Ben Werdmüller werd.io/profile/benwerd

A new decade

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-16T19:13:52+00:00",
    "url": "https://werd.io/2019/a-new-decade",
    "name": "A new decade",
    "content": {
        "text": "As arbitrary as they are, these transitions provide a kind of useful punctuation - a spot to stop and breathe.For me, I think it might be useful to reflect on where I was at the start of the previous decade, where I am now, and where I'd like to be ten years from now.Ten years agoI lived in Oxford, as much my hometown as anywhere is, living in the house I'd grown up in long after my family had emigrated to California. Every year, I'd head out for Christmas, saving a little time to hang out in San Francisco.I'd just had a turbulent year: In April, I had finally left Elgg after working on it for seven years, and had been surprised to find myself at the receiving end of threats from our investors after I tried to start a new social platform with a completely different purpose. This significantly limited my options - all non-infrastructure internet software is at least a little bit social - and although I'm pretty sure I would have won a court decision, my pockets were exponentially less deep than theirs. I returned to my roots and buckled down doing work in local media instead.Nevertheless, I had just given a talk at the Harvard Kennedy School on user-centered design, and flew out to Washington DC. All hints of what was to come.My mother was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. We didn't know what lay ahead; it was just a persistent cough.TodayEight years ago, my mother phoned me to warn me that I shouldn't be shocked to see her wearing oxygen tanks. It took me approximately thirty seconds to decide that I needed to move to California (although practically, it took me five months). I arrived with two suitcases and the assumption that I would be here temporarily. Writing this now, I know I'm here for the long run.She had given up her career in internet business analysis and become a middle school science teacher. Every day she went to work wearing oxygen on her back, looking a little bit like a Ghostbuster, until she couldn't anymore.Six years ago, she had a double lung transplant. I was with my parents at their home in the central valley when they got the call, a little after midnight; they drove straight to the hospital, while I drove to Oakland to pick up my sister. I tried to raise my girlfriend on the phone, but couldn't. It was the loneliest two hours of my life.I have persistent flashbacks of my mother sitting on a gurney outside the double doors leading to anesthesiology, telling me to be patient with my father and to look after him. We spent the night in the hospital, sleeping in the waiting room on makeshift beds made of teal vinyl-covered chairs. It wasn't clear that we would ever see her again. She emerged at 4pm the next day, unable to speak and in unfathomable pain. Eventually, I passed out in the ICU next to her, and the nurses told me to go home.Pulmonary fibrosis is a symptom, not a disease. Your lungs scar progressively until you can't breathe. There's no cure. We didn't know what caused it, but my grandmother died of it when I was six years old, so we knew it was familial. My aunt was diagnosed too, and had lung transplants, before the side effects of immunosuppression were too much for her. Then my cousin, just a few years older than me, who left us suddenly. It was unimaginably sad.And it was scary. It hung over all of us. I felt it acutely. A few years earlier, I had asked my girlfriend to marry me; she had deferred for a year before telling me no. Around the same time, I had ripped my life up to move to California. The country I grew up in voted to reject Europeans like me, ensuring (assuming Brexit eventually comes to pass) that I could never go back. The country I lived in elected a populist fascist as President. And it was becoming clear that I might only have a few years left. I felt destabilized and terrified. More than that, I felt worthless. I hadn't been able to build the life I wanted. I was damaged. And soon, I might be gone.I gained a lot of weight and let my anxiety build. It was rare that I'd sleep through the night. All the while, my mother continued on her adventure, through a rollercoaster of medical crises and procedures. Often, it was like watching someone you love be systematically tortured.Cutting-edge medical research finally caught up with my family, and we discovered that the pulmonary fibrosis was the symptom of a genetic condition called dyskeratosis congenita. At least, it probably was; we were at the edge of medical science. But the research offered hope, and I took it with both hands.In particular, a genetic condition could be tested. The genetic counsellor warned that an adverse result could affect our insurance, our ability to buy a house; our entire futures. But my sister and I had Europe as a safety net. We had the privilege of just going back to a place with saner, more compassionate laws. And more importantly, we were told there was a 75% chance that one or both of us would have it. We had to know.When, a year and a half ago, the genetic test came back showing that neither of us had the genetic variant, we burst into tears in the examination room. We called our parents, who also burst into tears. For my mother, the burden of knowing that she might have passed down her condition was lifted. And suddenly, I had a life ahead of me again. That same week, I had my first therapy session, and I began to rebuild.In the midst of all of this, I had a professional adventure.I became the hands-on CTO and first employee of Latakoo, which is still the way that NBC News sends recorded footage back to its newsrooms over commodity internet connections. (It's also the source of my only software patent.) I was the Geek in Residence at the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab, serving the world's largest arts festival. I wrote a technical book on HTML5 geolocation. I co-founded Known, found investment, and did right by my investors by going to work as a senior engineer at Medium. I was a heavy participant and sometime organizer in the Indieweb community. My work showed up in the New York Times and in other people's books. I was west coast Director of Investments at Matter, a mission-driven accelerator and venture fund (going to the pub with Chelsea Manning as part of this remains my favorite professional moment). I became VP of Product at Unlock, helping independent creators to make money from their work. And as I write this, I'm Head of Engineering at ForUsAll, which is trying to help people on lower incomes to build retirement savings. I'm far from being even a fraction of a millionaire, but I've had the privilege to do well, and hopefully do some good in the process.And I've rebuilt a life in California. I have amazing people in my life - many of whom came through the Matter and Indieweb communities, for which I'm endlessly grateful. I still have my amazing friends from the UK, even if we're distant. My family is close and bound by love. It continues to suffer medical hardships. But through it all, I've been lucky.Ten years from nowSo what's next?Thanks to the last decade's medical adventures, I'm a late bloomer. But I want to have a family, with a strong relationship built on mutual trust and intimacy at its center. If I'm really lucky, my future children will get to meet my parents; if not, I will carry their spirit and do my best to represent the best of who they were. I want a family life drawn from first principles based on creativity and love, rather than one built on established societal expectations: a progressive life created to support us as a partnership, rather than one built to make other people happy by painting by numbers. My future children will be multi-national, as I am. Many passports, many points of view. And that's just from one side of the partnership.I don't have any desire to be wealthy. I do want to be safe and comfortable. That probably means leaving the Bay Area and finding somewhere with a better quality of life to cost of living ratio. Edinburgh is the best place I've ever lived for this, but unless Scotland becomes independent and rejoins the EU, it's not somewhere I could easily go back to. Still, there's a big, wide world out there.I want to do work that makes the world more equal, more compassionate, and more peaceful. What that means in practice is TBD, but I expect to co-found one more startup - not yet, but eventually. Almost certainly, it'll be bootstrapped and partially open source: a zebra internet / media business built with the goal of indefinite sustainability. If I'm lucky, I'll work with some of my former colleagues to make it happen.I'll also deepen my political volunteering. I began to give heavily to progressive causes, as well as canvas and campaign, over the last decade. My politics continue to be progressive as I get older, and I want to back my opinions with real, on the ground work. The current era demands it.And I want to build a strong foundation for the rest of my life. I want to do meaningful work as part of living a meaningful life based on happiness and kindness. I want to leave the world better than I found it by showing up as well as I can through emergent strategy. At the end of it all, whether that's a few years from now or fifty, I want to look back without regret and know that I did well by the people whose lives I passed through, as well as people who I'll never meet or know. It's not about wealth; it's not about self-interest; it's about finding meaning through service, and happiness through connection.It's been a tough decade for me. It has been for many of us. But I'm hopeful for the next one.",
