com links appear to have stopped working (2022-10-24 or earlier) without a redirect. Manually add
www.
at the start until these links have been fixed.
Kartik Prabhu
has:
owned his
articles
since 2013-06-01.
Invictus
owned his
notes
since 2014-03-08.
[36]
instead of
, posted on his own site:
notes
and POSSE to
since 2014-03-20.
original
twitter copy
— with original post permalinks until 2017-07-01
photos
and POSSE to Twitter since 2014-07-27.
original
instead of
Google+
, posted on his own site:
notes
and manual POSSE to Google+ since ??
instead of on
others blogs
not supporting webmentions, posted on his own site:
replies
and manual POSSE replies to others blogs not supporting webmentions since 2014-08-28.
original
Sebastiaan Andeweg
Sebastiaan Andeweg
has:
instead of
, posted to his own site:
photos
and POSSE to
(since 2016-11-22, with import of all earlier photos)
Marty McGuire
Marty McGuire
has:
instead of
, posted to his own site:
articles
notes
photos
, and
videos
and POSSE to
manually (since
2016-07
instead of
, posted to his own site:
events
notes
photos
, and
videos
and POSSE to
manually (since
2016-08
instead of
Goodreads
, posted to his own site:
reads
, with import from
Goodreads
ending
2018-03
and subsequent read posts only on his own site starting
2018-05
instead of ... a non-existent silo to track podcast listens:
listens
of podcast episodes to his own site since
2019-02
Notes:
Not yet owning all replies. Still making some replies directly on Twitter, Facebook.
Can and does reply to IndieWeb-enabled posts on his own site since at least
2016-11
Not yet owning all
likes
and
reacji
. Still like some posts on
Note: uses
Perkeep
to keep an archive of all tweets liked.
Can and does post likes of IndieWeb-enabled (and other) posts on his site since at least
2016-11
. Reacjis since
2017-10
Not yet owning all bookmarks. Still bookmarks privately with
Pinboard
, but posts some bookmarks publicly since
2017-04
Not yet owning all RSVPs. Still RSVPs to some events on Facebook.
Can and does RSVP to IndieWeb-enabled events on his own site since
2016-06
Joe Crawford
This section is a
stub
You can help the IndieWeb wiki by
expanding it
Joe Crawford
owns his entire history of
bookmarks for over 20 years
...
... add yourself ...
Previous Examples
These are examples who owned their data for periods of time, but either went offline, or resumed posting silo-first or silo-only content at some point.
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmüller
has,
since 2013-07-11
, using
Known
instead of
, posted to his own site:
notes
and POSSE to
until ~2022 or earlier (e.g.
and other recent native/exclusive-Tweets)
instead of
, posted
notes
and POSSE to
until ????
instead of
, posted
notes
and POSSE to
until ????
instead of
Flickr
, posted
photos
and POSSE to
Flickr
until ????
The Dod
dubiousdod.org links appear dead as of 2022-10-24 (or earlier — need to check Internet Archive for when it went offline and document that here with permalinks to belowmentioned post types)
ĎÚβĨŐÚŚ Dod
had:
instead of
, posted to his own site:
notes
replies
repost
favorites
and POSSE to
using
his RedWind install
since November 2014 until 2022 (or earlier)
Uses a
bookmarklet
to reply/reshare/fav stuff (including tweets).
Uses
Bridgy
to
backfeed
interactions
as
webmentions
Hashtag
ownyourdata
is a rallying cry hashtag for aggregating content across indie web sites and 3rd-party
silos
about "owning your data", "owning your own data" etc.
Tagboard: #ownyourdata
- hashtag aggregator across
Google
+.
Google News Search: ownyourdata
...
#ownyourdata posts tend to be a a subset of
Posts about the IndieWeb
Criticism
Following a discussion
[37]
between
Aaron Parecki
and
Peter Molnar
that was triggered by specific wording found in an indiweb critic post
[38]
, namely the sentence:
Legally, any and all content that you post to a silo is no longer "your content"
Aaron Parecki
"We do not claim ownership of your content, but you grant us a license to use it"
[...]
Aaron Parecki
: giving up your ownership means you can no longer do things with it yourself such as giving other people licenses
[...]
