Op/Ed: When Blogger was down. Or hosting a FLOSS News blog on a proprietary platform

So my chum @eebrah A-list lover of FLOSS, made sure to know that his [fairly non-existent] eyebrows were raised at the rather suspect decision to host open sorcery daily on Blogger,when [incredible -if I may say so myself] open source alternatives exist.

The irony of hosting an open source blog on a proprietary platform was apparently lost on me.

And on a day when Blogger was down, it seems to me for some sort of maintenance or something [dead of the night in San Francisco is unfortunately office hour in Nairobi ] my Nigerian connect[not what you think ] @bigbrovar made me understand that that was the price I had to pay for hosting a blog about open source on a proprietary platform. He went further and helpfully suggested Wordpress.

The fact that if you Google "Open Source linux news kenya" or "Kenyan free software news" today you will get largely irrelevant links is in my estimation a problem.
The value of localized news with unique local insights and perspectives can not be understated.

For years I had bemoaned the lack of local open source news in Kenyan tech reporting in the mainstream media. Complaining it dawned on me would do no good. All media outlets have their target audience. There only way to address no media attention is to create your own media. In this day and age that couldn't be simpler. So I decided to do something about it.

I do not *shock! horror !* own a computer.

My newly acquired Huawei
Ideos Android 2.2 phone had opened up a world of possibilities. I now had always on Internet access [on occassions when I could afford prepaid credit] and publishing tools like the Wordpress and Blogger Droid apps I had recently installed on my phone.
Years of waiting for the perfect tools and set up to land on my laps were over. This had to be my perfect set up. This *was* my perfect set up.I had to do something. Fast. My [rather limited] years of entrepreneurial experience have taught me the value of both being fast, and first. Release early, release often as ESR would say.
Besides it was also a lucrative business opportunity. I had recently had my Ad Sense account approved. And I could publish ads and make a ton of dosh.

Plus it would be a perfect opportunity to hone my writing and editorial skills and build a portfolio . The easiest way to be a writer is to write. And as my sister says the surest sign of laziness there is in a writer is a lack of portfolio.

Only way I knew of easily publishing Google Ads was on a Blogger site. Besides I didn't have much leeway as my phone was and still is my primary means of publishing the site and all my other blogs.

So I set off. My plan was simple. I would focus on stories about a segment of the local FOSS scene I was already comfortably familiar with - university campuses.

Also some FOSS apps have gained acceptance and wide spread use in the Kenyan tech scene. VLC, the media player for example is widely used in Kenya, might be second only to Windows Media Player[ which *curses * comes default ] . Firefox is,as elsewhere in the world, also wildly popular.
Stories about such programs would have a wider appeal than just the intended FOSS audience.

I would give news about custom builds, useful scripts by uni students, reviews and previews of upcoming Linux distro releases, FOSS events and other happenings in the local tech scene of relevance to the .ke FOSS community.

If the idea picked up sufficient buzz and AdSense revenue to purchase a domain and hosting then I would purchase a domain and move to a hosting platform of choice as soon as I had figured out how to publish Google Ads on the chosen platform.

I set about putting my plan to action.

I wrote two posts on a pal's computer.


I transferred the posts on my phone via Bluetooth.

I registered opensorcerydaily on my blogger account [opensorcery.blogspot.com was already taken by some idiot who 's never used it since 2008].

Next I set up a twitter account, for publicizing the blog you know. I had zero budget [that's right zilch] so advertising was out of the question, and besides word of mouth works best.

I cut and paste the article on my Blogger app and published it. [ the identica account came later]

I posted links to the articles to the @open_sorcery twitter and mentioned my pals @fredmanglis @kelzoko and @eebrah to inform em.

And thus open sorcery daily was born.

So here's a sneak peak of operations at Open Sorcery Daily [ which has variously been a seat on a 58 matatu in Nairobi, my former campus dorm room, and of late my room, currently typing this up on my Droid while seated on my bed ].

I get wind of a interesting story usually while going through feeds or via a link tweeted at me by @eebrah. I try to research the story. You know find press releases,sites with material I can reuse without being sued, preferably CC licensed articles. I type up the story,proofread and edit it.

All on my phone.

I then post the article and post a link to @open_sorcery daily's identica and twitter.

So there you have it. I have learnt two things in going about this whole process.

A very loyal and supportive FOSS scene does exist [shout out to the folk @JKUAT LUG and my cousin @icecream for all the love for all the love] They just do not get much mention from .ke tech journas and they lack a central focal point or news outlet. [ read opportunity ]

Secondly, you can chose to sit down on your ass and pontificate all day [@eebrah called hosting Open Sorcery Daily on Blogger "treachery"] or you can chose to support us or better yet go out and do your own thing. Such is the FOSS way.

I am proud of how I went about all this and my only regret is that I did not do it earlier.

Anything I could have done differently? Let me know.

Welcome to the story of building a media empire on an $100 Android smartphone-or how I intend to do it.

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