Introduction
Self-hosting is important for a number of reasons.
- It gives us direct control over our own content and the ability to customize services to our liking.
- It gives us ownership over our own content and the ability to control who has access to something.
- Most importantly, it allows us to take our data with us so that if ever we decide to make a change we don’t have to rebuild everything from scratch.
I believe that direct ownership of our internet space is an important part of being human. It allows us to express ourselves in ways that controlled platforms may not encourage or allow. Self-hosting is one way to do this.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the skills and abilities to deal with hosting platforms, virtual machines, and software configuration. That is where I want to help.
I have the technical know-how in a wide assortment of software and technologies, and I have a passion for self-hosting. I have been hosting my own cloud services for years now: my own websites, my own RSS server, and my own dropbox alternative. For a small fee (I have bills to pay too), I can help set up and host many of the services that have helped me take control of my online world.
Technologies that I am familiar with and have experience setting up are below.
Self hosted services available.
- Jekyll - Is, in my opinion, the best way to build and maintain a static site on the website, without building the HTML directly. Jekyll is extremely cheap to host and easy to maintain. If you need a poster on the internet that doesn’t require users to log into a social network, this is the technology for you.
- Nextcloud - Is a self-hosted dropbox alternative. Nextcloud is perfect if you want to share files between multiple devices and make them available to yourself and your friends but not to large tech companies who will use them to train AI. Nextcloud also has a robust plugin system that allows you to operate a password manger, RSS feed, and simple office applications among other things.
- Matomo - Is a self-hosted alternative to Google Analytics. Matomo allows keep and maintain your site visitor data without sharing it with Google on a server you control. Matomo is GDPR compliant and doesn’t require cookie notification.
- GoToSocial - This is a service I am especially excited for. GoToSocial is an ActivityPub based social media platform, similar to Mastodon, that specializes in small user counts. It’s a great program for self-hosting single user Mastodon accounts. The program is still in beta, and not ready for general use, but when it is ready I feel it will be great for anyone looking to self-host their own social media presence.
And many others…
As the open source world continues to grow, I expect to see many new programs appear. The best part about self-hosting is you are not tied to any particular program or platform. Experimenting with different software is not only possible but highly encouraged.
Contact Me
To get in contact with me, please through one of the following services:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanchartier/
Mastodon: https://mathstodon.xyz/@RyanChartier
Email: redrecrm@gmail.com