        "html": "<p>As arbitrary as they are, these transitions provide a kind of useful punctuation - a spot to stop and breathe.</p><p>For me, I think it might be useful to reflect on where I was at the start of the previous decade, where I am now, and where I'd like to be ten years from now.</p><h3>Ten years ago</h3><p>I lived in Oxford, as much my hometown as anywhere is, living in the house I'd grown up in long after my family had emigrated to California. Every year, I'd head out for Christmas, saving a little time to hang out in San Francisco.</p><p>I'd just had a turbulent year: In April, I had finally left Elgg after working on it for seven years, and had been surprised to find myself at the receiving end of threats from our investors after I tried to start a new social platform with a completely different purpose. This significantly limited my options - <em>all</em> non-infrastructure internet software is at least a little bit social - and although I'm pretty sure I would have won a court decision, my pockets were exponentially less deep than theirs. I returned to my roots and buckled down doing work in local media instead.</p><p>Nevertheless, I had just given a talk at the Harvard Kennedy School on user-centered design, and flew out to Washington DC. All hints of what was to come.</p><p>My mother was diagnosed with <a href=\"https://www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org/life-with-pf/about-pf\">pulmonary fibrosis</a>. We didn't know what lay ahead; it was just a persistent cough.</p><h3>Today</h3><p>Eight years ago, my mother phoned me to warn me that I shouldn't be shocked to see her wearing oxygen tanks. It took me approximately thirty seconds to decide that I needed to move to California (although practically, it took me five months). I arrived with two suitcases and the assumption that I would be here temporarily. Writing this now, I know I'm here for the long run.</p><p>She had given up her career in internet business analysis and become a middle school science teacher. Every day she went to work wearing oxygen on her back, looking a little bit like a Ghostbuster, until she couldn't anymore.</p><p>Six years ago, she had a double lung transplant. I was with my parents at their home in the central valley when they got the call, a little after midnight; they drove straight to the hospital, while I drove to Oakland to pick up my sister. I tried to raise my girlfriend on the phone, but couldn't. It was the loneliest two hours of my life.</p><p>I have persistent flashbacks of my mother sitting on a gurney outside the double doors leading to anesthesiology, telling me to be patient with my father and to look after him. We spent the night in the hospital, sleeping in the waiting room on makeshift beds made of teal vinyl-covered chairs. It wasn't clear that we would ever see her again. She emerged at 4pm the next day, unable to speak and in unfathomable pain. Eventually, I passed out in the ICU next to her, and the nurses told me to go home.</p><p>Pulmonary fibrosis is a symptom, not a disease. Your lungs scar progressively until you can't breathe. There's no cure. We didn't know what caused it, but my grandmother died of it when I was six years old, so we knew it was familial. <a href=\"https://waynelawreview.org/a-tribute-to-professor-erica-beecher-monas-1949-2017/\">My aunt</a> was diagnosed too, and had lung transplants, before the side effects of immunosuppression were too much for her. <a href=\"https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/miamis-culinary-community-remembers-michael-clements-10130845\">Then my cousin</a>, just a few years older than me, who left us suddenly. It was unimaginably sad.</p><p>And it was scary. It hung over all of us. I felt it acutely. A few years earlier, I had asked my girlfriend to marry me; she had deferred for a year before telling me no. Around the same time, I had ripped my life up to move to California. The country I grew up in voted to reject Europeans like me, ensuring (assuming Brexit eventually comes to pass) that I could never go back. The country I lived in elected a populist fascist as President. And it was becoming clear that I might only have a few years left. I felt destabilized and terrified. More than that, I felt <em>worthless</em>. I hadn't been able to build the life I wanted. I was damaged. And soon, I might be gone.</p><p>I gained a lot of weight and let my anxiety build. It was rare that I'd sleep through the night. All the while, my mother continued on her adventure, through a rollercoaster of medical crises and procedures. Often, it was like watching someone you love be systematically tortured.</p><p>Cutting-edge medical research finally caught up with my family, and we discovered that the pulmonary fibrosis was the symptom of a genetic condition called <a href=\"https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/dyskeratosis-congenita\">dyskeratosis congenita</a>. At least, it probably was; we were at the edge of medical science. But the research offered hope, and I took it with both hands.</p><p>In particular, a genetic condition could be tested. The genetic counsellor warned that an adverse result could affect our insurance, our ability to buy a house; our entire futures. But my sister and I had Europe as a safety net. We had the privilege of just going back to a place with saner, more compassionate laws. And more importantly, we were told there was a 75% chance that one or both of us would have it. We had to know.</p><p>When, a year and a half ago, the genetic test came back showing that <em>neither</em> of us had the genetic variant, we burst into tears in the examination room. We called our parents, who also burst into tears. For my mother, the burden of knowing that she might have passed down her condition was lifted. And suddenly, I had a life ahead of me again. That same week, I had my first therapy session, and I began to rebuild.</p><p>In the midst of all of this, I had a professional adventure.</p><p>I became the hands-on CTO and first employee of Latakoo, which is still the way that NBC News sends recorded footage back to its newsrooms over commodity internet connections. (It's also the source of my only software patent.) I was the Geek in Residence at the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab, serving the world's largest arts festival. I wrote a technical book on HTML5 geolocation. I co-founded Known, found investment, and did right by my investors by going to work as a senior engineer at Medium. I was a heavy participant and sometime organizer in the Indieweb community. My work showed up in the New York Times and in other people's books. I was west coast Director of Investments at Matter, a mission-driven accelerator and venture fund (going to the pub with Chelsea Manning as part of this remains my favorite professional moment). I became VP of Product at Unlock, helping independent creators to make money from their work. And as I write this, I'm Head of Engineering at ForUsAll, which is trying to help people on lower incomes to build retirement savings. I'm far from being even a fraction of a millionaire, but I've had the privilege to do well, and hopefully do some good in the process.</p><p>And I've rebuilt a life in California. I have amazing people in my life - many of whom came through the Matter and Indieweb communities, for which I'm endlessly grateful. I still have my amazing friends from the UK, even if we're distant. My family is close and bound by love. It continues to suffer medical hardships. But through it all, I've been lucky.</p><h3>Ten years from now</h3><p>So what's next?</p><p>Thanks to the last decade's medical adventures, I'm a late bloomer. But I want to have a family, with a strong relationship built on mutual trust and intimacy at its center. If I'm really lucky, my future children will get to meet my parents; if not, I will carry their spirit and do my best to represent the best of who they were. I want a family life drawn from first principles based on creativity and love, rather than one built on established societal expectations: a progressive life created to support us as a partnership, rather than one built to make other people happy by painting by numbers. My future children will be multi-national, as I am. Many passports, many points of view. And that's just from one side of the partnership.</p><p>I don't have any desire to be wealthy. I do want to be safe and comfortable. That probably means leaving the Bay Area and finding somewhere with a better quality of life to cost of living ratio. Edinburgh is the best place I've ever lived for this, but unless Scotland becomes independent and rejoins the EU, it's not somewhere I could easily go back to. Still, there's a big, wide world out there.</p><p>I want to do work that makes the world more equal, more compassionate, and more peaceful. What that means in practice is TBD, but I expect to co-found one more startup - not yet, but eventually. Almost certainly, it'll be bootstrapped and partially open source: <a href=\"https://www.zebrasunite.com/\">a zebra</a> internet / media business built with the goal of indefinite sustainability. If I'm lucky, I'll work with some of my former colleagues to make it happen.</p><p>I'll also deepen my political volunteering. I began to give heavily to progressive causes, as well as canvas and campaign, over the last decade. My politics continue to be progressive as I get older, and I want to back my opinions with real, on the ground work. The current era demands it.</p><p>And I want to build a strong foundation for the rest of my life. I want to do meaningful work as part of living a meaningful life based on happiness and kindness. I want to leave the world better than I found it by showing up as well as I can through <a href=\"https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html\">emergent strategy</a>. At the end of it all, whether that's a few years from now or fifty, I want to look back without regret and know that I did well by the people whose lives I passed through, as well as people who I'll never meet or know. It's not about wealth; it's not about self-interest; it's about finding meaning through service, and happiness through connection.</p><p>It's been a tough decade for me. It has been for many of us. But I'm hopeful for the next one.</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Ben Werdm\u00fcller",
        "url": "https://werd.io/profile/benwerd",
        "photo": "https://werd.io/file/5d388c5fb16ea14aac640912/thumb.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "7051846",
    "_source": "191",
    "_is_read": true
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Vika fireburn.ru

