File Over App

Metadata

• Author: Stephan Ango
• Full Title: File Over App
• URL: https://stephanango.com/file-over-app

Highlights

File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read. Use tools that give you this freedom. File over app is an appeal to tool makers: accept that all software is ephemeral, and give people ownership over their data. (View Highlight)

In the fullness of time, the files you create are more important than the tools you use to create them (View Highlight)

What you create is more important than the tools you use to create them

Apps are ephemeral, but your files have a chance to last. (View Highlight)

Today, we are creating innumerable digital artifacts, but most of these artifacts are out of our control. They are stored on servers, in databases, gated behind an internet connection, and login to a cloud service. Even the files on your hard drive use proprietary formats that make them incompatible with older systems. (View Highlight)