I occurs to me to that I have not posted here since back on my birthday. I apologize for that. I’ve got a lot of things going on. Here are some transitional notes to bring things up-to-date.
Retired as Evernote Ambassador
If you haven’t already seen the news, Evernote has transitioned their Ambassador program to a new Community Leader program. I took this opportunity to retire as Evernote Paperless Ambassador. A few points:
- I am still an Evernote user.
- I retired mainly because I felt like I didn’t have anything new to offer. My posts, while well-received, have begun to repeat themselves.
- The program transition seemed like a good time to retire.
- I want to use the time I spent writing about Evernote writing about technology more generally. More on this later.
Transition to Medium
Almost a year ago to the day, I wrote about “stagnation and transition to Medium,” something that I ultimately didn’t follow through with. Today, I am more serious about it. I have been spending time formulating a plan to transition my writing from this WordPress blog over to Medium. This transition will take place over several months, and there will be a period of time where the posts that I write will appear in both places. But eventually, this blog will retire and my writing will continue on Medium. I have several reasons for making this transition:
- My time is growing increasingly limited, thanks to being busy at work, and with the family. This site is a self-maintained WordPress site, and it does take work to maintain it. That time could be better spent writing. I don’t have to maintain Medium the way I do this site. So that’s a plus.
- I like Medium as a writing platform. I like its simplicity, its UX/UI, and its discussion model.
- I like the kind of pieces that I read on Medium, and I want to be a part of that. My own take is that Medium represents (or had already subsumed) traditional blogging.
- Sometimes, I just need something new. Medium represents that new thing for me.
My transition plan here is not complete, but my goal is to be doing this kind of blog writing on Medium exclusively beginning in early September. With a roughly five month transition, and plenty of reminders along the way, it should make it relatively painless for those who want to follow me over there.
Technology writing
I haven’t been writing much at all lately. A while back I announced my retirement from science fiction writing. I am transitioning this blog over to Medium. I’ve retired as Evernote’s paperless ambassador? So what do I plan on writing about?
I suspect, although I am still working this out, that much of what I write will be tech-based. I want to write more about the influence of technology. I want to write more about technology on a micro (vs. macro) scale. That is, that ways that I use technology to improve myself. I’m still fascinated by quantified-self, and have been working on a project in this regard, borrowing concepts from the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. I’ll have more to say on this at some point in the future. I want to write more about coding for wider audience. Coding skills today are like home maintenance skills. Have experience with some of those skill sets can reap large benefits.
Of course, I also want to write about the things I read about, and other miscellaneous things that appear here on this blog from time-to-time.
In conclusion
Things are in flux, and I appreciate your patience as I work my way through them. Beginning with my next post, post will appear both here and over on Medium through the transition, and of course, there will be reminders along the way. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them for you.
Hi James,
I have been following your blog for a couple of years now and have always found it interesting and inspirational, both the content in itself and concept (as inspiration for my own blog). Therefore, seeing you transition over to Medium makes me wonder if I should do the same.
One thing I am curious about is who actually owns the stuff you publish on Medium. I checked the FAQ on Medium, but there was nothing about it. I assume there must be some small-print somewhere, though. For example – can someone from Medium repost your content with or without crediting you somewhere else without your consent?
Have you had any thoughts on this?
Best regards,
Allan
Allan, good question. As a writer I am particularly sensitive to rights. I usually check into that before using a service. Looking at Medium’s most recent Term’s of Service page (dated March 7, 2016), the very first line under the Content Rights & Responsibilities section is:
To me, that pretty clearly states that what I create there is mine. That is good enough for me.
Thanks, Jamie.
I’ll go take a good, long look at Medium : )