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-16T15:59:04+00:00",
    "url": "https://fireburn.ru/posts/1576511944",
    "category": [
        "IndieWeb",
        "onboarding",
        "Kittybox"
    ],
    "photo": [
        "https://fireburn.ru/media/50/cd/05/78/28b6c39605c94a879db3d4ab50621a916860acf4d57953f9732cc529.png"
    ],
    "syndication": [
        "https://twitter.com/kisik21/status/1206604700767928321"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "This is how onboarding will probably look in Kittybox. #IndieWeb",
        "html": "<p>This is how onboarding will probably look in Kittybox. #IndieWeb</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Vika",
        "url": "https://fireburn.ru/",
        "photo": "https://fireburn.ru/media/f1/5a/fb/9b/081efafb97b4ad59f5025cf2fd0678b8f3e20e4c292489107d52be09.png"
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    "post-type": "photo",
    "_id": "7051538",
    "_source": "1371",
    "_is_read": true
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Vika fireburn.ru

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-16T15:57:22+00:00",
    "url": "https://fireburn.ru/posts/1576511842",
    "category": [
        "Kittybox",
        "onboarding",
        "IndieWeb"
    ],
    "syndication": [
        "https://twitter.com/kisik21/status/1206604261888548865"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "This is how onboarding would probably look in Kittybox. #IndieWeb",
        "html": "<p>This is how onboarding would probably look in Kittybox. #IndieWeb</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Vika",
        "url": "https://fireburn.ru/",
        "photo": "https://fireburn.ru/media/f1/5a/fb/9b/081efafb97b4ad59f5025cf2fd0678b8f3e20e4c292489107d52be09.png"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "7051539",
    "_source": "1371",
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Malcolm Blaney mblaney.xyz

I Haza Website domain registration

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-16T18:33:50+10:00",
    "url": "https://mblaney.xyz/2019-12-16-I_Haza_Website_domain_registration",
    "category": [
        "https://news.indieweb.org/en"
    ],
    "name": "I Haza Website domain registration",
    "content": {
        "text": "I've had some great feedback about I Haza Website, my website hosting service that provides a ready to use installation of Dobrado running at your own domain name.\n\n\nThe most important feedback was that for most people, registering a domain name and updating their records was too difficult. This was the only manual step in the whole process, so it gave me the motivation to automate registering domain names. I'm using name.com because I appreciate their support of the IndieWeb!\n\n\n\n\nPayments currently go through PayPal, which I used because I had an existing implementation for it. I'm just passing through the purchase price from the name.com API and PayPal's processing fee, and hosting is currently free, so this is a pretty easy way to get your own website!",
        "html": "I've had some great feedback about <a href=\"https://i.haza.website\">I Haza Website</a>, my website hosting service that provides a ready to use installation of <a href=\"https://dobrado.net\">Dobrado</a> running at your own domain name.<br /><br />\nThe most important feedback was that for most people, registering a domain name and updating their records was too difficult. This was the only manual step in the whole process, so it gave me the motivation to automate registering domain names. I'm using <a href=\"https://name.com\">name.com</a> because I appreciate their support of the <a href=\"https://indieweb.org\">IndieWeb</a>!<br /><br /><img alt=\"\" src=\"https://mblaney.xyz/public/domain_check.png\" /><br /><br />\nPayments currently go through PayPal, which I used because I had an existing implementation for it. I'm just passing through the purchase price from the name.com API and PayPal's processing fee, and hosting is currently free, so this is a pretty easy way to get your own website!"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Malcolm Blaney",
        "url": "https://mblaney.xyz",
        "photo": "https://mblaney.xyz/public/profile_thumb.png"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "9096338",
    "_source": "3708",
    "_is_read": true
}

