The future, cont’d

Dave explains more of what’s going on with the old blog.

People have been asking why I didn’t just keep trucking on the path I was on. There are several answers, but they all come down to dead ends that could easily be seen.

Ideally I’d blog at searls.com, a domain I own. I have a blog there, at http://doc.searls.com. Like this, it’s a WordPress blog. I started it when I thought I’d be a podcaster. The thing quickly got overrun with comment spam, and I had trouble figuring out how to administrate WordPress. At this piont it’s moribund. To make things work again I’ll need to install a newer version of WordPress — something that’s beyond the scope of my interest and ability (I’m less technical than you might think). And the techie who installed the first version isn’t available except on an occasional basis.

Since I’m a Berkman fellow at Harvard, and the blogs here are well-supported, and they’ll continue to be supported after my fellowship is over — and since Harvard has been around since 1636 — it seemed like a good choice.

Right now I’m busy with summer and family matters (good ones), but in a week or few I’ll get the rest of the kinks worked out. I don’t plan to keep the generic template, but instead to bring back the general look and feel of the old blog. Not sure I’ll use the same old picture of myself, though. I haven’t looked like that in a long time. (Though I might if I started wearing glasses again and shaved back everything but the mustache. There’s still al decade of wear & tear between that picture and reality.) I also plan to add a buncha stuff in the sidebar(s). We’ll see. Recommendations welcome.

By the way, I’ll also keep blogging at Linux Journal, where I’ve been an editor for far longer than I’ve been a blogger. As for IT Garage, a sister blog of Linux Journal, I’m not sure. It was meant as a community blog, and didn’t work out that way. Recommendations welcome there, too.



7 responses to “The future, cont’d”

  1. My recommendation is that you use your own domain and turn off comments.

    Whatever you choose, keep an archive your posts somewhere safe offline from your hosts.

  2. Doc, I’d be surprised if the Berkman system people couldn’t handle you mapping blog.searls.com or soemthing like that, to this blog.

  3. Thanks. That’s high on the list of things I’ll need to do when I get back on track after the current detour.

  4. Nice demonstration of wisdom, tying in with Harvard. It’s history, it’s (some of) the future. Good move.

    saba-us

  5. Hi Doc,

    I think it would be simple to have the old blog just read and post an RSS feed from the new blog.

  6. doc.searls.com now redirects here

  7. […] you guarantee that your data is always available so that you can take it and go elsewhere with it? Doc Searls has one solution to the problem: Since I’m a Berkman fellow at Harvard, and the blogs here are well-supported, and they’ll […]

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