After 10+ years of building my personal website with Jekyll, I took the leap and wrote my own static site generator based on makesite.py. It's great to work in the Python ecosystem now. I never got the hang of proper Gem-management, so updating Jekyll was always a bit of a chore. I also updated the design, following the guidelines from https://brutalist-web.design/ by @davetron5000.
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@jd7h",
"url": "https://fosstodon.org/@jd7h",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://fosstodon.org/@jd7h/110926595581240702",
"content": {
"html": "<p>After 10+ years of building my personal website with Jekyll, I took the leap and wrote my own static site generator based on makesite.py. It's great to work in the Python ecosystem now. I never got the hang of proper Gem-management, so updating Jekyll was always a bit of a chore. <br />I also updated the design, following the guidelines from <a href=\"https://brutalist-web.design/\"><span>https://</span><span>brutalist-web.design/</span><span></span></a> by <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://ruby.social/@davetron5000\">@<span>davetron5000</span></a></span>.</p><p>Result: <a href=\"https://www.judithvanstegeren.com\"><span>https://www.</span><span>judithvanstegeren.com</span><span></span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://fosstodon.org/tags/brutalism\">#<span>brutalism</span></a> <a href=\"https://fosstodon.org/tags/webdesign\">#<span>webdesign</span></a> <a href=\"https://fosstodon.org/tags/staticsitegenerator\">#<span>staticsitegenerator</span></a> <a href=\"https://fosstodon.org/tags/jamstack\">#<span>jamstack</span></a> <a href=\"https://fosstodon.org/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://fosstodon.org/tags/python\">#<span>python</span></a></p>",
"text": "After 10+ years of building my personal website with Jekyll, I took the leap and wrote my own static site generator based on makesite.py. It's great to work in the Python ecosystem now. I never got the hang of proper Gem-management, so updating Jekyll was always a bit of a chore. \nI also updated the design, following the guidelines from https://brutalist-web.design/ by @davetron5000.Result: https://www.judithvanstegeren.com#brutalism #webdesign #staticsitegenerator #jamstack #indieweb #python"
},
"published": "2023-08-21T08:12:03+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38699589",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
Yesterday I polished the look of the Writing Slowly website by switching to Matt Langford’s Tiny theme, and adding some font and colour-scheme customisation of my own. So long as you’re not alergic to CSS, Micro.blog makes this very easy to do. Anyway, dear reader, I hope you like it. #WebDesign #Indieweb ... writingslowly.com
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "Writing Slowly",
"url": "http://www.writingslowly.com",
"photo": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2022/4028.jpg"
},
"url": "https://writingslowly.com/2023/08/20/yesterday-i-polished.html",
"content": {
"html": "Yesterday I polished the look of the Writing Slowly website by switching to Matt Langford\u2019s Tiny theme, and adding some font and colour-scheme customisation of my own. So long as you\u2019re not alergic to CSS, Micro.blog makes this very easy to do. Anyway, dear reader, I hope you like it. #WebDesign #Indieweb ... <a href=\"https://writingslowly.com/2023/08/20/yesterday-i-polished.html\">writingslowly.com</a>",
"text": "Yesterday I polished the look of the Writing Slowly website by switching to Matt Langford\u2019s Tiny theme, and adding some font and colour-scheme customisation of my own. So long as you\u2019re not alergic to CSS, Micro.blog makes this very easy to do. Anyway, dear reader, I hope you like it. #WebDesign #Indieweb ... writingslowly.com"
},
"published": "2023-08-19T23:57:03+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38698528",
"_source": "7224",
"_is_read": false
}
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@tchambers",
"url": "https://indieweb.social/@tchambers",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://indieweb.social/@tchambers/110924388897819289",
"content": {
"html": "<p>A key lesson from the <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a>: if you don\u2019t self-host, and this includes the Fediverse, you\u2019re content is at THEIR mercy.</p><p><a href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/?sh=75cbb02878fe\"><span>https://www.</span><span>forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/202</span><span>3/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/?sh=75cbb02878fe</span></a></p>",
"text": "A key lesson from the #indieweb: if you don\u2019t self-host, and this includes the Fediverse, you\u2019re content is at THEIR mercy.https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/?sh=75cbb02878fe"
},
"published": "2023-08-20T22:50:52+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38697416",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
You will be able to repost from other Betulae and compatible websites in 1.1. You can repost posts hosted by any version of Betula. However, post descriptions only from Betula 1.1+ will be fetched. Else, no description.
