Hell has frozen over

You can now follow me on Twitter. My username is @haxor. Some explanation is required.

I have tried for years to enable the federated social web. To me, that means the integration of social networks without cost, license, or human action. I have hoped that social networking would become just like email: Dozens of large providers, countless independent servers-- pick what suits you best because they all interoperate.

But that hasn't happend. My approach hasn't worked. In many ways social networking is more siloed now than it was three years ago. So it's time to try something new and reevaluate my outlook. I've tried to focus on what I find important given this new environment. I've looked at the services I use with more scrutiny. I've surprised myself with my conclusions.

I'll be following Tantek's lead as he described at SxSW this year. The gist of it: own your content on your own domain; syndicate from your site; use social networks to connect with your audience. Do not let your content exist primarily elsewhere.

I've decided that Tumblr, Twitter, and a host of other services now pass my threshold of acceptability. They are vibrant ecosystems and they provide RSS feeds. That means non-members can consume information without agreeing to a legal terms of service (and a bonus: Tumblr is even real-time with PubSubHubbub). So now I'll be Tweeting out posts. I'm already mirroring to Tumblr.

I haven't given up on the dream. It's just time to regroup. IndieWebCamp is a great chance to do that. Hope to see you there.