Tantek Çelik tantek.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-15 15:14-0800",
    "url": "http://tantek.com/2019/349/t1/baked-blueberry-pie-last-sunday",
    "category": [
        "blueberry",
        "pie",
        "blueberries",
        "2019_342",
        "blueberrypie",
        "thirdpie",
        "thirdpieblind",
        "imadethis",
        "baker",
        "homecooking",
        "homebaked",
        "bakers",
        "baked",
        "latergram",
        "nofilter"
    ],
    "photo": [
        "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/fastly.4sqi.net/f5987944ad4628e75eb421147c0f0240676bd94ea73d919d307de13c2fbe39fb.jpg",
        "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/fastly.4sqi.net/11d680f4b5a165ae6d750812d35e05d1f762969454a6ef3db32e063ea8aef72c.jpg",
        "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/fastly.4sqi.net/e51eea8ffb79e9e84dd0945d2ea0545cb0c1a33a4068aea5395927bfe791b94c.jpg",
        "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/fastly.4sqi.net/de5de354b3dc04556085e1b6f7f2cf199d4dc63611074947d86d21a442cc020d.jpg",
        "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/fastly.4sqi.net/aa9f3c79f9ba13a94ee79f6845c709d6871cffc9b3b6fb4dabd4b52f4b123468.jpg",
        "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/fastly.4sqi.net/72c8b4a6eedc8754ccd7c19837df45f7bbe247ed36ab8208bd09f28fe75009f0.jpg"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "\ud83d\udd35\ud83e\udd67 Baked a #blueberry #pie last Sunday, my third pie, blind to an unexpected change coming just minutes after I put the pie in the oven.\n\nAfter we wrapped up IndieWebCamp SF, I went home, collected the ingredients from my cupboard, realized I was missing a couple, and picked them up from my local grocery store. Ingredients assembled(2), pie dish lined and #blueberries mixed(3), it didn\u2019t take long to make(4), and place in the oven to bake(1).\n\nThanks to a ride from a friend, the pie made it to the party intact(5), taking its place among others, surrounded by bakers, friends, and baker friends (6 \ud83d\udcf7 Andrew Garcia).\n\n#2019_342 #blueberrypie #pie #thirdpie #thirdpieblind #imadethis #baker #homecooking #homebaked #bakers #baked #latergram #nofilter\n\nPreviously: https://tantek.com/2019/005/t1/weeks-ago-baked-first-apple-pie",
        "html": "<a class=\"u-bridgy-flickr-photo\" href=\"https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/original/476_QpDE0FOJ5t5phaNu-xAC1AlpXaGXToQ2uCfVjLM6Ycc.jpg\"></a><a class=\"u-bridgy-flickr-photo\" href=\"https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/original/476_jEG3HEt0D4WGcirbqbzn1jqHvNE5f1ZxcG2hiYxGugo.jpg\"></a><a class=\"u-bridgy-flickr-photo\" href=\"https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/original/476_HXGtIMvwEEBIgUwIHKRiKBHuFtd-kGH7pb3sFO6JYoc.jpg\"></a><a class=\"u-bridgy-flickr-photo\" href=\"https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/original/476_zbyAOnKIUH6QFtrfRD7VEwRVhFl3WXtYCwAAO5IsOGk.jpg\"></a><a class=\"u-bridgy-flickr-photo\" href=\"https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/original/476_FZWFs12vOoiO3nbogcl0ErrOnmodjVEh3dDssACDWE8.jpg\"></a><a class=\"u-bridgy-flickr-photo\" href=\"https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/original/476_sm5sSOTVjeupEUKF1r4CXN5LHSu-LxthsZcMIhAe88U.jpg\"></a>\ud83d\udd35\ud83e\udd67 Baked a #<span class=\"p-category\">blueberry</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">pie</span> last Sunday, my third pie, blind to an unexpected change coming just minutes after I put the pie in the oven.<br /><br />After we wrapped up IndieWebCamp SF, I went home, collected the ingredients from my cupboard, realized I was missing a couple, and picked them up from my local grocery store. Ingredients assembled(2), pie dish lined and #<span class=\"p-category\">blueberries</span> mixed(3), it didn\u2019t take long to make(4), and place in the oven to bake(1).<br /><br />Thanks to a ride from a friend, the pie made it to the party intact(5), taking its place among others, surrounded by bakers, friends, and baker friends (6 \ud83d\udcf7 Andrew Garcia).<br /><br />#<span class=\"p-category\">2019_342</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">blueberrypie</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">pie</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">thirdpie</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">thirdpieblind</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">imadethis</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">baker</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">homecooking</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">homebaked</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">bakers</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">baked</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">latergram</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">nofilter</span><br /><br />Previously: <a href=\"https://tantek.com/2019/005/t1/weeks-ago-baked-first-apple-pie\">https://tantek.com/2019/005/t1/weeks-ago-baked-first-apple-pie</a>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
        "url": "http://tantek.com/",
        "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/tantek.com/acfddd7d8b2c8cf8aa163651432cc1ec7eb8ec2f881942dca963d305eeaaa6b8.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "photo",
    "_id": "7033172",
    "_source": "1",
    "_is_read": true
}

Jamie Tanna www.jvt.me

Reply to https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur/status/1206286044145913856

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-15T23:36:00Z",
    "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2019/12/08srv/",
    "in-reply-to": [
        "https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur/status/1206286044145913856"
    ],
    "name": "Reply to https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur/status/1206286044145913856",
    "content": {
        "text": "As I've gone all in on the #IndieWeb technologies, I've been using @AaronPK's service https://aperture.p3k.io which supports the open https://indieweb.org/Microsub standard, which supports RSS among other formats - may be worth looking into as it's a great protocol for building better readers, even if it's not solving your need right now. Drop me or the folks at https://indieweb.org/discuss a line if you want to talk more about it!",
        "html": "<p>As I've gone all in on the #IndieWeb technologies, I've been using @AaronPK's service <a href=\"https://aperture.p3k.io\">https://aperture.p3k.io</a> which supports the open <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Microsub\">https://indieweb.org/Microsub</a> standard, which supports RSS among other formats - may be worth looking into as it's a great protocol for building better readers, even if it's not solving your need right now. Drop me or the folks at <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/discuss\">https://indieweb.org/discuss</a> a line if you want to talk more about it!</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jamie Tanna",
        "url": "https://www.jvt.me",
        "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png"
    },
    "post-type": "reply",
    "_id": "7027230",
    "_source": "2169",
    "_is_read": true
}

Jamie Tanna www.jvt.me

Reply to https://aaronparecki.com/2019/12/15/8/

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-15T18:36:00Z",
    "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2019/12/ewhan/",
    "in-reply-to": [
        "https://aaronparecki.com/2019/12/15/8/"
    ],
    "name": "Reply to https://aaronparecki.com/2019/12/15/8/",
    "content": {
        "text": "I've disabled that for now - I actually didn't mean to do that and have since removed it, especially as those pages are paginated so you'll effectively get webmention'd forever as I add more content to that tag",
        "html": "<p>I've disabled that for now - I actually didn't mean to do that and have since removed it, especially as those pages are paginated so you'll effectively get webmention'd forever as I add more content to that tag</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jamie Tanna",
        "url": "https://www.jvt.me",
        "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png"
    },
    "post-type": "reply",
    "_id": "7020462",
    "_source": "2169",
    "_is_read": true
}

Jamie Tanna www.jvt.me

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-15T18:01:00Z",
    "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2019/12/h2rda/",
    "content": {
        "text": "Sorry to anyone who's just received a tonne of webmentions from me - I'm tweaking the way the sending works so there are a few new places you may see them come from",
        "html": "<p>Sorry to anyone who's just received a tonne of webmentions from me - I'm tweaking the way the sending works so there are a few new places you may see them come from</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jamie Tanna",
        "url": "https://www.jvt.me",
        "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "7019829",
    "_source": "2169",
    "_is_read": true
}

Jamie Tanna www.jvt.me

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-15T16:11:14.127+01:00",
    "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2019/12/yudga/",
    "content": {
        "text": "This post has been published by my Micropub endpoint (code in https://gitlab.com/jamietanna/www-api ) and syndicated to Twitter via https://brid.gy \ud83d\ude4c #IndieWeb - I'm able to own my tweets from my personal website at https://www.jvt.me and you can too by joining the folks at https://indieweb.org/discuss",
        "html": "<p>This post has been published by my Micropub endpoint (code in <a href=\"https://gitlab.com/jamietanna/www-api\">https://gitlab.com/jamietanna/www-api</a> ) and syndicated to Twitter via <a href=\"https://brid.gy\">https://brid.gy</a> \ud83d\ude4c #IndieWeb - I'm able to own my tweets from my personal website at <a href=\"https://www.jvt.me\">https://www.jvt.me</a> and you can too by joining the folks at <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/discuss\">https://indieweb.org/discuss</a></p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jamie Tanna",
        "url": "https://www.jvt.me",
        "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "7016339",
    "_source": "2169",
    "_is_read": true
}

Vika fireburn.ru

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-14T22:03:00+0300",
    "url": "https://fireburn.ru/posts/1576360980",
    "category": [
        "webmention",
        "indieweb",
        "chess",
        "games"
    ],
    "syndication": [
        "https://news.indieweb.org/en/fireburn.ru/posts/1576360980",
        "https://twitter.com/kisik21/status/1205926370808909826"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Did somebody invent a play by #webmention #game like #indieweb chess? If not, I want to be the first one to implement it! Markup: p-chess-move - a move in some sort of a universally accepted notation. And a service you can mention so it\u2019ll record the game and check rules.",
        "html": "<p>Did somebody invent a play by #webmention #game like #indieweb chess? If not, I want to be the first one to implement it! Markup: <code>p-chess-move</code> - a move in some sort of a universally accepted notation. And a service you can mention so it\u2019ll record the game and check rules.</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Vika",
        "url": "https://fireburn.ru/",
        "photo": "https://fireburn.ru/media/f1/5a/fb/9b/081efafb97b4ad59f5025cf2fd0678b8f3e20e4c292489107d52be09.png"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "6994994",
    "_source": "1371",
    "_is_read": true
}