What websites other than Betula are compatible? Those that implement the needed microformats. For example, Quill implements it, so you can repost Aaron Parecki's bookmarks: https://aaronparecki.com/bookmarks
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@betula",
"url": "https://fosstodon.org/@betula",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://fosstodon.org/@betula/110924015714222908",
"content": {
"html": "<p>Development news! Reposts!</p><p>You will be able to repost from other Betulae and compatible websites in 1.1. You can repost posts hosted by any version of Betula. However, post descriptions only from Betula 1.1+ will be fetched. Else, no description.</p><p>What websites other than Betula are compatible? Those that implement the needed microformats. For example, Quill implements it, so you can repost Aaron Parecki's bookmarks: <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/bookmarks\"><span>https://</span><span>aaronparecki.com/bookmarks</span><span></span></a></p><p>No more copy-pasting from friends!</p><p><a href=\"https://fosstodon.org/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a></p>",
"text": "Development news! Reposts!You will be able to repost from other Betulae and compatible websites in 1.1. You can repost posts hosted by any version of Betula. However, post descriptions only from Betula 1.1+ will be fetched. Else, no description.What websites other than Betula are compatible? Those that implement the needed microformats. For example, Quill implements it, so you can repost Aaron Parecki's bookmarks: https://aaronparecki.com/bookmarksNo more copy-pasting from friends!#IndieWeb"
},
"published": "2023-08-20T21:15:57+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38696876",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2023-08-20T13:27:25-0400",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2023/08/20/132725/",
"syndication": [
"https://fed.brid.gy/"
],
"content": {
"text": "A plethora of in-person planning, and t.co is no-go. It\u2019s your < 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!\nThis Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for August 12th - 18th, 2023.\nhttps://martymcgui.re/2023/08/20/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--august-12th---18th-2023/",
"html": "<p>A plethora of in-person planning, and t.co is no-go. It\u2019s your < 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!</p>\n<p>This Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for August 12th - 18th, 2023.\n<a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2023/08/20/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--august-12th---18th-2023/\">https://martymcgui.re/2023/08/20/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--august-12th---18th-2023/</a></p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Marty McGuire",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
"photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38696640",
"_source": "175",
"_is_read": false
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2023-08-20T13:25:31-0400",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2023/08/20/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--august-12th---18th-2023/",
"category": [
"podcast",
"IndieWeb",
"this-week-indieweb-podcast"
],
"audio": [
"https://media.martymcgui.re/46/c4/22/63/7951c60d46898e67a1ddfbf2d95af9c4652fdccc43a16d8c7f2388db.mp3"
],
"name": "This Week in the IndieWeb Audio Edition \u2022 August 12th - 18th, 2023",
"content": {
"text": "Show/Hide Transcript\n \n A plethora of in-person planning, and t.co is no-go. It\u2019s the audio edition for This Week in the IndieWeb for August 12th - 18th, 2023.\nYou can find all of my audio editions and subscribe with your favorite podcast app here: martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/.\nMusic from Aaron Parecki\u2019s 100DaysOfMusic project: Day 85 - Suit, Day 48 - Glitch, Day 49 - Floating, Day 9, and Day 11\nThanks to everyone in the IndieWeb chat for their feedback and suggestions. Please drop me a note if there are any changes you\u2019d like to see for this audio edition!",
"html": "Show/Hide Transcript\n \n <p>A plethora of in-person planning, and t.co is no-go. It\u2019s the audio edition for <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/this-week/2023-08-18.html\">This Week in the IndieWeb for August 12th - 18th, 2023</a>.</p>\n<p>You can find all of my audio editions and subscribe with your favorite podcast app here: <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/\">martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/</a>.</p>\n<p>Music from <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/\">Aaron Parecki</a>\u2019s <a href=\"https://100.aaronparecki.com/\">100DaysOfMusic project</a>: <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/03/15/14/day85\">Day 85 - Suit</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/02/06/7/day48\">Day 48 - Glitch</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/02/07/4/day49\">Day 49 - Floating</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2016/12/29/21/day-9\">Day 9</a>, and <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2016/12/31/15/\">Day 11</a></p>\n<p>Thanks to everyone in the <a href=\"https://chat.indieweb.org/\">IndieWeb chat</a> for their feedback and suggestions. Please drop me a note if there are any changes you\u2019d like to see for this audio edition!</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Marty McGuire",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
"photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "audio",
"_id": "38696641",
"_source": "175",
"_is_read": false
}
@forteller I also had problems with Mastodon sign-up, possibly due to my #SpamGourmet email address or my 72 character, high entropy password. Either way my mastodon.technology account never worked.
