It doesen't happen too often, but every once in a while I wonder why someone would go to the trouble of a self-hosted solution whem hosted solutions offer the same functionality without the pain of monitoring and upgrades. The JotSpot Google Merger offers some insight into some of the value in the control of not only my own data but of those I advise...

Generally, I tend to feel that anything not replicable on my own local Linux box is under the control of outside influnces is externally owned. I tend to own all website content I influnce, but I do run all my e-mail through Google mail, their spam filtering is above anything I could do but yet I am so dependant and I don't like it.

It seems pretty obvious that anyone should control as much as they can. I hope all; services will not follow the path of email and become impossible to maintain...