Tantek Çelik tantek.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-12 17:33-0800",
    "url": "http://tantek.com/2019/346/t1/bluesky-standard-indieweb-webmention-federates",
    "category": [
        "bluesky",
        "IndieWeb",
        "Webmention"
    ],
    "in-reply-to": [
        "https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766078468911106"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "@jack @ParagA #bluesky sounds interesting. For \u201cexisting decentralized standard\u201d see #IndieWeb specs https://spec.indieweb.org/ like W3C #Webmention, and community that actively federates with Twitter (like this reply from my site). Happy to discuss more!",
        "html": "<a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/jack\">@jack</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/ParagA\">@ParagA</a> #<span class=\"p-category\">bluesky</span> sounds interesting. For \u201cexisting decentralized standard\u201d see #<span class=\"p-category\">IndieWeb</span> specs <a href=\"https://spec.indieweb.org/\">https://spec.indieweb.org/</a> like W3C #<span class=\"p-category\">Webmention</span>, and community that actively federates with Twitter (like this reply from my site). Happy to discuss more!"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
        "url": "http://tantek.com/",
        "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/tantek.com/acfddd7d8b2c8cf8aa163651432cc1ec7eb8ec2f881942dca963d305eeaaa6b8.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "reply",
    "refs": {
        "https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766078468911106": {
            "type": "entry",
            "url": "https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766078468911106",
            "name": "@jack\u2019s tweet",
            "post-type": "article"
        }
    },
    "_id": "6946549",
    "_source": "1",
    "_is_read": true
}

gRegor Morrill gregorlove.com

Homebrew Website Club San Diego

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-12 09:59-0800",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2019/12/homebrew-website-club-san-diego/",
    "featured": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/5717/img_20191211_195850.jpg",
    "photo": [
        "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/5717/img_20191211_195850.jpg"
    ],
    "syndication": [
        "https://news.indieweb.org/en",
        "https://twitter.com/gRegorLove/status/1205188598904934400"
    ],
    "name": "Homebrew Website Club San Diego",
    "content": {
        "text": "The first Homebrew Website Club San Diego was a success! There were four people in attendance. We started with introductions and talked a bit about our websites \u2014 or desire for a website.\n\nJoe Crawford: Has been blogging since 2001 and recently been posting lots of drawings and comics. Tonight he updated the header on his site to include one of his drawings. He is running WordPress, so he installed the indieweb plugins: Webmention, Semantic Linkbacks, and Microformats 2. He made some updates to his h-card and used indiewebify.me to test it.\n\nSimon Prickett: Used to only post on Medium, but now has all his posts on his site and syndicates copies to Medium. Tonight he worked on some templates for an upcoming Women Who Code event. The goal is to have a few starter templates they can use to teach Jekyll and be able to publish a page on Github Pages.\n\nJordan Yonts: No website\u2026 yet. He used to have a domain but let it lapse and all the content is gone. He is happy to leave that content in the past but would like to get a site set up and organize some of his hobbies there.\n\ngRegor Morrill (you are here): I\u2019ve been working on a login system and mailing list opt-in so people can subscribe and get my posts by email. This is something I really want in place before I am off of Facebook, to allow people to still get my posts by email.\n\nWe talked about how often to have these meetups and decided on monthly, at least for now. The next meetup is tentatively on January 15, 2020. I\u2019ll follow up with an event page soon.\n\nReflections:\n\nSubterranean was a pretty good venue for this. I was a little concerned because while it is a big coffeeshop, it is often pretty full during the day. After 5pm there were only a handful of people, though, so it worked well. We could have comfortably hosted 8-10 people tonight. They have good food and drinks, and happy hour overlapped. They also have good art (see below) and music; tonight it was Talking Heads.\n\nThe awesome Bowie painting in our group picture.\nShould we rename to Home-Bowie Website Club? y/y",
        "html": "<p>The first <a href=\"https://gregorlove.com/2019/12/homebrew-website-club/\">Homebrew Website Club San Diego</a> was a success! There were four people in attendance. We started with introductions and talked a bit about our websites \u2014 or desire for a website.</p>\n\n<p><a class=\"h-card\" href=\"https://artlung.com\">Joe Crawford</a>: Has been blogging since 2001 and recently been posting lots of drawings and comics. Tonight he updated the header on his site to include one of his drawings. He is running WordPress, so he installed the indieweb plugins: Webmention, Semantic Linkbacks, and Microformats 2. He made some updates to his h-card and used <a href=\"https://indiewebify.me/\">indiewebify.me</a> to test it.</p>\n\n<p><a class=\"h-card\" href=\"https://simonprickett.dev/\">Simon Prickett</a>: Used to only post on Medium, but now has all his posts on his site and syndicates copies to Medium. Tonight he worked on some templates for an upcoming <a href=\"https://www.womenwhocode.com/sandiego\">Women Who Code</a> event. The goal is to have a few starter templates they can use to teach Jekyll and be able to publish a page on Github Pages.</p>\n\n<p>Jordan Yonts: No website\u2026 yet. He used to have a domain but let it lapse and all the content is gone. He is happy to leave that content in the past but would like to get a site set up and organize some of his hobbies there.</p>\n\n<p>gRegor Morrill (you are here): I\u2019ve been working on a login system and mailing list opt-in so people can subscribe and get my posts by email. This is something I really want in place before I am off of Facebook, to allow people to still get my posts by email.</p>\n\n<p>We talked about how often to have these meetups and decided on monthly, at least for now. The next meetup is tentatively on January 15, 2020. I\u2019ll follow up with an event page soon.</p>\n\n<p><b>Reflections:</b></p>\n\n<p>Subterranean was a pretty good venue for this. I was a little concerned because while it is a big coffeeshop, it is often pretty full during the day. After 5pm there were only a handful of people, though, so it worked well. We could have comfortably hosted 8-10 people tonight. They have good food and drinks, and happy hour overlapped. They also have good art (see below) and music; tonight it was Talking Heads.</p>\n\n<p>The awesome Bowie painting in our group picture.</p>\n<p>Should we rename to Home-Bowie Website Club? y/y</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/3473/profile-2016-med.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "photo",
    "_id": "6936670",
    "_source": "179",
    "_is_read": true
}