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@mcrocker",
"url": "https://indieweb.social/@mcrocker",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://indieweb.social/@mcrocker/110923084112673840",
"content": {
"html": "<p><span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://octodon.social/@forteller\">@<span>forteller</span></a></span> I also had problems with Mastodon sign-up, possibly due to my <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/SpamGourmet\">#<span>SpamGourmet</span></a> email address or my 72 character, high entropy password. Either way my mastodon.technology account never worked. </p><p>See: <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/@mcrocker/109332738993329060\"><span>https://</span><span>indieweb.social/@mcrocker/1093</span><span>32738993329060</span></a></p><p>I've been happy with <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/indieWeb\">#<span>indieWeb</span></a> social, <a href=\"https://indieweb.social\"><span>https://</span><span>indieweb.social</span><span></span></a> , since I moved there, but I used a <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/tags/DDG\">#<span>DDG</span></a> email, <a href=\"https://duckduckgo.com/email\"><span>https://</span><span>duckduckgo.com/email</span><span></span></a>, and a (high entropy) password Mastodon can handle, for my account login.</p><p>Cc: <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://indieweb.social/@tchambers\">@<span>tchambers</span></a></span></p>",
"text": "@forteller I also had problems with Mastodon sign-up, possibly due to my #SpamGourmet email address or my 72 character, high entropy password. Either way my mastodon.technology account never worked. See: https://indieweb.social/@mcrocker/109332738993329060I've been happy with #indieWeb social, https://indieweb.social , since I moved there, but I used a #DDG email, https://duckduckgo.com/email, and a (high entropy) password Mastodon can handle, for my account login.Cc: @tchambers"
},
"published": "2023-08-20T17:19:02+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38694371",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
#Tweet RT @soulcruzer: it's things like this that explain why you should have your own blog, run from your own domain, and syndicate it out to social media sites instead of using them natively. #indieweb
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@Mndell",
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@Mndell",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@Mndell/110922859879000640",
"content": {
"html": "<p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Tweet\">#<span>Tweet</span></a> RT <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://mastodon.social/@soulcruzer\">@<span>soulcruzer</span></a></span>: it's things like this that explain why you should have your own blog, run from your own domain, and syndicate it out to social media sites instead of using them natively. <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> </p><p>Twitter Deletes All User Photos And Links From 2\u2026 <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mndell/status/1693153510227919252\"><span>https://</span><span>twitter.com/mndell/status/1693</span><span>153510227919252</span></a></p>",
"text": "#Tweet RT @soulcruzer: it's things like this that explain why you should have your own blog, run from your own domain, and syndicate it out to social media sites instead of using them natively. #indieweb Twitter Deletes All User Photos And Links From 2\u2026 https://twitter.com/mndell/status/1693153510227919252"
},
"published": "2023-08-20T16:22:01+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38694007",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
it's things like this that explain why you should have your own blog, run from your own domain, and syndicate it out to social media sites instead of using them natively. #indieweb
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@soulcruzer",
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@soulcruzer",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@soulcruzer/110920537012830052",
"content": {
"html": "<p>it's things like this that explain why you should have your own blog, run from your own domain, and syndicate it out to social media sites instead of using them natively. <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> </p><p>Twitter Deletes All User Photos And Links From 2011-2014 <a href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/\"><span>https://www.</span><span>forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/202</span><span>3/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/</span></a></p>",
"text": "it's things like this that explain why you should have your own blog, run from your own domain, and syndicate it out to social media sites instead of using them natively. #indieweb Twitter Deletes All User Photos And Links From 2011-2014 https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/08/19/twitter-deletes-all-user-photos-and-links-from-2011-2014/"
},
"published": "2023-08-20T06:31:16+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38691200",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@phil",
"url": "https://wrestling.social/@phil",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://wrestling.social/@phil/110919056662687039",
"content": {
