management – JAMES MICHIE

Closure

I am writing this as an addendum to two previous posts.

Like many others, I received the following email from the web clipping service Amplify yesterday.

As I explained in my ‘Account Management’ post, I decided that I want to ‘own’ my data and also improve my productivity by reducing my digital footprint. The process of exporting various data: images, posts… was reasonably straight forward. In many cases it took a couple of emails. In the best cases, it simply involved logging in and clicking ‘delete this account’. However, I was unable to close my Amplify account. I sent emails and tweets but received no replies. I had to live with a ‘redundant’ open account that I was not using anymore. Even getting rid of the behemoth that is Facebook was easier.

With the closure of Amplify, this matter has now been resolved, although not in the manner I would have liked. I wish no ill will towards Eric or anyone else that worked on Amplify. I am positive that their intentions with the service were entirely honourable and I know for a number of people, the model of clipping and sharing was a highly effective way to discuss content on the web. However, I think it was wrong that as a ‘user’ of the service, there was no way for me to close my account and/or liberate my data.

I would encourage everyone to think carefully about the online services and tools they sign up with. Before you sign up or request an invite, find out as much about them as you can. What are they going to do with your data? Who will have access to it? If you want to get your data out, can you? If you want to stop using the service and delete your account, will you be able to?

Here are some links to services and information you might find useful:

Housekeeping: The Value of Less

While my digital-self has been quiet over the last few months, I have not been entirely inactive. Having instigated a cleanup of my web footprint (I shared the initial stages in this post), I have continued this process alongside a number of subtle design/structural changes to jamesmichie.com and jamesmichie.com/blog. Also, I have made some changes to my online workflow – more out of necessity than choice.

Following on from decreasing the number of peripheral accounts that I had. I set about redesigning my second blog. I added a more pleasing theme and retitled it ‘Et cetera’. I felt, that what was my other blog, lacked a clear sense of purpose. As such I’ve added the tag line: ‘…riffs, ramblings, snippets and pics’. These were not extensive changes but add clarity to the role this blog plays in my online presence. I also wanted to draw a bit more attention to ‘Et cetera’, so I added buttons to both jamesmichie.com and jamesmichie.com/blog.

[Update: 27.07.12 Et cetera has been closed and the posts imported to this blog.]

This coincided with the removal of the Facebook page I set up to promote jamesmichie.com/blog. The page added limited value and very few additional readers. This also resulted in the deletion of my Facebook account. The continued uncertainty surrounding Facebook’s inability to take its customers’ privacy seriously, have left me under no illusion that it is better to be out than in.

I have made some minor changes to jamesmichie.com including adding a ‘bookmarks’ feed. Likewise, I have added the same feed in the sidebar of this blog. This change was prompted by Google’s decision to remove the sharing functions within Google Reader. The result? Google Reader continues to be my RSS reader of choice, however I laboriously reviewed the items I had shared (automated to Twitter via ifttt) and added any that I wished to keep to my Delicious bookmarks. I am now using this to both bookmark and share items – again, automated with ifttt. Initially, I was annoyed about Google’s decision but this has actually helped in the slimming down of my web presence – streamlining my sharing/bookmarking workflow.

What’s more, with the reduction of sources from which I am sharing information, I have removed the shared stream that was present on both jamesmichie,com and jamesmichie.com/blog.

Also, I have made some subtle changes to this blog, including the addition of text snippets in the side bar to further encourage people to subscribe to the blog and to also promote conference and events, at which I will be attending/speaking.

As I have taken each step, deleting accounts; cleaning up features; adapting my workflow, I have felt calmer, more in control, more focused. I can see that much of this has come as a result of the reading I have been doing this year – particularly the work of Leo Babauta. His books ‘The Power of Less‘ and ‘Focus‘ have had a profound effect in helping me to channel my energy into projects that matter.

I am not, now, opposed to trying out new tools or apps. However, I think it is important to limit your output – the more outlets that you are having to keep up is a form of distraction in itself.

Here are some of the selections I have made:

Twitter NOT Facebook (sometimes Google+).
Cloud App NOT Posterous, Twitpic, yFrog and Mobypicture.
jamesmichie.com/blog NOT Amplify.

Each of these choices have helped me to streamline my web footprint, reduce friction, and find focus – allowing me to fully appreciate the value of ‘less’.

I leave with this thought:

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?

~ Marcus Aurelius

Account Management

With Google+ adding to the myriad of online spaces in which I have a presence I am in the process of eliminating services and accounts that are offering me little return on my investment. So far, this has included:

Last.fm – If I’m honest I signed up because lots of other people were using it but it did little for my web presence and I ended up barely using it.

LiveJournal – I had a LiveJournal account for a long time which I actually never used as a journal but instead had signed up to access a bunch of communities that were sharing new music. I hadn’t logged in for a long time, so felt no pain in deleting that one.

Quora – I signed up for an account because I liked the concept, but I haven’t really used it. I can get the same sort of benefits out of Google search and now Google+.

Amplify – Google+ offers the same functionality and is likely to be better integrated with other Google tools that I regularly use. While the others have been relatively easy to get rid of, there seems to be no obvious way to delete an Amplify account. Quite worrying for someone who cares about his personal data.

[Update: 25.02.12 – This matter is now resolved due to the closure of Amplify.]

Twitpic – After the furore over Twitpic claiming ownership of your photos I cleared out my Twitpic account. I hadn’t used it in a long time any way having begun to use my Posterous blog as my Twitter photo service of choice. This keeps my photos within a space that I retain both ownership and control over.

Picplz – I’m adding this to the list in essence of full disclosure, even though to say that I used Picplz is a bit of a misnomer. In order to try the Android app you had to sign up for an account. I didn’t like the app nor did I ever upload any photos. However, every now and again I would receive an email indicating that someone was following me on Picplz. A short email quickly put an end to that.

Mobypicture and yfrog – Two other photo service that I used a couple of times when I began using Twitter was Mobypicture. Again, a short email saw the account closed.

If you have an account but don’t know how to close it, you should check out Account Killer. I came across the site via Doug Belshaw. Accounts and services are listed and then colour coded to indicate the ease with which you can delete them. Amplify is black listed as there seems to be no way to shut it down. Quora is grey as it involves sending an email requesting the account to be closed. Last.fm on the other hand is white listed as you can close the account yourself from the account settings page.

While I’m on this topic, there are two new tools that I have been using that I will be keeping as part of my (continually evolving) workflow.

Firstly, ifttt (if this then that) is an awesome way to push around and manage the various streams of information that you have coming in or are creating yourself. I currently use it to push a whole bunch of stuff out to Twitter including my Google Reader shared items, blog posts and Delicious bookmarks.

Secondly, Storify is a fantastic way to curate information and is super intuitive to use. Here are two ways that I’ve used it so far:

I would be interested to know how others are managing their incoming/outgoing information; work flows; and online presence.

Image courtesy of M i x y.