Chapter 9: The Digital Ecosystem
Let me tell you about the time BigCommerce deleted my credibility.
Between 2013 and 2016, I wrote regularly for BigCommerce as part of a paid ambassadorship. Articles about ecommerce strategy, platform migrations, nonprofit operations, the practical stuff I was doing every day at Stupid Cancer. It was good content --- specific, experience-based, the kind of writing that opened doors. The BigCommerce articles were part of the body of work that got me the Forbes column, the Practical Ecommerce gig, and eventually the CEO job at the Testicular Cancer Foundation.
Then, sometime before 2020, BigCommerce started removing my posts.
No warning. No explanation. No courtesy email saying "Hey, we're cleaning up old content." They just redirected some articles to newer content and removed others entirely. Years of published work --- the kind of stuff I'd point to when someone asked what I knew about ecommerce --- simply vanished.
I didn't own those articles. They lived on BigCommerce's domain, under BigCommerce's control. And when BigCommerce decided they no longer served BigCommerce's interests, they disappeared.
This was the same lesson I'd learn again with Stupid Cancer's website update. When your work lives on someone else's platform, it exists at their discretion. They can simplify it, redirect it, or delete it without asking you. And once it's gone, the credibility it provided goes with it.
That's why the digital ecosystem matters. Not as an abstract concept. As insurance.
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The Hub-and-Spoke Model
Every piece of digital infrastructure I've built over the past two years connects back to one place: kenny-kane.com.
That's the hub. Everything else is a spoke.
My blog posts live on my site. My book landing pages live on my site. My structured data is embedded in my site's code. My disambiguation page, my links page, my author bio --- all on my site.
When I publish a blog post, I generate a meta title and description using ChatGPT or another AI tool. I look for places to add internal links so different pieces of content reference each other. A blog post about structured data links to the blog post about the Knowledge Panel. The Knowledge Panel post links to the structured data post. The books page links to the blog posts that inspired the books.
The external platforms --- LinkedIn, Amazon, Goodreads, Wikidata, Google's Knowledge Graph --- all point back to the hub. And the hub points out to them through sameAs properties in my schema markup and explicit links in my content.
This isn't complicated architecture. It's just intentional.
Most professionals have the pieces. They have a LinkedIn profile. They have a website. They might have published articles or a book listing on Amazon. But the pieces don't talk to each other. They're isolated outposts, not a connected system.
The difference between a collection of profiles and a digital ecosystem is whether the pieces reinforce each other.
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Why the Hub Matters
Here's what I've learned from having my work deleted by BigCommerce and simplified by Stupid Cancer: you need a platform you control completely.
Not a platform you rent. Not a platform that can change its terms of service, remove your content, or redesign itself in a way that erases your contributions. A platform you own.
For me, that's a Squarespace site. It's not fancy. It's not custom-built. But it's mine. I pay for it. I control the content. I control the structure. I control the code that tells machines who I am.
If LinkedIn shut down tomorrow, my structured data would still exist. If Amazon changed their author page format, my book information would still live on my site. If Wikidata had a policy change, the canonical source of truth about my professional identity would still be kenny-kane.com.
The hub is insurance against platform risk. And in an era where platforms change constantly --- algorithms shift, features disappear, content policies evolve --- that insurance isn't optional.
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The Spokes: What Connects and Why
Not every platform matters equally. Here's how I think about the spokes in my ecosystem and what role each one plays.
Wikidata is the knowledge graph foundation. My entry (Q137101943) tells machines who I am in a structured, universal format. It connects to Google's Knowledge Graph, feeds AI systems, and serves as a permanent, citable reference. It's the spoke that makes every other spoke work better because it gives machines a canonical entity to associate everything else with.
Amazon and Goodreads are authority signals. My published books create a category of credibility that none of the other Kenny Kanes occupy. The Amazon author page, the Goodreads profile, the ISBN numbers --- these are verification infrastructure that compounds over time. Every book listing reinforces the claim that this Kenny Kane is an author.
LinkedIn is the professional network spoke. It's where people verify you when they're considering working with you. My LinkedIn profile uses the same language, the same titles, the same description as my website and my Wikidata entry. That consistency is a trust signal --- not just for humans reading the profile, but for AI systems cross-referencing claims across platforms.
Google's Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Panel are the visibility layer. When someone searches my name, the Knowledge Panel presents a verified summary pulled from structured data, Wikidata, and my website. It's the front door that most people encounter first.
Social media profiles (X, Instagram, Medium, TikTok) are secondary spokes. They exist. They're consistent with my other profiles. They're connected through sameAs properties in my schema markup. But I don't invest heavily in them as content platforms. They're connective tissue, not load-bearing walls.
The blog is the engine. As I discussed in Chapter 7, every blog post feeds the system --- adding to the searchable archive, creating new structured data signals, providing citable content for AI systems, and generating internal links that strengthen the hub.
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Cross-Linking: Making the Pieces Talk
A digital ecosystem only works if the pieces reference each other. Isolated profiles don't compound. Connected profiles do.