"html": "<p>Starting off <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://wrestling.social/@retrostrange\">@<span>retrostrange</span></a></span> Movie Night early with some Vincent Price infomercial magic <a href=\"https://live.retrostrange.com\"><span>https://</span><span>live.retrostrange.com</span><span></span></a> <a href=\"https://wrestling.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> <a href=\"https://wrestling.social/tags/Streaming\">#<span>Streaming</span></a> <a href=\"https://wrestling.social/tags/Retro\">#<span>Retro</span></a></p>",
"text": "Starting off @retrostrange Movie Night early with some Vincent Price infomercial magic https://live.retrostrange.com #IndieWeb #Streaming #Retro"
},
"published": "2023-08-20T00:14:48+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38690320",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
I started what I hope will be a series of posts describing my experiences taking over maintenance and development of a custom Learning Management System (LMS). Hopefully by making it public and attracting a couple followers, I will be more likely to actually make it a series and not just another one-off attempt at "I'm really going to start blogging this time"
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@hazybluedot",
"url": "https://scholar.social/@hazybluedot",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://scholar.social/@hazybluedot/110918220207869176",
"content": {
"html": "<p>I started what I hope will be a series of posts describing my experiences taking over maintenance and development of a custom Learning Management System (LMS). Hopefully by making it public and attracting a couple followers, I will be more likely to actually make it a series and not just another one-off attempt at \"I'm really going to start blogging this time\"</p><p><a href=\"https://www.hazyblue.me/2023/maintaining-and-updating-a-custom-learning-management-system-introduction\"><span>https://www.</span><span>hazyblue.me/2023/maintaining-a</span><span>nd-updating-a-custom-learning-management-system-introduction</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://scholar.social/tags/indieweb\">#<span>indieweb</span></a> <a href=\"https://scholar.social/tags/lms\">#<span>lms</span></a> <a href=\"https://scholar.social/tags/php\">#<span>php</span></a> <a href=\"https://scholar.social/tags/webdevelopment\">#<span>webdevelopment</span></a> <a href=\"https://scholar.social/tags/highered\">#<span>highered</span></a></p>",
"text": "I started what I hope will be a series of posts describing my experiences taking over maintenance and development of a custom Learning Management System (LMS). Hopefully by making it public and attracting a couple followers, I will be more likely to actually make it a series and not just another one-off attempt at \"I'm really going to start blogging this time\"https://www.hazyblue.me/2023/maintaining-and-updating-a-custom-learning-management-system-introduction#indieweb #lms #php #webdevelopment #highered"
},
"published": "2023-08-19T20:42:05+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38689267",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@brentlineberry",
"url": "https://mastodon.online/@brentlineberry",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://mastodon.online/@brentlineberry/110911376584588140",
"content": {
"html": "<p>I have spent the past couple of weeks fixated on implementing <a href=\"https://mastodon.online/tags/Webmentions\">#<span>Webmentions</span></a> on this website, and I have finally deployed the feature! (I think)</p><p><a href=\"https://orangegnome.com/posts/2482/webmentions-maybe\"><span>https://</span><span>orangegnome.com/posts/2482/web</span><span>mentions-maybe</span></a></p><p><a href=\"https://mastodon.online/tags/Django\">#<span>Django</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.online/tags/Indieweb\">#<span>Indieweb</span></a></p>",
"text": "I have spent the past couple of weeks fixated on implementing #Webmentions on this website, and I have finally deployed the feature! (I think)https://orangegnome.com/posts/2482/webmentions-maybe#Django #Indieweb"
},
"published": "2023-08-18T15:41:39+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38680132",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2023-08-18T16:12:08+00:00",
"url": "https://werd.io/2023/my-taylor-swift-eras",
"name": "My Taylor Swift eras",
"content": {
"text": "It\u2019s fun to think of the work I\u2019ve done in terms of Taylor Swift style eras. Hey, I might not have the musical talent, good looks, or legions of fans, but the work I\u2019ve done has required a series of overlapping re-inventions.So, why not. In roughly reverse-chronological order, here are my Taylor Swift eras; what are yours?Super-serious journalism supporter.Distinctive look: open button-down shirt\nDistinctive food: Austin-style breakfast taco\nDistinctive activity: karaokeI got into media through a lucky encounter with the founders of what became Latakoo, who attended a talk I gave about user-centered social network design at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School in 2009. We collectively designed Latakoo to be an easy way for broadcast journalists to get their footage back to their newsrooms using commodity internet connections, in the video format the newsroom needed. It\u2019s the way organizations like NBC News send much of their recorded video today.I was the first CTO at The 19th, a non-profit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, and policy, and was an active participant in its Senior Leadership Team across all areas of organizational strategy. I\u2019ve also contracted with other non-profit newsrooms to provide tech leadership support.At Matter, I invested in media startups \u2014 but the cool thing about Matter\u2019s fund structure was