Text and Hubris

So I have an account on Facebook. I use it as a way to check on the activities of the Iowa Youth Writing Project and on those around me who still use Facebook as their primary method of communication. Otherwise, the site is useless to me. Its value as a locus of people and eyes is diminished by the fact that everything I say and do is fed back into the machine. I pay for Facebook not in cash but in information. I pay by selling my words, my interests and my friends. Personally, I think that price is far too high. Beyond that, the company has repeatedly sacrificed user security for corporate sponsorship. Zuckerberg’s belief that we should all have a single user account on the Internet is not only wrong-headed, it is a rejection of the very principles that made the Internet what it is today. Rather, it is a complete giveaway to corporations and governments that seek to track and monitor their people. Frankly, I have no interest in adding any more than I must to such a machine. My account will remain, as it has, as a pointer out and away from the poisoned walled garden.

When Google Plus came out, I was incredibly excited. Here was an opportunity to get in at on the main floor with a company whose motto is “Do No Evil.” I hunted for an invite and when a close friend sent one out to me, I jumed at the chance. To be fair, Google Plus had almost everything I wanted. The circles concept was genius, the ability to hang out was actually a lot of fun. While the site still had a long way to go, I really thought that I had found a place where I could settle into and become an active participant.

I was wrong. Within weeks, Google began to cut into its users. Anyone suspected of not using their real name was summarily removed from the network. No judge, no appeal, just erasure. Then Eric Schmidt reveals that Google Plus is not a social network but an identity service. This was surprising to me because I thought I was signing up for a social network. Furthermore, I don’t want Google acting as my identity service. I didn’t mind using my real name because I am actively seeking to merge my online and offline personas, but I quite understand the need for aliases. Personally, I use them all the time especially now that I am merging personas. There are certain things I don’t want listed under this name.

This is not wrong, it is the wonderful nature of an online universe that allows us to shed one persona for another, to discover new aspects of ourselves that we never could have imagined in the physical space (this is to say nothing of those who must conceal their identity online to actually avoid being murdered for their beliefs). Of course, it also makes it a hell of a lot harder to sell to us. It feeds incorrect data into all those carefully managed databases that track what we like and don’t like and that..well that just pisses Google off. After all, their money comes, almost entirely, from advertising. The better their information, the better the sales.

And there we have it. Google Plus and Facebook: so different, and yet, entirely the same.

Needless to say, I was frustrated. So I went to a small group of upstarts who made a splash on Kickstarter a little while ago when they suggested an distributed social network. I gathered information, found @diasporainvites on Twitter and requested an account. It is still in Alpha but this is a social network the way it should be. In a lot of ways, it feels like Google Plus. Considering how long it has been in development, you can tell that Google heavily borrowed from Diaspora’s look and feel. Circles are really just a new name for Diaspora’s Aspects and in Diaspora those useless Sparks that were on Google Plus become hashtags that allow you to track conversations inside Diaspora itself. I use them all the time. Best of all, Diaspora is built for the user. You want to use an alias? Feel free. You don’t want an account on joindiaspora.com? That fine. There are several sites (called pods) that you can sign up on. Don’t like the idea of storing your data on any of those sites? Don’t! If you want, you can run your own Diaspora server (although, right now, this is recommended for only experienced users). Create a small pod for family and friends and then connect that pod to the larger Diaspora community. Your data stays with you and no one claims any ownership.

As for financial incentive, Diaspora runs because some of the users pitch in to help. This is a community of people and users. It is built not to collect data for sale to highest bidder but to honestly connect people with one another. That is exactly what this giant Internet is supposed to do. It’s supposed to make our world a little bit smaller, a little bit closer, and little bit more open for everyone. That is why I moved to Diaspora. That is why I chose donate what I can (which isn’t much so they could use your help too!) to support Diaspora. That is why Diaspora is the first social network where I am actually going to be social.

If you want to join me, you can find me at textandhubris@joindiaspora.com. If you need an invite, leave a comment below with an accessible email and I will send you one immediately. Join a social network (ahem, or more accurately, a distributed social web) where what you do and what you say doesn’t feed some giant machine but rather helps to make the community stronger and more valuable. When was the last time that happened?

I am supposed to start moving tomorrow. I am supposed to move to a small farm just outside of Grinnell, Iowa. It’s beautiful land with a large spacious house. My family lives nearby and the price can’t be beat. In other words, it is perfect.

Well, it was perfect. Now, it looks like we can’t go.

