šµ Itās a Blade Runner: 2049 soundtrack afternoon
I was reminded of this gem: Featuremanās āHow to Eat a Watermelon the Correct Wayā
The Library of Infinite Loan is a physical world practice I conceived of many many years agoĀ¹, implemented in minimal prototype form 5+ years agoĀ², shared a summary with the #IndieWeb community at least four years ago at the #IndieWebCamp Austin in 2020Ā³ and last year in IndieWeb chatā“, so itās about timeāµ I wrote it down.
Summary: lend a #book from your personal libraryā¶ to a friend, on the conditions that they do not donate sell or dispose of it, and instead when they are done with it they return it or lend it to someone else who agrees to these conditions.
My goal was to create a book lending system that:
* preserves books ā effectively in a giant #distributed communal #library
* makes lending easier fiscally, psychologically, emotionally for both parties
* encourages direct person-to-person lending without intermediaries
* grows a culture of non-zero-sum sharing, preservation, and longterm thinking
The basic steps to create a Library of Infinite Loan:
1. Create a separate space (like a particular bookshelf) for #books to infinite lend. A small shelf in a guest room or common space like a hallway works well.
2. Move books there that you are ok lending out and never seeing again
3. Label that space your āLibrary of Infinite Loanā, or invite guests to borrow from your āLibrary of Infinite Loanā
4. When visitors ask what that means, explain the Rules
Rules for borrowing from a Library of Infinite Loan (āthe Rulesā)
1. Keep it as long as you like
2. Do not sell donate or otherwise dispose of it
3. You may give it
Ā a. back to the person you borrowed from
Ā b. or back to its original purchaser if they wrote their name and web address inside
Ā c. or (lend it) to someone else who agrees to the Rules
There are several ways to extend / expand the Library of Infinite Loan:
* custom book plate: design a custom book plate for yourself with room for your name (and web address) on it e.g. āFrom Tantekās (@tantek.com) Libraryā (with space), print it on longterm adhesive paper, and place it inside new books you purchase. When you move a book to your Library of Infinite Loan, amend the book plate to say āā¦ Library of Infinite Loanā and attach a copy of the Rules.
* add a āborrowers logā with blank lines for anyone you lend it to or they lend it to, transitively, to optionally add their name, web address, and a date of borrowing. Then amend the rules to allow returning a book to who you borrowed from or anyone in the borrower log or original purchaser.
* more media: CDs, vinyl records, DVDs, LaserDiscs, VHS, cassette tapes, video game cartridges etc.
* other things
Ā * large tools ā which usually come in a box with instruction manual, so thereās a logical place to put an āowners plateā, āborrowers logā, and copy of the rules.
Ā * artwork ā a great way to rotate art among a community
#infiniteLoan #libraryOfInfiniteLoan
References:
Ā¹ Iām looking through old personal logs for earliest mentions of āinfinite loanā
Ā² In my 2019 personal log I found a note that I āmoved some books as library of infinite loan to guest roomā where I had previously setup a small bookshelf for such books.
Ā³ https://indieweb.org/2020/Austin/reading
ā“ https://chat.indieweb.org/2023-10-01#t1696202307311300
āµ I was also inspired by sharing the idea again to a couple of friends in an espresso-making livestream this morning
ā¶ https://indieweb.org/personal_library
Summary: lend a #book from your personal libraryā¶ to a friend, on the conditions that they do not donate sell or dispose of it, and instead when they are done with it they return it or lend it to someone else who agrees to these conditions.
My goal was to create a book lending system that:
* preserves books ā effectively in a giant #distributed communal #library
* makes lending easier fiscally, psychologically, emotionally for both parties
* encourages direct person-to-person lending without intermediaries
* grows a culture of non-zero-sum sharing, preservation, and longterm thinking
The basic steps to create a Library of Infinite Loan:
1. Create a separate space (like a particular bookshelf) for #books to infinite lend. A small shelf in a guest room or common space like a hallway works well.
2. Move books there that you are ok lending out and never seeing again
3. Label that space your āLibrary of Infinite Loanā, or invite guests to borrow from your āLibrary of Infinite Loanā
4. When visitors ask what that means, explain the Rules
Rules for borrowing from a Library of Infinite Loan (āthe Rulesā)
1. Keep it as long as you like
2. Do not sell donate or otherwise dispose of it
3. You may give it
Ā a. back to the person you borrowed from
Ā b. or back to its original purchaser if they wrote their name and web address inside
Ā c. or (lend it) to someone else who agrees to the Rules
There are several ways to extend / expand the Library of Infinite Loan:
* custom book plate: design a custom book plate for yourself with room for your name (and web address) on it e.g. āFrom Tantekās (@tantek.com) Libraryā (with space), print it on longterm adhesive paper, and place it inside new books you purchase. When you move a book to your Library of Infinite Loan, amend the book plate to say āā¦ Library of Infinite Loanā and attach a copy of the Rules.
* add a āborrowers logā with blank lines for anyone you lend it to or they lend it to, transitively, to optionally add their name, web address, and a date of borrowing. Then amend the rules to allow returning a book to who you borrowed from or anyone in the borrower log or original purchaser.