that the LPs were all media organizations like PRX, KQED, the Knight Foundation, the New York Times, the Associated Press, McClatchy, Tamedia, CNHI, and, yes, tronc. I got to regularly meet with teams from those organizations and (as part of the Matter team) help them through innovation problems they were encountering using a design thinking led approach. I also got to participate in their own internal innovation processes, like giving feedback as part of the KQED Lab internal accelerator.Startup bro.Distinctive look: branded hoodie over a t-shirt that was also branded; socks were also often branded; third wave coffee mug also featured logo\nDistinctive food: kombucha on tap and espresso using the imported Italian machine\nDistinctive activity: offsitesI was the Head of Engineering at ForUsAll, which was my only foray into fintech. I was drawn to it because of its original mission to help increase access to retirement savings for more people. There was a lot of pressure to raise subsequent rounds of funding, and a major culture shift as the in-person company moved to a remote-first company during the pandemic. This allowed me to hire people I ordinarily never could have, in every US timezone.I was also a Senior Engineer at Medium on its publications team. It was my first experience working at a company that had, frankly, so much money, sometimes alongside people I\u2019d been following for years. I got to work alongside people who had previously built fundamental tools like Gmail as well as core pieces of web technology. The change in context meant I started off terrified: everyone was so completely on top of their respective games, and I had the biggest imposter syndrome of my life. It was also, for reasons I still don\u2019t completely understand, the most fashionably stylish team I\u2019d ever worked with.Open source utopian.Distinctive look: the jeans-tshirt-and-blazer look, because we were trying to look fancy and legitimate\nDistinctive food: pok\u00e9, for some reason\nDistinctive activity: long, long walks, sometimes to save money on transit faresI worked with Julien Genestoux on his Unlock Protocol: a way to help independent creators make money on their own terms without a middleman. Fully open source and decentralized, the protocol has taken advantage of various blockchains as they\u2019ve become available, allowing the protocol to become as fast and cost effective as possible. Julien and I are both open-web-first evangelists, and this attitude shows through in the project.With Erin Richey, I built Known: a kind of social news feed that you host yourself. Any number of people can publish to a Known feed (my site is a news feed of one, but some have had hundreds or thousands). We built an award-winning site with KQED and people around the world are still using it to power their websites. For a while, Known allowed you to directly syndicate your content to third-party websites, which saw us get coverage in Wired, among other places.With Dave Tosh, I built Elgg: an open source social networking platform that was used by the Canadian national government, Fortune 500 companies, and organizations like Greenpeace and Oxfam. It was, in retrospect, one of the first private social networks and social intranets. We built the first social network ever run at a university, and I\u2019m particularly proud of the social movements that used it. For example, the Spanish Movimiento 15-M anti-austerity movement used Elgg to organize. We also built the first open data definition for social networks, which helped inform the subsequent design of ActivityPub.Institutional web developer.Distinctive look: ironed shirt and trousers\nDistinctive food: university canteen food (I was kicked out of the Edinburgh MALTS canteen after hacking the menu)\nDistinctive activity: inventing acronyms for thingsI ran the web properties at Oxford University\u2019s Sa\u00efd Business School. The coolest thing about this job was getting to know the faculty and students; it wasn\u2019t long before they realized that I knew a lot more about startups and web tech than a random guy in an IT department probably should. I ended up meeting visiting dignitaries and participating in MBA round-tables. They were very kind to me, and in turn, I believe I pushed the IT department forward in its relationship to the web.And first, perhaps most improbably, I ran the web properties for what is now the St Leonard\u2019s Land Pool at the University of Edinburgh: an Olympic-sized swimming pool set up with underwater cameras to analyze and improve the strokes and techniques of elite athletes. I started being loaned out to the Edinburgh University Media and Learning Technology Service, which is where I met Dave and started cooking up Elgg.Proto-nerd.Distinctive look: baggy sweatshirt, jeans, oversized glasses, leather jacket for some reason\nDistinctive food: chips\nDistinctive activity: putting 486 computers togetherI helped build the first website for Daily Information, a local one-sheet newspaper for Oxford that included classified ads (it was possibly the first classified ad website in the world, pre-dating Craigslist) and reviews for local restaurants, movies, gigs, and theater. Before it became a website, I came on as its first BBS SysOp \u2014 my first ever job.I ran a hypertext magazine called Spire, which I built in Windows Help Format because its capabilities at the time outstripped HTML. (We did move to the web later on.) I got to interview celebrities-to-me like Roger Ebert and Nicholas Negroponte. Distribution was via BBS initially, and then we started to be carried on the cover CDs of more professional print computer magazines (something I achieved by faxing them all in turn with a proposal, which blows my mind now). I was 15.And I ran Rum and Monkey, a website that regularly got millions of pageviews a day and taught me all about social virality (this was 2002). I\u2019ve written extensively about that over here.",
