This episode connects to Antonio from a rather unlikely store for the year 2018, a real old school VHS video rental shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the soon to be opened Reclaim Video.

And what’s even more, our guest today, Jim Groom, will be running the store from his home in Italy!

Connecting With Puerto Rico

Connecting With Puerto Rico flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

Jim and Antonio have a long history of collaboration, so we could not miss the opportunity to bring “The Bava” on the podcast. The location is adjacent to the co working space managed by, and also the offices of, Reclaim Hosting, in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

The reason for being here, as discussed in the shoe, was the offering of a two day Reclaim Hosting Workshop Of One’s Own for representatives of some ten institutions implementing a Domain of One’s Own project.

Antonio mentioned that this summer he and his and family would be visiting his mother in Italy, and are making plans to see Jim as well in Trento.

We heard about the Hurricane Maria (September 2017) recovery in Puerto Rico. Antonio said when you fly into San Juan, you see “lots of blue plastic” over roofs, that electrical outages often happen, and that some on the island endured more than 100 days w/o electricity. Sometimes at his university, there is no water– “We just have to make do.”

Jim noted that beyond the first reporting, a significant lack of news coverage of the Pierto Rico situation in Italy and Europe as a whole.

What is a “new normal” there seems to keeps shifting.

Alan and Jim shared the plans for the workshop that would be taking place the next two days. Participants would learn more hands on about operating their Domain of Ones Own infrastructure, as well as strategizing plans for building community at their schools.

First Day of Reclaim Hosting Workshop

First Day of Reclaim Hosting Workshop flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

Alan was there to bring the concept of SPLOTs and wWrdpress templates that Reclaim Hosting plans to develop as cpanel installable applications. All present agree that blogging is far from dead. Antonio continues to run Feed Wordress powered syndication hubs for his media courses.

Antonio shared how his students discussed a recent blog post from Cole Camplese on Can We Return to Blogging? which they annotated using hypothes.is.

Towards the end, with the Twenty Minute Rule looming was some banter of once it gets successful to franchise Reclaim Video in San Juan. Antonio was all aboard with the idea.

Featured Image: With This Kind of Sign, It Must Be Real flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)