Peter Molnar
: one would assume [...] owning == option to grant and to revoke rights/access
Peter Molnar
: and with sending it to a silo, the revoking part is, most of the times, thrown away
Peter Molnar
: hence "owning" from that point on, is incomplete(?)
See Also
principles
own your links
own your likes
own your replies
own your comments
Posts about the IndieWeb
2018-05-17
Google’s Selfish Ledger is an unsettling vision of Silicon Valley social engineering
Of course, the concept is premised on Google having access to a huge amount of user data and decisions. Privacy concerns or potential negative externalities are never mentioned in the video. The ledger’s demand for ever more data might be the most unnerving aspect of the presentation.
"In watching people discuss where they’re going, they’re all STILL talking about going to another platform owned by someone else. I have yet to see anyone say anything about doing a traditional blog, and that makes me sad. Own. Your. Content."
@kplawver
December 10, 2018
“You don't own your data, & you should. And btw, the internet was created w/ publicly funded research.” - AOC
"Ironically, the reason many tech platforms have created billionaires is bc they track you without your knowledge, amass your personal data& sell it without your express consent.
You don’t own your data, & you should. And btw, the internet was created w/ publicly funded research."
@AOC
February 20, 2020
Why I'm leaving Micro.blog, 2018
"Manton says owning your domain so you can move your content without breaking URLs is owning your content, whereas I believe if your content still lives on someone else's server, and requires them to run the server and run their code so you can access your content, it's not really yours at all, as they could remove your access at any time." - Belle B. Cooper on how owning one's data can mean very different to one another.
Another perspective on ownership of data:
"Yes! Ownership implies a right to alienate (ie sell) the thing you own at which point we lose all the rights to the thing. A rights-based framework works better imo especially combined with an approach to data governance that focuses on collective needs and interests."
@AnoukRuhaak
October 28, 2020
"A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn... As pointed out by Twitter user @dox_gay, hardcore porn is now embedded on the pages of the Huffington Post, New York magazine, The Washington Post, and a host of other websites. This is because a porn site called 5 Star Porn HD bought the domain for Vidme, a brief YouTube competitor founded in 2014 and shuttered in 2017. Its Twitter account is still up, but the domain lapsed. ...The trend toward embeds rather than screenshots or direct copying has long struck me as ill-conceived.At least it's only pr0n. As a vector for malware / spyware injection, this could be even more interesting.
discussion:
#bitrot #pr0n #DNS #ItsAlwaysDNS #LapsedDomains #EmbeddedContent #malware #spyware #risks #infosec"
@dredmorbius
July 22, 2021
What not to do as a company if you support users owning their data:
""You should own your data." Like my address."
@sebmck
May 31, 2022
"Twitter is introducing “Notes” to make you blog on their platform. I have a notes section on my personal site. I own the words I write there. It is my playground and my home on the Web. One of the best decisions I ever made.
@m_ott
June 23, 2022
Business perspective:
Own Your Digital Content
Kevin Kelly article
Buy a domain you like, create a simple site with a technology you can maintain for a long time, like a static HTML site or even a simple WordPress theme can help you if you’re not tech-savvy, and pour your creativity there. Do you want to share your writings, photos, or designs? That should be the place.
“I want to own my words and thus I post on my own domain. […] By using my domain I can be sure that I can make material available and present it in the way I like.”
“OWN YOUR WORDS
^ 2012-08-19
Your words are wasted
It needs to be said again, perhaps this time more strongly. Your Blog is The Engine of Community. Dammit.
Own Your Words
I've been blogging here for over 10 years. On my domain, running my software pushing out HTML when you visit the site on any device and RSS or ATOM…
2024-01-11
We Need To Talk About Digital Ownership - Citation Needed Newsletter
2024-11-26
X's Objection to the Onion Buying InfoWars Is a Reminder You Do Not Own Your Social Media Accounts
own your bookmarks! 20y worth of bookmarks owned by
Joe Crawford
Owning my own bookmarks over 20 years
Elsewhere
Zero Data
: apps and protocols that focus on storing data in sovereign spaces.
Retrieved from "
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OwnYour