"html": "<p>It\u2019s fun to think of the work I\u2019ve done in terms of <a href=\"https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/every-taylor-swift-album-era-style\">Taylor Swift style eras</a>. Hey, I might not have the musical talent, good looks, or legions of fans, but the work I\u2019ve done has required a series of overlapping re-inventions.</p><p>So, why not. In roughly reverse-chronological order, here are my Taylor Swift eras; what are yours?</p><p><strong>Super-serious journalism supporter.</strong></p><p><em><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"https://werd.io/file/64df95971c7f4b8328022a02\" alt=\"Ben Werdmuller in his super-serious journalism era\" width=\"325\" height=\"434\" />Distinctive look: open button-down shirt</em><br /><em>Distinctive food: Austin-style breakfast taco</em><br /><em>Distinctive activity: karaoke</em></p><p>I got into media through a lucky encounter with the founders of what became <a href=\"https://latakoo.com\">Latakoo</a>, who attended a talk I gave about user-centered social network design at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School in 2009. We collectively designed Latakoo to be an easy way for broadcast journalists to get their footage back to their newsrooms using commodity internet connections, in the video format the newsroom needed. It\u2019s the way organizations like NBC News send much of their recorded video today.</p><p>I was the first CTO at <a href=\"https://19thnews.org\">The 19th</a>, a non-profit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, and policy, and was an active participant in its Senior Leadership Team across all areas of organizational strategy. I\u2019ve also contracted with other non-profit newsrooms to provide tech leadership support.</p><p>At <a href=\"https://medium.com/matter-driven-narrative\">Matter</a>, I invested in media startups \u2014 but the cool thing about Matter\u2019s fund structure was that the LPs were all media organizations like PRX, KQED, the Knight Foundation, the New York Times, the Associated Press, McClatchy, Tamedia, CNHI, and, yes, <a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/18/17476412/tronc-tribune-publishing-name-change-la-times-sale\">tronc</a>. I got to regularly meet with teams from those organizations and (as part of the Matter team) help them through innovation problems they were encountering using a design thinking led approach. I also got to participate in their own internal innovation processes, like giving feedback as part of the <a href=\"https://www.niemanlab.org/2016/10/kqed-is-encouraging-entrepreneurship-and-innovation-with-an-in-house-incubator/\">KQED Lab</a> internal accelerator.</p><p><strong>Startup bro.</strong></p><p><em><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"https://werd.io/file/64df9649f4f92eb8b801eb22\" alt=\"Ben Werdmuller in his startup bro era\" width=\"325\" height=\"432\" />Distinctive look: branded hoodie over a t-shirt that was also branded; socks were also often branded; third wave coffee mug also featured logo</em><br /><em>Distinctive food: kombucha on tap and espresso using the imported Italian machine</em><br /><em>Distinctive activity: offsites</em></p><p>I was the Head of Engineering at <a href=\"https://forusall.com\">ForUsAll</a>, which was my only foray into fintech. I was drawn to it because of its original mission to help increase access to retirement savings for more people. There was a lot of pressure to raise subsequent rounds of funding, and a major culture shift as the in-person company moved to a remote-first company during the pandemic. This allowed me to hire people I ordinarily never could have, in every US timezone.</p><p>I was also a Senior Engineer at <a href=\"https://medium.com\">Medium</a> on its publications team. It was my first experience working at a company that had, frankly, so much money, sometimes alongside people I\u2019d been following for years. I got to work alongside people who had previously built fundamental tools like Gmail as well as core pieces of web technology. The change in context meant I started off <em>terrified</em>: everyone was so completely on top of their respective games, and I had the biggest imposter syndrome of my life. It was also, for reasons I still don\u2019t <em>completely</em> understand, the most fashionably stylish team I\u2019d ever worked with.</p><p><strong>Open source utopian.</strong></p><p><em><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"https://werd.io/file/64df96fe33a8b0c25a0afb52\" alt=\"\" width=\"325\" height=\"216\" />Distinctive look: the jeans-tshirt-and-blazer look, because we were trying to look fancy and legitimate</em><br /><em>Distinctive food: pok\u00e9, for some reason</em><br /><em>Distinctive activity: long, long walks, sometimes to save money on transit fares</em></p><p>I worked with Julien Genestoux on his <a href=\"https://unlock-protocol.com\">Unlock Protocol</a>: a way to help independent creators make money on their own terms without a middleman. Fully open source and decentralized, the protocol has taken advantage of various blockchains as they\u2019ve become available, allowing the protocol to become as fast and cost effective as possible. Julien and I are both open-web-first evangelists, and this attitude shows through in the project.