Articles

There is a growing discontent around the current state of the World Wide Web. Web 1.0 felt like a place of freedom and creativity. Maybe I'm being romantic, for sure had to have its issues... But remember the whimsical sites in Geocities, the simplicity of email discussion lists or the anonymity of IRC?

Personal website manifestos. I’ve been meaning to write some kind of Important Thinkpiece™ on the glory days of the early internet, but every time I sit down to do it, I find another, better piece that someone else has already written. So for now, here’s a collection of articles that to some degree answer the question “Why have a personal website?” with “Because it’s fun, and the internet used to be fun.”

Many people are looking for alternatives to Twitter. Can the IndieWeb step up? How can we build better social media for people without technical knowledge?

Hyperlinks deserve more recognition in light of all the ways their value has been sidelined and denied. From deliberate corporate link suppression to link-shy site cultures on social media to the dysfunctional state of deteriorating search engines, the web has changed a lot over the years since the days of early link-based web logs, and a familiarity with the importance of links can no longer be taken for granted. It needs to be expressly advocated. To that end, I present a link compilation in praise of links.

There's a corner of the Internet where people have been reclaiming their digital independence by hosting their own websites and promoting the idea of owning your own content—it's called the IndieWeb. This community has its own website, IRC channels, social media presence, and more, all dedicated to the idea that individuals should control their own digital presence through personal websites.