I am a big believer in owning your own domain. I do not care what you put there, but you should have at least on online domain which you control. Ideally you have an email address there too, and keep your site(s) somewhat active. I have winters on each domain where I do not update anything, but I always come back to them, otherwise I let a domain go. Today is one of those days where I step back and assess the state of my personal and professional domain(s).
My Personal Side
I have historically been very public with the personal side of my storytelling, and this is something I think I will continue as long as I can. I find it rewarding to be in control of the narrative for my digital self this way.
Kin Lane (kinlane.com)
This is me. This is my doorway. Sometimes it is very personal. Sometimes it is political. Sometimes more technical. Other times it is just my personal journal.
Alternate Kin Lane (alternate.kinlane.com)
This is where I write about the things I see that aren’t real. The line can be blurred sometimes with my professional world, but everything I write here lives in alternate realm.
Alorotoscope (algorithmic.rotoscope.work)
This is the image factory for all of my domain, where I produce images evolved from photos I took using AI models I’ve developed to show how technology obfuscates and distorts reality.
The Digital Self (thedigitalself.org)
This is my religion. It is just what I tell myself daily to find balance in this digital world. I believe strongly that taking control over our digital domain is how we’ll save our physical self.
Drone Recovery (dronerecovery.org)
This is a site about Isaiah and the summer we went out to wrestle with his addiction. Ultimately I wasn’t successful in recovering this drone, but I revisit this site often.
My Professional Side
This is where I do my professional work focused almost exclusively on APIs. Because of my approach to storytelling it can be difficult to understand where the line between my personal and professional storytelling is.
API Evangelist (apievangelist.com)
This is where I have been working to make sense of the technology, business, policies, and people of APIs since 2010, sharing stories about what I am seeing at this dimension of our digital transformation.
APIs.io (apis.io)
The search engine I am developing with my partner in crime Steve Willmott, working to make APIs more discoverable using our open source API discovery format called APIs.json.
APIs.json (apisjson.org)
The open source API discovery format that I developed with Steve Willmott back in 2014, and we have been working on ever since, and have found renewed energy for here in 2024.
API Commons (apicommons.org)
The open source API lifecycle format that I developed with Steve Willmott back in 2014, as part of my work on the Oracle vs. Google copyright case, which we are giving some more attention as a common place to store machine-readable APIs.json properties.
API Specification Toolbox (apispecificationtoolbox.com)
This is an open source directory of API specifications I setup while planning and building Postman Open Technologies, and is something I’d like to give more attention each year to help me keep a handle on all of the specifications and tooling.
Contrafabulists (contrafabulists.com)
This is the parent level business my wife and I own together to house all of our domains under a single roof. We operated Hack Education and API Evangelist under this for a decade, and I will likely maintain on into the future–just in case.
The Importance of My Domain
I would say that my universe of personal and professional domains is one of the most important assets I own. I have had Kin Lane since 2007, API Evangelist since 2010, and the other domains map to a variety of life experiences. With the demise of Twitter, and the shake-up of the social networking landscape, my domains are even more critical.
My domains reflect me. They are how I make a living. They are how I am creative. I own and operate all of the domains on my own. I use CloudFlare, AWS, and GitHub to manage all of my sites and APIs. When my domains are active, I feel active. It is important to me to maintain control over my digital self. Without sufficient control over my digital self tends to lead to insufficient control over my physical self. I am hyper aware of how intertwined they are in 2024.
I have been spending more time across my domains lately. I am finding more energy for Kin Lane, Alternate Kin Lane, and Algorotoscope. I still find regular energy for API stories. I’ve had a huge burst of energy for APIs.json and APIs.io, and will be rebooting API Commons alongside. I want to do this with the API Specification Toolbox, and even gather some updated thoughts around being a Contrafabulist. I’d say that all of my domains make me happy for the first time. I don’t feel like I have too many, and I don’t feel like I am a slave to any of them. They are where I freely express myself.
The purpose of this post was to just gather all of my domains in one spot, and step back and thinking about them all in concert. I really think they reflect my interests and personality. And they are mine. I am not worried about page views in my domain. Well I guess, APIs.io I may begin to care again, but the rest, meh. They are there first and foremost for me. If people stumble across any of it–awesome! My domain exist just for me to take control over my digital self, but also to help me manage my physical self. I am pleased. My domain makes me happy and I can spend about 90% of my online time here, and that is just fine.