</p><p>With Erin Richey, I built <a href=\"https://withknown.com\">Known</a>: a kind of social news feed that you host yourself. Any number of people can publish to a Known feed (<a href=\"https://werd.io\">my site</a> is a news feed of one, but some have had hundreds or thousands). We built <a href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pressroom/9726/namle\">an award-winning site with KQED</a> and people around the world are still using it to power their websites. For a while, Known allowed you to directly syndicate your content to third-party websites, which saw us <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/2014/09/known/\">get coverage in Wired, among other places</a>.</p><p>With Dave Tosh, I built <a href=\"https://elgg.org\">Elgg</a>: an open source social networking platform that was used by the Canadian national government, Fortune 500 companies, and organizations like Greenpeace and Oxfam. It was, in retrospect, one of the first private social networks and social intranets. We built the first social network ever run at a university, and I\u2019m <em>particularly</em> proud of the social movements that used it. For example, the Spanish Movimiento 15-M anti-austerity movement used Elgg to organize. We also built the first open data definition for social networks, which helped inform the subsequent design of ActivityPub.</p><p><strong>Institutional web developer.</strong></p><p><em><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"https://werd.io/file/64df978949817465170a2462\" alt=\"\" width=\"325\" height=\"433\" />Distinctive look: ironed shirt and trousers</em><br /><em>Distinctive food: university canteen food (I was kicked out of the Edinburgh MALTS canteen after hacking the menu)</em><br /><em>Distinctive activity: inventing acronyms for things</em></p><p>I ran the web properties at <a href=\"https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/\">Oxford University\u2019s Sa\u00efd Business School</a>. The coolest thing about this job was getting to know the faculty and students; it wasn\u2019t long before they realized that I knew a lot more about startups and web tech than a random guy in an IT department probably should. I ended up meeting visiting dignitaries and participating in MBA round-tables. They were very kind to me, and in turn, I believe I pushed the IT department forward in its relationship to the web.</p><p>And first, perhaps most improbably, I ran the web properties for what is now the <a href=\"https://www.ed.ac.uk/sport-exercise/swimming\">St Leonard\u2019s Land Pool</a> at the University of Edinburgh: an Olympic-sized swimming pool set up with underwater cameras to analyze and improve the strokes and techniques of elite athletes. I started being loaned out to the Edinburgh University <a href=\"https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology\">Media and Learning Technology Service</a>, which is where I met Dave and started cooking up Elgg.</p><p><strong>Proto-nerd.</strong></p><p><em><img style=\"float:right;\" src=\"https://werd.io/file/64df983904f1a168ef0c5d22\" alt=\"\" width=\"325\" height=\"367\" />Distinctive look: baggy sweatshirt, jeans, oversized glasses, leather jacket for some reason</em><br /><em>Distinctive food: chips</em><br /><em>Distinctive activity: putting 486 computers together</em></p><p>I helped build the first website for <a href=\"https://dailyinfo.co.uk/\">Daily Information</a>, a local one-sheet newspaper for Oxford that included classified ads (it was possibly the first classified ad website in the world, pre-dating Craigslist) and reviews for local restaurants, movies, gigs, and theater. Before it became a website, I came on as <a href=\"https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/sysop-age-bbs\">its first BBS SysOp</a> \u2014 my first ever job.</p><p>I ran a hypertext magazine called Spire, which I built in Windows Help Format because its capabilities at the time outstripped HTML. (We did move to the web later on.) I got to interview celebrities-to-me like Roger Ebert and Nicholas Negroponte. Distribution was via BBS initially, and then we started to be carried on the cover CDs of more professional print computer magazines (something I achieved by <em>faxing them all in turn with a proposal</em>, which blows my mind now). I was 15.</p><p>And I ran Rum and Monkey, a website that regularly got millions of pageviews a day and taught me all about social virality (this was 2002). I\u2019ve written extensively about that <a href=\"https://words.werd.io/we-are-the-monkeys-of-rum-70f81d4a02df\">over here</a>.</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Ben Werdmuller",
"url": "https://werd.io/profile/benwerd",
"photo": "https://werd.io/file/5d388c5fb16ea14aac640912/thumb.jpg"
},
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "38680059",
"_source": "191",
"_is_read": false
}
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "Manton Reece",
"url": "https://www.manton.org/",
"photo": "https://micro.blog/manton/avatar.jpg"
},
"url": "https://www.manton.org/2023/08/18/glass-questions-at.html",
"name": "Glass questions at 2 years",
"content": {