* more media: CDs, vinyl records, DVDs, LaserDiscs, VHS, cassette tapes, video game cartridges etc.
* other things
Ā * large tools ā which usually come in a box with instruction manual, so thereās a logical place to put an āowners plateā, āborrowers logā, and copy of the rules.
Ā * artwork ā a great way to rotate art among a community
#infiniteLoan #libraryOfInfiniteLoan
References:
Ā¹ Iām looking through old personal logs for earliest mentions of āinfinite loanā
Ā² In my 2019 personal log I found a note that I āmoved some books as library of infinite loan to guest roomā where I had previously setup a small bookshelf for such books.
Ā³ https://indieweb.org/2020/Austin/reading
ā“ https://chat.indieweb.org/2023-10-01#t1696202307311300
āµ I was also inspired by sharing the idea again to a couple of friends in an espresso-making livestream this morning
ā¶ https://indieweb.org/personal_library
Throwback to June 1998 at Creation Festival East. This is where I first met Jeeves (on the left in the yellow glasses). Katt was one of my earliest online friends and this was the first time we met in person. I wore fun hats at the time. As you can see, we were all pretty cool.
I was interning at Teen Mania Ministries at the time and in lieu of going on a mission trip that summer, Matt (in the white shirt) and I road tripped to a few music festivals to promote Acquire The Fire events. Jeeves was considering the internship and I think meeting us helped convince him. Sorry? š¤£
I also hit it off really well with Luke (in the red shirt). We ran into him at a couple of the festivals we went to. I think he was in a band named Little Flock. Unfortunately, I lost track of him in the following years.
Original photo by Jeeves
My cat is theoretically not allowed on the counters, but this week she has learned how to gracefully jump onto the counter completely silently and I'm just so impressed that I can't bring myself to try to get her down
šæ Watched Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and enjoyed it. Loved seeing James Acaster in it; heās one of my favorite comedians. It wasnāt quite as good as Afterlife, though maybe thatās because this didnāt hit in the feels as much.
Quiz: Which song that makes white people go nuts are you?
I got āSince U Been Goneā
Take a few minutes to watch this delightful, hand-made miniatures film, Wreckhouse, by Marina Minis
oh no, it finally happened. I left my AirPods in a pocket and they went through the washer and dryer š±
Want to watch: āWill AI Also Remember the Days of Slavery?,ā a lecture by Charles Mudede
Recently @W3.org (@w3c@w3c.social) published the first Group Note of the Vision for W3C:
https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/NOTE-w3c-vision-20240403/
Iām the current editor of the Vision for W3C and helped get it across the line this year to reach #w3cAB (W3C Advisory Board @ab@w3c.social) consensus to publish as an official Group Note, the first official Note that the AB (Advisory Board) has ever published.
Iām very proud of this milestone, as I and a few others including many on the ABĀ¹, have been working on it for a few years in various forms, and with the broader W3C Vision TFĀ² (Task Force) for the past year.
Ā
W3C also recently announced the Vision for W3C in their news feed:
https://www.w3.org/news/2024/group-note-vision-for-w3c/
One of the key goals of this document was to capture the spirit of why we are at #W3C and our shared values & principles we use to guide our work & decisions at W3C.
If you work with any groups at W3C, anything from a Community Group (CG) to a Working Group (WG), I highly recommend you read this document from start to finish.
See what resonates with you, if there is anything that doesnāt sound right to you, or if you see anything missing that you feel exemplifies the best of what W3C is, please file an issue or a suggestion:
https://github.com/w3c/AB-public/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22Project+Vision%22+-label%3ADefer
Check that list to see if your concerns or suggestions are already captured, and if so, add an upvote or comment accordingly.
Our goal is to eventually publish this document as an official W3C Statement, with the consensus of the entire #w3cAC (W3C Advisory Committee).
One key aspect which the Vision touches on but perhaps too briefly is what I see as the fundamental purpose of why we do the work we do at W3C, which in my opinion is:
To create & facilitate user-first interoperable standards that improve the web for humanity
The Vision does mention ā#interoperableā explicitly as part of our Vision for the Web in https://w3c.github.io/AB-public/Vision#vision-web:
āThere is one interoperable world-wide Web.ā
The Vision also mentions ā#interoperabilityā explicitly in our Operational Principles https://w3c.github.io/AB-public/Vision#op-principles:
āInteroperability: We verify the fitness of our specifications through open test suites and actual implementation experience, because we believe the purpose of standards is to enable independent interoperable implementations.ā
These are both excellent, and yet, I think we can do better, with adding some sort of explicit statement between those two about that āWe willā create & facilitate user-first interoperable standards that improve the web for humanity.
In the coming weeks Iāll be reflecting how we (the VisionTF) can incorporate that sort of imperative āWe willā statement about interoperable standards into the Vision for W3C, as well as working with the AB and W3C Team on defining a succinct updated mission & purpose for W3C based on that sort of input and more.
