I’ve got a Excitio B3 (personal server) that I use for different computer tasks.
It serves my ownCloud, an instance of Ampache, a Tor bridge, a video/music/photos streamer, a anonymous dropbox (FTP) and thinkUp – a web app that backs up your social media interactions. I also use it as my router, and as a backup for my photo masters. So far, it’s been a very pleasant experience. I am looking to use it even more! I would like to be able to serve my friends with small and useful web apps.

With great power, comes great responsibility
Because of this, I won’t try to help with their e-mail, or any other service that requires uptime. After all, the server is run from my living room 🙂 and I’m always trying out new stuff on it. So the services need to be quick and dirty, the jack and use kind of apps.

Why I’m doing this
I have this vision/ideal of direct communication – without middle hands.
That means no government, no corporations in between.
And after all: I have both the CPU and bandwidth to do this.
Besides the B3, I also have an account with WebFaction that supports both node.js and a few other cool technologies. Might just go ahead and try

Today:

Tommorrow:

Things that can improve the experience
It would be awesome if we (who have servers) could help each other with redundancy, when my service goes offline, then yours could take over.

During my search I found a great list of apps that you can try on your server: http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/LeavingTheCloud

What apps would you serve to your friends?

Have Idea for a Startup? Don’t Launch a Company, Launch an Experiment

Vinicius Vacanti is the co-founder and CEO of Yipit, and shares his sniffs of wisdom over at his blog. This article promotes the “Ready Fire! Aim”-approach. I remember reading an article by Steve Pavlina on the same subject. I agree with the approach. Just get it out there and do it now!