Tantek Çelik tantek.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-11 16:29-0800",
    "rsvp": "yes",
    "url": "http://tantek.com/2019/345/t1/indieweb-tonight-mozilla-openstandards-bluesky",
    "category": [
        "IndieWeb",
        "bluesky"
    ],
    "in-reply-to": [
        "https://tantek.com/2019/345/e1/homebrew-website-club-sf"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "hosting #IndieWeb Homebrew Website Club TONIGHT 17:30 @Mozilla SF!\nhttps://tantek.com/2019/345/e1/homebrew-website-club-sf\n\nNo #bluesky today, let\u2019s discuss Twitter\u2019s @bluesky:\nhttps://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766095988576256\n\n@adactio will be there. Join us! @jack @ParagA @JackyAlcine @benwerd @dietrich @AndiGalpern @generativist @pvh @JohnMattDavis @html5cat et al",
        "html": "hosting #<span class=\"p-category\">IndieWeb</span> Homebrew Website Club TONIGHT 17:30 <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/Mozilla\">@Mozilla</a> SF!<br /><a href=\"https://tantek.com/2019/345/e1/homebrew-website-club-sf\">https://tantek.com/2019/345/e1/homebrew-website-club-sf</a><br /><br />No #<span class=\"p-category\">bluesky</span> today, let\u2019s discuss Twitter\u2019s <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/bluesky\">@bluesky</a>:<br /><a href=\"https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766095988576256\">https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766095988576256</a><br /><br /><a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/adactio\">@adactio</a> will be there. Join us! <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/jack\">@jack</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/ParagA\">@ParagA</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/JackyAlcine\">@JackyAlcine</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/benwerd\">@benwerd</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/dietrich\">@dietrich</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/AndiGalpern\">@AndiGalpern</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/generativist\">@generativist</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/pvh\">@pvh</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/JohnMattDavis\">@JohnMattDavis</a> <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/html5cat\">@html5cat</a> et al"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
        "url": "http://tantek.com/",
        "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/tantek.com/acfddd7d8b2c8cf8aa163651432cc1ec7eb8ec2f881942dca963d305eeaaa6b8.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "rsvp",
    "refs": {
        "https://tantek.com/2019/345/e1/homebrew-website-club-sf": {
            "type": "entry",
            "url": "https://tantek.com/2019/345/e1/homebrew-website-club-sf",
            "name": "Tantek\u2019s event",
            "post-type": "article"
        }
    },
    "_id": "6909503",
    "_source": "1",
    "_is_read": true
}

Jeremy Keith adactio.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-12T00:29:09Z",
    "url": "https://adactio.com/links/16220",
    "category": [
        "instagram",
        "facebook",
        "hyperlinks",
        "hypertext",
        "control",
        "silos",
        "indieweb",
        "linking"
    ],
    "bookmark-of": [
        "https://anildash.com/2019/12/10/link-in-bio-is-how-they-tried-to-kill-the-web/"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "\u201cLink In Bio\u201d is a slow knife\n\n\n\n\n  For a closed system, those kinds of open connections are deeply dangerous. If anyone on Instagram can just link to any old store on the web, how can Instagram \u2014 meaning Facebook, Instagram\u2019s increasingly-overbearing owner \u2014 tightly control commerce on its platform? If Instagram users could post links willy-nilly, they might even be able to connect directly to their users, getting their email addresses or finding other ways to communicate with them. Links represent a threat to closed systems.\n\n\nAnil Dash on the war on hyperlinks.\n\n\n  It may be presented as a cost-saving measure, or as a way of reducing the sharing of untrusted links. But it is a strategy, designed to keep people from the open web, the place where they can control how, and whether, someone makes money off of an audience. The web is where we can make sites that don\u2019t abuse data in the ways that Facebook properties do.",
        "html": "<h3>\n<a class=\"p-name u-bookmark-of\" href=\"https://anildash.com/2019/12/10/link-in-bio-is-how-they-tried-to-kill-the-web/\">\n\u201cLink In Bio\u201d is a slow knife\n</a>\n</h3>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>For a closed system, those kinds of open connections are deeply dangerous. If anyone on Instagram can just link to any old store on the web, how can Instagram \u2014 meaning Facebook, Instagram\u2019s increasingly-overbearing owner \u2014 tightly control commerce on its platform? If Instagram users could post links willy-nilly, they might even be able to connect directly to their users, getting their email addresses or finding other ways to communicate with them. Links represent a threat to closed systems.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Anil Dash on the war on hyperlinks.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>It may be presented as a cost-saving measure, or as a way of reducing the sharing of untrusted links. But it is a strategy, designed to keep people from the open web, the place where they can control how, and whether, someone makes money off of an audience. The web is where we can make sites that <em>don\u2019t</em> abuse data in the ways that Facebook properties do.</p>\n</blockquote>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jeremy Keith",
        "url": "https://adactio.com/",
        "photo": "https://adactio.com/images/photo-150.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "bookmark",
    "_id": "6904071",
    "_source": "2",
    "_is_read": true
}

