My content is all over the place

So I’m struggling with something.   I have this blog, and I have just started another blog for my biking interests.   So I have content here and at WordPress.com.   The pictures that I have for this blog are generally uploaded to this blog directly, although I’ve started using my free flickr account to host my pictures. I also have a blip.tv account for videos that you see here, on my bike blog, on my Business Blog, on the Biz Wiki, and in other places.   I also have separate Flickr and Blip.tv accounts for family pics and videos. I also have a Vimeo account, a YouTube account, Picasa, and more. The cool thing about the web today is that it enables you to get your content all over the place.   The bad thing is that you have to remember where you put everything (and also remember the usernames and passwords).   These days I’m lucky to remember to take out the trash on Wednesdays.

Ideally it would be nice to have all my content in one place, but that’s kind of hard.   Frankly, services like blip.tv and Flickr make it so easy to post content.   Options for hosting this on your own server with applications like Gallery are available, but it takes a lot of work to make sure things are working right.   I had an install of Gallery for quite some time, but it was too sluggish on my   host to be of much use.   I ditched Gallery and moved my family pics to Flickr.   I also use to upload family videos directly to my host, but those videos take up a lot of room, and my space on the server is limited.   I have several blogs, including this one, hosted on the same server.   My new bike blog is currently located at WordPress.com, though I don’t know how long I will leave it there (there are pros and cons of wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org).   I suppose the nice thing about having the content separated from the engine (i.e., pics and video separate from the blog) is that it allows you to more easily take your content (pics and text) wherever you wish.   If in the future I want to move the Redneck in Spandex from WordPress.com to my own domain or host, it should be as simple as exporting the blog content.   Since the images and videos from the blog are linked to Flickr and Blip, then everything should display okay after the migration without any broken images (in theory).

Now the librarian and geek in me struggles with the issue of how long my content will be available.   If Blip.tv folds tomorrow, that would mean that I would have broken video files and links on about 6 different blogs and websites.   A demise of Flickr would have very similar consequences.   And since I have two accounts for both services (only one Pro Flickr account), then I could have broken image links all over the place.   The thought of that is unsettling, although I guess it would make sure I have plenty of work to do.

Does anyone else struggle with this?   Is this even something to worry about?   Will my content always be threatened by the possibility of extinction?   If not, do I need to be concerned about where my content will live next?

2 thoughts on “My content is all over the place

  1. I am a “biking librarian” who loves being a librarian and learning how to use new technology in the library. I would like to be able to deliver books using my bicycle trailer to people who can’t get to the library. If you have never heard of MERLOT check it out: http://www.merlot.org It’s a referatory to lots of good learning objects.

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