Simply put, the telecommunication companies don’t think that this area is valuable enough to provide service to it. To them, the people who live out there are not worthy of internet access. Those companies that do offer some sort of access, via satellite or wireless, enforce such stringent data policies that it is impossible to actually use the modern internet in any meaningful way. From a business perspective, perhaps the cost of providing connectivity is too much. From a practical perspective it eliminates possibilities and it furthers the digital divide in a very real way.

My family requires real internet connectivity. This means that a very nice house will have to find other occupants. There is no other way and, believe me, we have searched. Luckily, we can choose where we go. It’s just a real shame that this had to be the deal-breaker.

I am always hesitant to post personal posts online. I feel that they, at least a bit, too self-serving. That said, I want to follow this through. My life over the past several years has changed in a thousand ways and these posts serve as reminders and hints at who I was and what I thought along the way. My opinions and feelings may change. I know they have from previous years, but this is a story and I enjoy writing and sharing it. That said, it is personal and certainly not of interest to everyone. Enjoy as you will, or pass on by. I promise there will be more than enough for everyone here and if not, well the Internet is a big place. I am sure you can find something, somewhere.

To be fair, it’s been awhile since I have had time to sit down and write anything. I haven’t been idle, though, either. For most of the last month and half, I have been hell-bent on doing those basic things that life requires of us. I’ve been job hunting and Courtney and I have been trying to figure out where the next chapter in life will take us. Sometimes those choices are not as easy as they seem.

I interviewed for a fantastic job this last Thursday. It is a position that I would have killed for a year ago. It is with an educational institution and it is focused on building and developing network infrastructure. It is the type of job that I could have stayed with until I retired and still left feeling that I had made a difference. The pay was less than the corporate world but the schedule is far saner and the pressures aren’t nearly the same. In every way, I should be excited and hopeful.

I left the interview not nearly so hopeful as I was sad. I realized that I am not the same person I was a year ago. I will always be a technical person. I will always be someone who reads the manual and takes pride in his tech. I will always be a solutions architect, if only for myself, and I will always be aware of what is happening in the tech world. It’s a part of me. What I am realizing, though, is that my passion for technology is tinged by my love of language. I am a student of literature and words. I live for stories and communication. I am even, at times, a writer (I even got paid to be one – if only for a second.). I don’t think I can walk away from that. In fact, I am sure I can’t.

When I graduated last month, I aimed at entry-level positions that involved writing and tech and I was roundly rejected. I have too much experience and too little. Rather than rethinking and retooling, I panicked and I ran back to my safe zone. I ran back to technology. It was safe. It was easy. Why wouldn’t I do that?

I have had some good success too. I have three interviews lined up and several more companies I could apply to on the docket. But the truth, that pesky thing, the truth is that I gave up too quickly. I loved what I was doing. I loved everything about my life and my focus. For this last month and half I have been so far away from all of it and I have sorely missed it. It is not that I want to be a student, forever. We are all students for as long as we wish so that’s not really an issue. I have missed writing. I have missed building stories. I have missed working on those projects that helped others write and share.

Why? I ran away. I got scared. I’ve been running and hiding. It’s safer, but it isn’t what I want. So, it is time to refocus and do what I do best: figure out how to get to where I want to be. I am still afraid but maybe— just maybe— that’s a good thing.

As I have been shifting from school back into professional life, I have been looking heavily at freelance work. It is the style of work that suits me and this is the best possible time for me to pursue it. So, I started to look for jobs. I am a strong technical writer but I realized that my available content as a technical writer or even a technical blogger is all hidden behind corporate firewalls. Most of my technical work was done for specific platforms or companies. I don’t have much a portfolio.

This site primarily focuses on literature and new media but it is supposed to include to include some technical information as well. So I’m going to start doing that. It might help a few people, it gives me something to write about, and it gives me something to show prospective clients. If this is my face to the world, I better make it worthwhile.

Oh and if you know anyone in need of my services, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m available!

A quick addendum to my last post. I do not think the novel as a form is going away. That would be—to put it mildly — silly. What I am saying is that we to have an ever increasing array of ways to tell a story. Conversely, we have an equally increasing number of ways in which to experience a story. This should be a cause for publishers and authors to celebrate not mourn. I would hope that we all know that the supposed death of the industry is—as I already mentioned —very silly. Rather than panicking and fearing the 99 cent novel or whatever comes next in the long line of tech scare fads, laugh, write, create and be glad there are so many ways to share your story.