In a related effort, I have also been leading the ABās ā3Is Priority ProjectĀ³ā (Interoperability and the Role of Independent Implementations), which is a pretty big project to define and clarify what each of those three Is mean, with respect to each other and Incubation, which is its own Priority Projectā“.
As part of the 3Is project, the first āIā Iāve been focusing on has unsurprisingly been Ā āInteroperableā. As with other #OpenAB projects, our work on understanding interoperability, its aspects, and defining what do we mean by interoperable is published and iterated on the W3Cās public wiki:
https://www.w3.org/wiki/Interoperable
This is still a work in progress, however itās sufficiently structured to take a look if interoperability is something you care about or have opinions about.
In particular, if you know of definitions of interoperable or interoperability that resonate and make sense to you, or articles or blog posts about interoperability that explore various aspects, I am gathering such references so we can make sure the W3Cās definition of interoperable is both well-stated, and clearly reflects a broader industry understanding of interoperability.
References:
Ā¹ https://www.w3.org/TR/w3c-vision/#acknowledgements
Ā² https://www.w3.org/wiki/AB/VisionTF
Ā³ https://www.w3.org/wiki/AB/2024_Priorities#Interoperability_and_the_Role_of_Independent_Implementations
ā“ https://www.w3.org/wiki/AB/2024_Priorities#Incubation
https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/NOTE-w3c-vision-20240403/
Iām the current editor of the Vision for W3C and helped get it across the line this year to reach #w3cAB (W3C Advisory Board @ab@w3c.social) consensus to publish as an official Group Note, the first official Note that the AB (Advisory Board) has ever published.
Iām very proud of this milestone, as I and a few others including many on the ABĀ¹, have been working on it for a few years in various forms, and with the broader W3C Vision TFĀ² (Task Force) for the past year.
Ā
W3C also recently announced the Vision for W3C in their news feed:
https://www.w3.org/news/2024/group-note-vision-for-w3c/
One of the key goals of this document was to capture the spirit of why we are at #W3C and our shared values & principles we use to guide our work & decisions at W3C.
If you work with any groups at W3C, anything from a Community Group (CG) to a Working Group (WG), I highly recommend you read this document from start to finish.
See what resonates with you, if there is anything that doesnāt sound right to you, or if you see anything missing that you feel exemplifies the best of what W3C is, please file an issue or a suggestion:
https://github.com/w3c/AB-public/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22Project+Vision%22+-label%3ADefer
Check that list to see if your concerns or suggestions are already captured, and if so, add an upvote or comment accordingly.
Our goal is to eventually publish this document as an official W3C Statement, with the consensus of the entire #w3cAC (W3C Advisory Committee).
One key aspect which the Vision touches on but perhaps too briefly is what I see as the fundamental purpose of why we do the work we do at W3C, which in my opinion is:
To create & facilitate user-first interoperable standards that improve the web for humanity
The Vision does mention ā#interoperableā explicitly as part of our Vision for the Web in https://w3c.github.io/AB-public/Vision#vision-web:
āThere is one interoperable world-wide Web.ā
The Vision also mentions ā#interoperabilityā explicitly in our Operational Principles https://w3c.github.io/AB-public/Vision#op-principles:
āInteroperability: We verify the fitness of our specifications through open test suites and actual implementation experience, because we believe the purpose of standards is to enable independent interoperable implementations.ā
These are both excellent, and yet, I think we can do better, with adding some sort of explicit statement between those two about that āWe willā create & facilitate user-first interoperable standards that improve the web for humanity.
In the coming weeks Iāll be reflecting how we (the VisionTF) can incorporate that sort of imperative āWe willā statement about interoperable standards into the Vision for W3C, as well as working with the AB and W3C Team on defining a succinct updated mission & purpose for W3C based on that sort of input and more.
In a related effort, I have also been leading the ABās ā3Is Priority ProjectĀ³ā (Interoperability and the Role of Independent Implementations), which is a pretty big project to define and clarify what each of those three Is mean, with respect to each other and Incubation, which is its own Priority Projectā“.
As part of the 3Is project, the first āIā Iāve been focusing on has unsurprisingly been Ā āInteroperableā. As with other #OpenAB projects, our work on understanding interoperability, its aspects, and defining what do we mean by interoperable is published and iterated on the W3Cās public wiki:
https://www.w3.org/wiki/Interoperable
This is still a work in progress, however itās sufficiently structured to take a look if interoperability is something you care about or have opinions about.
In particular, if you know of definitions of interoperable or interoperability that resonate and make sense to you, or articles or blog posts about interoperability that explore various aspects, I am gathering such references so we can make sure the W3Cās definition of interoperable is both well-stated, and clearly reflects a broader industry understanding of interoperability.
References:
Ā¹ https://www.w3.org/TR/w3c-vision/#acknowledgements
Ā² https://www.w3.org/wiki/AB/VisionTF
Ā³ https://www.w3.org/wiki/AB/2024_Priorities#Interoperability_and_the_Role_of_Independent_Implementations
ā“ https://www.w3.org/wiki/AB/2024_Priorities#Incubation