Thanks to Tim Maly for this pointer on Twitter (always enjoy his tweets): Amazing historical piece on what we would come to know as the "open web" indeed. Here's the beginning:

2.10: The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun: "If this sounds wrong, consider Mosaic. Mosaic is the celebrated graphical 'browser' that allows users to travel through the world of electronic information using a point-and-click interface. Mosaic's charming appearance encourages users to load their own documents onto the Net, including color photos, sound bites, video clips, and hypertext 'links' to other documents. By following the links - click, and the linked document appears - you can travel through the online world along paths of whim and intuition."

In the age of increased suburbanization of the web via Facebook, mobile platform apps and video sites, it's time to ponder what the third phase of the revolution will look like. I'm pulling for the open web based on whimsical hyperlinks to once again rise to drive the same type of innovation and sharing that occurred in those silo'd days of CompuServe and Prodigy. Oh, and a federated twitter built on RSS and real time pinging. Here's to the (non-silo'd) future.

I awoke to a few hundred bounced-back emails in my (Mail.app) inbox this morning. Yikes. It seemed to all be coming from my old primary personal email address (sharrelson@gmail.com) that I've been forwarding to my self-hosted account. So, I went to check that GMail account (I've moved my personal address off of GMail but many folks still email me there) and saw this: Yikes again. Good morning to you too, Google. Luckily, I had set up a few Verification Options so I could regain control of my account in case this happened. If you haven't yet, you really should. Just sign into your GMail (or Google Account) and go here. If not, you'll be faced with this, and I've heard that route is not always pleasant. So, I text myself, get my verification code, type it into the little box and get to pick a new password... I'm all set from there. The almost insulting part is the "Read some tips on creating a secure password" since I use an encrypted password via the awesome 1Password app (which I also have on my iPhone and iPad). It looked more like spoofing from the email bouncebacks I got. In other words, this wasn't an insecure password issue or me clicking on a phishing email (I haven't logged into GMail in a while since all the mail from there forwards to my self-hosted address). As GMail and Google apps continue to climb in market share, I'm wondering how frequently these stories will continue to pop up. Google isn't known for their "customer" service (I do pay for 200 gigs of extra storage for GMail and Picasa), which could lead to many headaches and potential brand damage. So, be smart and update your verification info beforehand. It can/will happen to you.

Last October, I made a post saying that I was "bringing back home" all of my scattered data around the web to have more focus on this as my homesite.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been blogging regularly on samharrelson.me. I’ve also had my email hosted through an @gmail.com address, have been reading feeds through Google Reader, keeping my calendar on a free @gmail Google Calendar, keeping my documents dispersed through that associated Google Docs account as well as my Dropbox account, precious family photos on Flickr, Facebook, Posterous, Picasa and SmugMug and notes on Evernote.

That initiative lasted a solid month or two but then things fell apart. Here I am trying the same process again. This time I mean it (seriously). - I've moved my blogs (this one and adverb.fm) to a self-hosted account with BlueHost. Now that I have my OpenID setup with my domain (so I can sign in to comment or access apps just by typing in "http://www.samharrelson.com" without having to have a slew of logins and passwords), it's a win-win. - Like last time, I've primarily been using the sam@samharrelson.com email address lately. I still have my sam@adverb.fm account for adverb, my advertising blog and my school email (hosted by Google Apps) for school communications. But everything personal is going through that @samharrelson.com address and it's independently hosted (not through Google). Sure, I miss the Google Mail interface, but I've always loved Apple Mail's functionality (esp for high volume email), so that wasn't too painful. I actually enjoy being free of the Google chain there. I might run this mail through MobileMe's new interface, but not sure. I like SquirrelMail too much :) And if there's any problem with sending mail through Apple Mail, I've always got Loa Power Tools. - Speaking of being free of Google, I've also moved my calendars to iCal/MobileMe. This is incredibly painless since I have a Macbook Pro, an iPad and an iPhone. Being beholden to MobileMe rather than Google gives me a little more independence while still keeping things synced up across the board. - I'm back on OmniFocus for getting things done. Again, not difficult given the built-in sync via MobileMe and my predisposition for Apple products. - Documents-wise, I'm keeping most things in Pages/Numbers/Keynote via MobileMe so that I can have access on my Mac, iPhone or iPad relatively easily. I'm also keeping everything backed up via Dropbox and Amazon S3 via Jungle Disk. - I do most of my feed reading via the awesome Reeder app on the iPad and iPhone. On my Macbook I'm using NetNewsWire, but I rarely read feeds on the Mac anymore. The iPad is just an insanely good reading device, especially with Reeder. Of course, I also use Instapaper and Delicious when I have time to dig deeper. - Socially, I still use Twitter as my main conduit. Having been on the service for almost four years now, I find it just as useful and revolutionary today as I did back in 2006. I've pretty much moved off of Facebook but still keep a profile (with limited info) there just as a) a pointer and b) a way for friends and students to connect. I'll echo what I said last October:

I love the social web and the incredible apps that have come along these last five years. However, I also love my independence. There’s something to the “Coral Reef” idea that Dave Winer spoke of in regard to Twitter a couple of years back that appeals to me in terms of net identity. I like to think of samharrelson.com as my digital coral reef that provides the biosphere and anchor for all the species of web apps that make up my online content ecosystem. That’s the hope here.

That's still my sentiment. I'm loving not being chained to a Google account or another third party service for my digital coral reef. This time I'm planning on making that sentiment stick.