Here's what cross-linking looks like in practice:
My website's schema markup includes sameAs properties that point to my Wikidata entry, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Amazon author page, Crunchbase profile, and Google Knowledge Graph ID. This tells machines: all of these profiles belong to the same person.
My Wikidata entry references my website as an official source. It also links to the organizations I work for (Firmspace, Testicular Cancer Foundation, Gryt Health), each of which has its own Wikidata entity. This creates a web of connections that machines can traverse.
My blog posts link to each other through internal links. The structured data post links to the Knowledge Panel post. The publishing chapter's concepts are reinforced by blog posts about each book. The AI citation post connects to the GEO sourdough starter post. Each link strengthens the relationship between topics.
My Amazon author page links to my website. My LinkedIn profile links to my website. My Goodreads profile links to my website. Everything points back to the hub.
And my website links out to all of them. The footer includes a Wikidata link. The about page references my roles at each organization. The books page links to Amazon and Goodreads listings.
This isn't a one-time setup project. Every time I publish a new blog post, I look for places to add internal links. Every time I update a profile on another platform, I make sure it's consistent with the hub. Every time I create something new --- a book, a blog post, a page --- I connect it to what already exists.
The connections are the system. Without them, you just have a collection of profiles.
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The Accumulation of Wisdom in a Short Amount of Time
Here's something that might surprise you about my digital ecosystem: most of it was built in a matter of months.
The disambiguation page, the links page, the structured data, the Wikidata entry, the Knowledge Panel, the blog posts about AI citation and GEO, the schema markup, the cross-linked book pages --- all of that came together between the fall of 2024 and early 2026.
That speed isn't because I'm particularly technical. I'm not a developer. I don't have an SEO team. I don't have a marketing department.
It's because the tools have changed.
Everything I've described in this book --- structured data, Wikidata optimization, schema markup, GEO strategy --- used to be the exclusive domain of SEO specialists and digital marketing agencies. The knowledge was gatekept. The implementation was expensive. You needed consultants who understood JSON-LD, or developers who could write custom code, or strategists who'd spent years learning the nuances of search engine behavior.
Now? You can learn the strategy and execute the implementation with AI as your partner.
I learned about schema markup by talking to Claude about my website. I learned about Wikidata by asking questions about how knowledge graphs work. I implemented my structured data by having AI explain the code and then pasting it into Squarespace's code injection field. I wrote blog posts by having conversations about what I'd done and extracting the narrative.
The barrier to building a digital ecosystem is no longer expertise. It's not money. It's not technical skill.
It's awareness.
That's the gap this entire book is trying to close. Not teaching you to code. Not turning you into an SEO expert. Just making you aware that these tools exist, that they're accessible to anyone, and that AI can help you implement them in hours instead of months.
The ecosystem I built would have cost tens of thousands of dollars and taken a year if I'd hired an agency to do it in 2020. I built it myself, in spare hours between running three organizations, for essentially the cost of my Squarespace subscription and a lot of curiosity.
That's the democratization of digital identity. And it's happening right now.
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Platform Independence as a Principle
Every decision I make about my digital presence is filtered through one question: what happens if this platform disappears?
If BigCommerce deletes my articles --- and they did --- my blog still has the ideas.
If Stupid Cancer simplifies their website --- and they did --- my Wikidata entry still documents my co-founding role.
If LinkedIn changes its algorithm and my posts stop getting visibility --- my website doesn't care.
If X changes its API or becomes irrelevant --- my schema markup still references it as a historical profile, and my website still serves as the canonical source.
If Amazon changes its author page format --- my book information lives on my site with proper schema markup.
Platform independence doesn't mean avoiding platforms. It means never depending on a single one. It means always having a version of your professional identity that you control completely, that lives on your domain, that can't be edited or deleted by someone who doesn't know your full story.
The hub is the one thing you never lose. Everything else is a spoke you can replace.
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Building Your Ecosystem: Where to Start
If you're starting from scratch, here's the minimum viable digital ecosystem:
Start with the hub. Get a domain. Build a simple website. It doesn't need to be beautiful. It needs to be yours and it needs to have your name, your roles, and a blog where you can publish.
Add structured data. Follow the process from Chapter 4. Get Person schema on your site with your name, job titles, employer organizations, and disambiguating description. This is the foundation that makes everything else work.
Create your Wikidata entry. Follow the process from Chapter 5. Connect it to your website. Add your professional details with proper citations.
Cross-link everything. Make sure your LinkedIn, your Amazon author page (if applicable), your social profiles, and your website all reference each other. Use sameAs properties in your schema markup. Link to your Wikidata entry from your site's footer.
Start blogging about real work. Follow the process from Chapter 7. Document what you're doing. Publish on your hub. Add internal links between posts.
Monitor and maintain. Check what AI says about you periodically. Update your structured data when your roles change. Keep your Wikidata entry current. Add new blog posts when you do new things worth documenting.
That's the ecosystem. It's not complicated. It's just intentional.
And once it's running, it compounds. Every new blog post strengthens the hub. Every citation from an AI system validates the structured data. Every cross-link between platforms reinforces the connections. The system feeds itself.
You just have to build it once and keep it alive.
Like a sourdough starter.
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