Plotting my course to data sovereignty
Last updated:
Table of Contents
This mission will take time—both to figure out what to do and how to get it done, but all things begin with a thought.
Why Now?
Lots of ideas led me here, but a session with Attention Sphere tipped the scales. We explored the question: What is your vision for a better digital future?
What does an ideal digital future look like?
The Social Internet
- Instagram circa 2012 exists again. Social media should connect people, not imprison the people's attention.
- No more dating apps?
Digital Sovereignty
- I control my data, photos especially. Apple controls my photos at the moment.
Digital tech becomes less held
- I won't have to carry a phone. I want to wear glasses or have some other interface, and I want this interface to show me essential information like messages, research, maps, music.
AI Assistant
No more navigating customer service phone trees.
Why make humans talk to robots? Humans talk to humans. Robots talk to robots.
Connecting with parts of my community I wouldn't otherwise know about.
AI will notify me ahead of shows by local artists, and then I can turn out to support these musicians who don't have the budget or bandwidth to do a major marketing campaign. The alternative depends on high luck or high effort; either stumbling into a poster or doing my own regular searching.
- Even in this world, I can and may well do my own searching. But right now I live in a world where I do not do this, so it would not even be replacing me—it would be adopting a new task.
How Will This Change My Life
- more at peace
- making more music
- making more art
- talking to more neighbors
Dependency Audit
Patterns I Want to Adopt
| Domain | Current platform | Possible risk |
|---|---|---|
| Documents | Google Docs / MS Office | Work life essentially impossible |
| Notes | Apple | |
| Cloud Storage | Google Drive, iCloud | Major loss of essentially all data. No way to move data between phone and computer. |
| Internet browser | Arc (chromium) | |
| Social internet | No way to easily connect with new people and stay in touch with friends. | |
| Music | Spotify | Losing access: no more knowledge of what my playlists were or what songs I listened to. |
Preferencing Alternatives
Patterns I've Adopted
| Domain | Desired file format | Desired app | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documents | .odt (Open Document Text) file type | OnlyOffice | Inspiring to see how a state in Germany and Denmark and Lyon have ditched Microsoft. I wondered about continuing to use the .docx file format. Today, it doesn't pose too much of a problem, but this would create feature coupling to Microsoft Word where I would be subject to whatever is best for MS, not necessarily best for people. That to say nothing of some features already encoded in .docx are 'Word-first' features. |
| Notes | .md Markdown | Obsidian / MarkText / LogSeq | |
| Cloud Storage | |||
| Internet browser | Mozilla engine | Zen Browser | (how to export bookmarks) |
| Music | Nuclear | https://nuclearplayer.com/ Also less nice looking but seems more robust: https://www.navidrome.org/apps/?platform=ios | |
| Spell check | LanguageTool | https://languagetool.org/ |
Discovered Bonuses
- I've never used Grammerly because of being a paid service, but I discovered there are great free options like LanguageTool, Harper, and
old table need to clean up:
| Software to use | Status |
|---|---|
| Obsidian & OnlyOffice -> | In progress |
| Obsidian | In progress |
| Q: How can I use collaboration features with OnlyOffice? Center all documents on one platform, create physical backup from there. Must first address lock-in problem, though: Google: revision history & sharing @ Google docs/sheets/slides Apple: live images @ Apple | Not started |
| I don't want to be locked into a Facebook platform for my only way of connecting with the people I know. Is there a federated alternative to Instagram??? | Not started |
Update Mac Default Apps
- Right click on any file with has the
typeyou want to target (eg. a.docxfile) - Click "Get Info"
- Under "Open with:", select the application you want to use to open this file type
- Click "Change All"
Backing up as a stopgap solution
Until (or if) I renegotiate my relationship to music more fully, just getting the simple names of songs I've liked out of Spotify and the playlists I've made seems like a great start.
| Area | Current platform | Format to adopt | Software to use | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Spotify | ?? maybe just annual export as a stopgap solution? | Nuclear | Not started |
| Photos | https://immich.app/ | -- Need to research. |
Low priority changes
| Area | Current platform | Migration or mitigation steps to take |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | ?? | |
| eBooks | Kindle | ?? |
| Calendar | iCloud / Fantastical | ?? |
| Messaging | WhatsApp, FB Messenger, iMessage, SMS, Signal | ?? Everyone on Signal? |
| Task Management | Todoist | ?? |