Ben Werdmüller werd.io/profile/benwerd

Twitter's Project Bluesky

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-11T17:18:53+00:00",
    "url": "https://werd.io/2019/twitters-project-bluesky",
    "name": "Twitter's Project Bluesky",
    "content": {
        "text": "This morning, Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter would be funding an independent group that would develop an open standard for decentralized social networking, with the expectation that the company would use it.\nTwitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. \ud83e\uddf5\n\u2014 jack \ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0f\ud83c\udf0e (@jack) December 11, 2019\nI've been involved in decentralized social networking since 2004, when I released the first version of Elgg, the open source social networking platform. As I said in an interview with ZDNet in 2006:I think in the future, networks or meta-networks won't be an issue: the network will be decentralised. What I'd like to see is a set of open protocols that mean you can connect to anyone, anywhere, no matter which site they happen to be using.I still fundamentally believe in this vision. My second attempt at an open source platform, Known, uses indieweb standards to a user of a Known site to interact with any other user of any other indieweb-compatible site. Decentralization was something I looked at carefully when I was west coast Director of Investments at Matter Ventures. And it was core to the work I did with the Unlock Protocol.There have been many other attempts. My friend Evan Prodromou created StatusNet and then the ActivityPub protocol; the latter underlies the Mastodon \"fediverse\" of federated social networking platforms. (Known has committed to also joining the fediverse.)Twitter's announcement today builds on many of these efforts in spirit, but it goes its own way. I think this is probably right: whereas all of the aforementioned projects were created by hobbyists, Twitter as a company and a worldwide platform has different needs. If the goal is to run over 126 million daily active users on a decentralized platform, and for the associated platform companies to make money in the process, something new is needed.I don't believe that this new project will come out of lengthy committee deliberations. So while it might rile long-term open standards collaborators, I think this tweet from Twitter's CTO, Parag Agrawal, bodes well:\n3 - The traditionally slow and deliberate consensus-building approach to evolving standards might fail to keep up with a rapidly changing ecosystem and set of consumer needs.\n\u2014 Parag Agrawal (@paraga) December 11, 2019\nThe key will be rapid iteration in the public interest, repeatedly testing not just the feasibility of such a protocol (whether you can build and maintain it at scale), but also its desirability (user risk) and viability (business risk). In other words, it's not enough to make something work. It also has to be able to win user trust, serve as the foundation of an ecosystem, and allow businesses built on the platform to become valuable. As yet, open standards processes have not shown themselves to be capable of this kind of product development.To be clear, this kind of leadership can and does still lead to open projects released under open source licenses. That's what Twitter will need to do here.For Twitter, there are many obvious business benefits as champion of this platform. Particularly in a world where anti-trust reform and regulation of social networks are becoming more prominent topics, getting ahead of the trend and locking in decentralized openness is smart. It could also disrupt other social networking platforms who aren't, or can't be, so forward-thinking.Building it on a blockchain - not Ethereum, but a new, faster, purpose-built chain - may also make sense as a way to lock in both openness and the ability to build value. One interesting property of blockchains is that nodes typically have to process the whole chain; that means that as the traffic on the new protocol increases, the difficulty of processing the chain increases and the number of entities capable of processing it decreases. The value of being an entry point that processes on behalf of others increases. So there's a business in providing an easy access point for developers. But more importantly, designing the protocol from scratch allows a mutually beneficial business model to be baked in. It's not about hoarding the riches for Twitter: it's about baking an ever-increasing pie that everyone can have a slice of.There are lots of very reasonable arguments that open communty advocates will make for this being something to be wary of. But while this move is very, very late in community terms (we've been talking about decentralization for decades), it's very early in corporate terms. The time is right for tech companies to make the shift into open protocols, in a way that allows businesses to make money, users to own their data, and a thousand new social networking interfaces to bloom. And I think that's a progressive move for the web.\u00a0Photo by Anthony Cantin on Unsplash",
        "html": "<p><img src=\"https://werd.io/file/5df124f3b16ea130f6402d12\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" /></p><p>This morning, Jack Dorsey announced that <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766078468911106\">Twitter would be funding an independent group that would develop an open standard for decentralized social networking</a>, with the expectation that the company would use it.</p><blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\">Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. \ud83e\uddf5</p>\n<p>\u2014 jack \ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0f\ud83c\udf0e (@jack) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766078468911106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 11, 2019</a></p>\n</blockquote><p>I've been involved in decentralized social networking since 2004, when I released the first version of Elgg, the open source social networking platform. <a href=\"https://www.zdnet.com/article/run-your-own-myspace-with-elgg-spaces/\">As I said in an interview with ZDNet in 2006</a>:</p><blockquote><p>I think in the future, networks or meta-networks won't be an issue: the network will be decentralised. What I'd like to see is a set of open protocols that mean you can connect to anyone, anywhere, no matter which site they happen to be using.</p></blockquote><p>I still fundamentally believe in this vision. My second attempt at an open source platform, Known, <a href=\"https://tantek.com/2019/301/b1/redecentralize-indieweb-standards-methods\">uses indieweb standards to a user of a Known site to interact with any other user of any other indieweb-compatible site</a>. Decentralization was something I looked at carefully <a href=\"https://medium.com/matter-driven-narrative/build-the-media-platform-of-tomorrow-49e00e246d20\">when I was west coast Director of Investments at Matter Ventures</a>. And it was core to the work I did with the <a href=\"https://unlock-protocol.com\">Unlock Protocol</a>.</p><p>There have been many other attempts. My friend Evan Prodromou created <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_social\">StatusNet</a> and then the <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/\">ActivityPub</a> protocol; the latter underlies the <a href=\"https://joinmastodon.org/\">Mastodon</a> \"fediverse\" of federated social networking platforms. (Known has committed to also joining the fediverse.)</p><p>Twitter's announcement today builds on many of these efforts in spirit, but it goes its own way. I think this is probably right: whereas all of the aforementioned projects were created by hobbyists, Twitter as a company and a worldwide platform has different needs. If the goal is to run <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/07/twitter-reveals-its-daily-active-user-numbers-first-time/\">over 126 million daily active users</a> on a decentralized platform, and for the associated platform companies to make money in the process, something new is needed.</p><p>I don't believe that this new project will come out of lengthy committee deliberations. So while it might rile long-term open standards collaborators, I think this tweet from Twitter's CTO, Parag Agrawal, bodes well:</p><blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\">3 - The traditionally slow and deliberate consensus-building approach to evolving standards might fail to keep up with a rapidly changing ecosystem and set of consumer needs.</p>\n<p>\u2014 Parag Agrawal (@paraga) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/paraga/status/1204766192163901440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 11, 2019</a></p>\n</blockquote><p>The key will be rapid iteration in the public interest, repeatedly testing not just the <em>feasibility</em> of such a protocol (whether you can build and maintain it at scale), but also its <em>desirability</em> (user risk) and <em>viability</em> (business risk). In other words, it's not enough to make something work. It also has to be able to win user trust, serve as the foundation of an ecosystem, and allow businesses built on the platform to become valuable. As yet, open standards processes have not shown themselves to be capable of this kind of product development.</p><p>To be clear, this kind of leadership can and does still lead to open projects released under open source licenses. That's what Twitter will need to do here.</p><p>For Twitter, there are many obvious business benefits as champion of this platform. Particularly in a world where <a href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/facebook-most-likely-to-suffer-in-antitrust-war-on-silicon-valley.html\">anti-trust reform</a> and <a href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47135058\">regulation of social networks</a> are becoming more prominent topics, getting ahead of the trend and locking in decentralized openness is smart. It could also disrupt other social networking platforms who aren't, or can't be, so forward-thinking.</p><p>Building it on a blockchain - not Ethereum, but a new, faster, purpose-built chain - may also make sense as a way to lock in both openness and the ability to build value. One interesting property of blockchains is that nodes typically have to process the whole chain; that means that as the traffic on the new protocol increases, the difficulty of processing the chain increases and the number of entities capable of processing it decreases. The value of being an entry point that processes on behalf of others increases. So there's a business in providing an easy access point for developers. But more importantly, designing the protocol from scratch allows a mutually beneficial business model to be baked in. It's not about hoarding the riches for Twitter: it's about baking an ever-increasing pie that everyone can have a slice of.</p><p>There are lots of very reasonable arguments that open communty advocates will make for this being something to be wary of. But while this move is very, very late in community terms (we've been talking about decentralization for decades), it's very early in corporate terms. The time is right for tech companies to make the shift into open protocols, in a way that allows businesses to make money, users to own their data, and a thousand new social networking interfaces to bloom. And I think that's a progressive move for the web.</p><p>\u00a0</p><p><em>Photo by <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/@arizonanthony?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Anthony Cantin</a> on <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/s/photos/blue-sky?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash</a></em></p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Ben Werdm\u00fcller",
        "url": "https://werd.io/profile/benwerd",
        "photo": "https://werd.io/file/5d388c5fb16ea14aac640912/thumb.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "6902516",
    "_source": "191",
    "_is_read": true
}

Jonathan LaCour cleverdevil.io/profile/cleverdevil

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-11T22:29:38+00:00",
    "url": "https://cleverdevil.io/2019/hey-jack-id-like-to-nominate-aaronpk",
    "category": [
        "IndieWeb"
    ],
    "syndication": [
        "https://twitter.com/cleverdevil/status/1204891020665724932"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Hey, @jack, I\u2019d like to nominate @aaronpk and @t to lead @bluesky, perhaps with an assist from @benwerd. They\u2019ve got quite the head start with the #IndieWeb!\n\n\n By the way, I posted this via my own website... how decentralized of me!",
        "html": "Hey, @jack, I\u2019d like to nominate @aaronpk and @t to lead @bluesky, perhaps with an assist from @benwerd. They\u2019ve got quite the head start with the <a href=\"https://cleverdevil.io/tag/IndieWeb\" class=\"p-category\">#IndieWeb</a>!<br /><br />\n By the way, I posted this via my own website... how decentralized of me!"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jonathan LaCour",
        "url": "https://cleverdevil.io/profile/cleverdevil",
        "photo": "https://cleverdevil.io/file/fdbc7696a5f73864ea11a828c861e138/thumb.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "6902031",
    "_source": "71",
    "_is_read": true
}

