Random evolution: We split the gene pool


After 1,665 entries over more than five years, I’ve decided to split this blog in two, with this one renamed to reflect the domain name, jacklail.com, and a new Random Mumblings blog at www.randommumblings.com.

This will remain my professional presence and Random Mumblings will be a bit more … random.

What’s up with this?

There’s no single answer, but not more than a handful.

I’ve powered this site with MovableType since the beginning and have been very happy with it, even when WordPress became the new darling. I’ve used WordPress a bit and while it’s a serviceable platform, I didn’t see much advantage in moving. While the developer community moved to WordPress, MovableType keep adding just enough features, like the Activity Stream and OpenID support to name two, to more than meet my modest blogging needs.

The sale of Six Apart to VideoEgg announced last week, however, makes me wonder about the future of its blogging platforms; they don’t seem to central to the new company’s mission. The new company is called SAY Media and seems focused around developing advertising solutions. MovableType development will continue to be based in Japan. I wish them well and I’ll continue to use MovableType Pro on this site for the foreseeable future.

But I also wanted to seriously experiment with at least one of the upstarts. I’ve had a Posterous account for awhile, but hadn’t used it. I gave a quick size-up of Posterous and Tumblr. Users of both are passionate about them, each has its pluses and minus, but Posterous feels at this early stage to more of what I’m looking for: Dead easy, minimal in fuss and muss, and strong technology underpinnings. I’m sure Tumblr fans will say, yeah, but. So be it. For now, it’s Posterous for a platform.

Creating the site in Posterous, including selecting and customizing a theme, registering a domain name (why didn’t I think of registering the name of my blog years ago?), setting an “A record” to map the domain to my Posterous blog, getting Google Analytics turned on, and hooking into my Facebook account took maybe a couple hours. Yeah, I could fiddle with the CSS for hours on end, Yeah, I could. I doubt I will.

I’m creating yet another blog as many continue to say “blogging is dead.” Blogging is dead as a particular, perhaps peculiarly quirky, platform for daily personal commentary with reverse chronological posts that allow for comments. Most content management systems or social media sites have those and more. And “blogging” platforms have gone pro from Huffington Post and Gawker Media to the corporate PR department.

Of course, outlets for personal expression are increasing: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and others.

What’s not dead or dying is the need to create a personal brand and to have a home base for one’s digital life. This site will remain that for me. I think it’s always good career advice to get your “name dot com” if it’s available. LinkedIn and Facebook have roles as well.

What’s not dead or dying is the desire of people to share things, to have an opinion, to see something that makes us smile (and hopefully laugh). The new Random Mumblings will be that for me in addition to Twitter and Facebook and flickr and delicious and Foursquare and … Yeah, it’s complicated.

We’ll see how it plays out. The unchanging law of the digital world is that everything changes or evolves. This splitting of the gene pool is the next evolution for me.

Thoughts on how blogging and social media and digital life are evolving? Post ’em in the comments.

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