It is interesting to see what older aspects of the Internet we’ve adopted, as well as the newer parts at the front edge that we are being sold but haven’t yet adopted. I am a huge fan operating within my own domain. Publishing data, content, and artifacts within the domains I own. I also really like the Mastodon and Bluesky protocols, as they both have ways of operating and federating within your own domain. Operating within your domain is everything. It is how you accumulate and retain the lion share of value you produce each day. All of this work regularly leaves me pondering what truly matters in any given moment as well as over time and the most important part of all of this seems to be email.
We have all adopted email. We all use it daily. HTTP, SMPT, IMAP, and POP are ubiquitous and something we all use. It is also something that is federated and defined by domains. I am all about doubling down on what is working and what people are already using. API Evangelist is all about championing HTTP, and I think as part of my toolbox I want to embrace email more effectively as part of my professional and personal life. This means using individual emails and email newsletters right alongside my publishing of posts. Social media still plays a significant role in all of this, but I will follow a strict publish on your site and syndicate elsewhere process.
My API Evangelist newsletter has become the editorial and narrative guardrails for my week. I still let myself respond to the moment in the blog posts I write, but I work to try and find the meaning and alignment with the wider narrative as I publish the newsletter each week. It makes for a good target, as well as a way to start each week. I want the same for Kin Lane. I don’t think I can achieve weekly, but I am going to try monthly. Hmmmm…..on second thought, I may have to do it weekly just to keep the momentum. I just want to have such a high bar for what is in it each week. With API Evangelist I want to make sure I am helping folks make their way in the world of technology, and with Kin Lane, it is more about just sharing what matters to me in this moment, and keeping folks up to speed on what I am doing.
One key aspect of me doing this is that I would like to convince others to do it for themselves. A weekly or monthly newsletter doesn’t have to be a production. I can be just a single thought or feeling. It can be a poem you read. I can be how you felt after watching a movie. A personal newsletter should just be about you. It is the same thing you are likely posting to Facebook and Instagram, but it is on your network, and ideally within your domain. I am just going to fire mine up and get doing it, building momentum and finding direction like I am with my API Evangelist email newsletter. Hopefully my friends on Facebook and other social networks will subscribe and even follow my lead by publishing their own. I really think that simple weekly or monthly updates in our inbox, staying connected on our own terms and schedule, via the technology we have all already adopted just makes a lot of sense in today’s world.
Kin Lane Newsletter
API Evangelist Newsletter