Manton Reece www.manton.org

Twitter to decentralize… something

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Manton Reece",
        "url": "https://www.manton.org/",
        "photo": "https://micro.blog/manton/avatar.jpg"
    },
    "url": "https://www.manton.org/2019/12/11/twitter-to-decentralize.html",
    "name": "Twitter to decentralize\u2026 something",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>This morning, Jack Dorsey <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766078468911106\">dropped a bombshell</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n<p>Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I should be excited about this, but instead my first reaction was frustration. Ten years after early Twitter employees like Blaine Cook and Alex Payne were pushing for a more open architecture, <em>now</em> Jack Dorsey realizes Twitter is too big and creates a team to work on\u2026 <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766085037248512\">blockchain-based solutions</a>?</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n<p>Finally, new technologies have emerged to make a decentralized approach more viable. Blockchain points to a series of decentralized solutions for open and durable hosting, governance, and even monetization. Much work to be done, but the fundamentals are there.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The first step should be to check out <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/\">the IndieWeb</a>. There are people who have been thinking about and working toward more open social networks for years.</p>\n\n<p>After a closer reading of Jack\u2019s tweets, though, I think my first interpretation wasn\u2019t quite right. Twitter isn\u2019t necessarily interested in decentralizing <em>content</em> or even identity on their platform. Why would they be? Their business is based around having all your tweets in one place.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://twitter.com/jack/status/1204766082206011393\">Early in the thread</a>, Jack hints at what Twitter is trying to do:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n<p>First, we\u2019re facing entirely new challenges centralized solutions are struggling to meet. For instance, centralized enforcement of global policy to address abuse and misleading information is unlikely to scale over the long-term without placing far too much burden on people.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This \u201cburden on people\u201d is the resources it would take for Twitter to actively combat hate and abuse on their platform. Facebook, for example, has hired thousands of moderators. If Twitter is hoping to outsource curation to shared protocols, it should be <em>in addition to</em> \u2014\u00a0not a replacement for \u2014\u00a0the type of effort that Facebook is undertaking. I\u2019ve outlined a better approach in my posts on <a href=\"https://www.manton.org/2019/06/02/open-gardens.html\">open gardens</a> and <a href=\"https://manton.org/2018/09/07/the-way-out.html\">4 parts to fixing social networks</a>, which don\u2019t seem compatible with Twitter\u2019s current business.</p>\n\n<p>I\u2019m going to be paying close attention to this. Good luck to Jack and the new team. I hope they seriously look at existing standards, because we\u2019ve come too far to start over.</p>",
        "text": "This morning, Jack Dorsey dropped a bombshell:\n\n\nTwitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard.\n\n\nI should be excited about this, but instead my first reaction was frustration. Ten years after early Twitter employees like Blaine Cook and Alex Payne were pushing for a more open architecture, now Jack Dorsey realizes Twitter is too big and creates a team to work on\u2026 blockchain-based solutions?\n\n\nFinally, new technologies have emerged to make a decentralized approach more viable. Blockchain points to a series of decentralized solutions for open and durable hosting, governance, and even monetization. Much work to be done, but the fundamentals are there.\n\n\nThe first step should be to check out the IndieWeb. There are people who have been thinking about and working toward more open social networks for years.\n\nAfter a closer reading of Jack\u2019s tweets, though, I think my first interpretation wasn\u2019t quite right. Twitter isn\u2019t necessarily interested in decentralizing content or even identity on their platform. Why would they be? Their business is based around having all your tweets in one place.\n\nEarly in the thread, Jack hints at what Twitter is trying to do:\n\n\nFirst, we\u2019re facing entirely new challenges centralized solutions are struggling to meet. For instance, centralized enforcement of global policy to address abuse and misleading information is unlikely to scale over the long-term without placing far too much burden on people.\n\n\nThis \u201cburden on people\u201d is the resources it would take for Twitter to actively combat hate and abuse on their platform. Facebook, for example, has hired thousands of moderators. If Twitter is hoping to outsource curation to shared protocols, it should be in addition to \u2014\u00a0not a replacement for \u2014\u00a0the type of effort that Facebook is undertaking. I\u2019ve outlined a better approach in my posts on open gardens and 4 parts to fixing social networks, which don\u2019t seem compatible with Twitter\u2019s current business.\n\nI\u2019m going to be paying close attention to this. Good luck to Jack and the new team. I hope they seriously look at existing standards, because we\u2019ve come too far to start over."
    },
    "published": "2019-12-11T15:29:13-06:00",
    "category": [
        "Essays"
    ],
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "6900845",
    "_source": "12",
    "_is_read": true
}

gRegor Morrill gregorlove.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-11 11:58-0800",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2019/12/check-out-aaronpks-post/",
    "syndication": [
        "https://twitter.com/gRegorLove/status/1204853103004139528"
    ],
    "in-reply-to": [
        "https://twitter.com/niclake/status/1204844561723510785"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Check out @aaronpk's post about readers: https://aaronparecki.com/2018/04/20/46/indieweb-reader-my-new-home-on-the-internet\n\nI've been using Monocle and really enjoying it! More on https://indieweb.org/reader\n\ncc @Edw1nS1984",
        "html": "<p>Check out @aaronpk's post about readers: <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2018/04/20/46/indieweb-reader-my-new-home-on-the-internet\">https://aaronparecki.com/2018/04/20/46/indieweb-reader-my-new-home-on-the-internet</a></p>\n\n<p>I've been using Monocle and really enjoying it! More on <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/reader\">https://indieweb.org/reader</a></p>\n\n<p>cc @Edw1nS1984</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/3473/profile-2016-med.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "reply",
    "refs": {
        "https://twitter.com/niclake/status/1204844561723510785": {
            "type": "entry",
            "url": "https://twitter.com/niclake/status/1204844561723510785",
            "content": {
                "text": "I really miss having an RSS feed reader. I miss the days when that's how I would aggregate all my content. Maybe it's time to redownload NetNewsWire."
            },
            "author": {
                "type": "card",
                "name": "???St. Nicholas???",
                "url": false,
                "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/3540/f877dd2f3c6fdeaa6755579258d4d6615b31206b836613076e3854c2f9b8a263.jpg"
            },
            "post-type": "note"
        }
    },
    "_id": "6896983",
    "_source": "95",
    "_is_read": true
}

Jamie Tanna www.jvt.me

RSVP yes to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/indiewebcamp-london-2020-tickets-85763160923

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-11T20:00:47.591+01:00",
    "rsvp": "yes",
    "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2019/12/q7ov3/",
    "in-reply-to": [
        "https://www.eventbrite.com/e/indiewebcamp-london-2020-tickets-85763160923"
    ],
    "name": "RSVP yes to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/indiewebcamp-london-2020-tickets-85763160923",
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jamie Tanna",
        "url": "https://www.jvt.me",
        "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png"
    },
    "post-type": "rsvp",
    "_id": "6894638",
    "_source": "2169",
    "_is_read": true
}

IndieWeb Challenge Day 11

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2019-12-11T12:30:00+01:00",
    "url": "https://www.jeremycherfas.net/blog/indieweb-challenge-day-11",
    "name": "IndieWeb Challenge Day 11",
    "content": {
        "text": "A very, very small fix today.1\n\n\nThe formatting of footnotes had been driving me nuts, but not nuts enough to do anything about it. Until today. The marker is now where it ought to be, and the font size a smidgen smaller.\u00a0\u21a9",
        "html": "<p>A very, very small fix today.<a href=\"https://www.jeremycherfas.net/blog#fn:1\">1</a></p>\n\n<ol><li>\n<p>The formatting of footnotes had been driving me nuts, but not nuts enough to do anything about it. Until today. The marker is now where it ought to be, and the font size a smidgen smaller.\u00a0<a href=\"https://www.jeremycherfas.net/blog#fnref1:1\">\u21a9</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jeremy Cherfas",
        "url": "https://jeremycherfas.net",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "6882918",
    "_source": "202",
    "_is_read": true
}