"html": "<p>Two years ago this week, Glass launched for iPhone. I had subscribed right away because I wanted to support their work and saw potential in it, even if I will always default to posting <a href=\"https://www.manton.org/photos/\">photos to my own blog first</a>. Since then, Glass has added an Android version and a web version, along with other improvements like tags and appreciations.</p>\n<p>Not long after Glass launched, we added special support in the Micro.blog iOS app for it. You can see <a href=\"https://www.manton.org/2021/08/16/microblog-with-sharing.html\">a video of how it works in my blog post here</a>. Unfortunately in the rewrite for Micro.blog 3.0, we had to temporarily remove the feature, although it\u2019s slated to come back in version 3.3.</p>\n<p>In that post about supporting Glass in 2021, I wrote:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Glass is so new that it remains to be seen where the app will go, and how it might expand in the future. It shares some of the same principles as Micro.blog \u2014 no ads, no algorithms, no likes \u2014 but Glass lacks important open web features like domain names and IndieWeb APIs.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Glass still lacks those features for the open web. After a couple years, if having an open API was at all on the radar, it probably would have happened by now in some form. The founders seem more interested in creating an Instagram alternative \u2014\u00a0another silo without an API or federation with other networks. And in 2023, I don\u2019t think that works.</p>\n<p>There is now mainstream pushback against big centralized platforms. We have Micro.blog and Mastodon. We have free photo platforms like Pixelfed. It is a harder sell for customers to spend $5/month for a photo service that is mostly disconnected from the rest of the social web.</p>\n<p>I was thinking about Glass while looking into their export format, in case we wanted to support importing it into Micro.blog. I don\u2019t plan to cancel my subscription, but I would not be surprised if many Glass customers have slipped away. The latest big announcement from Glass \u2014 an optional $99/year <a href=\"https://glass.photo/highlights/introducing-patron\">Patron membership</a> \u2014 is geared toward increasing revenue from <em>existing customers</em> rather than growing the customer base.</p>\n<p>We\u2019ve been running Micro.blog for 6 years. I know how hard it is to balance marketing to new subscribers, keeping churn down, and offering new features regularly, including upgrades to higher subscription tiers. We barely have it figured out now and we were certainly a long way off after only 2 years. The default for SaaS platforms is <a href=\"https://businessofsoftware.org/talk/how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/\">the slow ramp of death</a>.</p>\n<p>There are effectively no success stories for Glass\u2019s current business model. Small clones of Instagram and Twitter usually fail. To break out, there has to be something fundamentally different. For Micro.blog, the answer is simple: we are a social network but our business is blog hosting, a proven model. For Glass, the answer is less clear: they care deeply about photography, community, and design. I think the founders deserve a lot of credit for creating something beautiful. Is that enough?</p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know what the right model is for Glass, but I\u2019m confident that it should include a strong foundation for open web standards. I hope that can be part of their vision. It might even be critical to the future success of the service.</p>",
"text": "Two years ago this week, Glass launched for iPhone. I had subscribed right away because I wanted to support their work and saw potential in it, even if I will always default to posting photos to my own blog first. Since then, Glass has added an Android version and a web version, along with other improvements like tags and appreciations.\nNot long after Glass launched, we added special support in the Micro.blog iOS app for it. You can see a video of how it works in my blog post here. Unfortunately in the rewrite for Micro.blog 3.0, we had to temporarily remove the feature, although it\u2019s slated to come back in version 3.3.\nIn that post about supporting Glass in 2021, I wrote:\n\nGlass is so new that it remains to be seen where the app will go, and how it might expand in the future. It shares some of the same principles as Micro.blog \u2014 no ads, no algorithms, no likes \u2014 but Glass lacks important open web features like domain names and IndieWeb APIs.\n\nGlass still lacks those features for the open web. After a couple years, if having an open API was at all on the radar, it probably would have happened by now in some form. The founders seem more interested in creating an Instagram alternative \u2014\u00a0another silo without an API or federation with other networks. And in 2023, I don\u2019t think that works.\nThere is now mainstream pushback against big centralized platforms. We have Micro.blog and Mastodon. We have free photo platforms like Pixelfed. It is a harder sell for customers to spend $5/month for a photo service that is mostly disconnected from the rest of the social web.\nI was thinking about Glass while looking into their export format, in case we wanted to support importing it into Micro.blog. I don\u2019t plan to cancel my subscription, but I would not be surprised if many Glass customers have slipped away. The latest big announcement from Glass \u2014 an optional $99/year Patron membership \u2014 is geared toward increasing revenue from existing customers rather than growing the customer base.\nWe\u2019ve been running Micro.blog for 6 years. I know how hard it is to balance marketing to new subscribers, keeping churn down, and offering new features regularly, including upgrades to higher subscription tiers. We barely have it figured out now and we were certainly a long way off after only 2 years. The default for SaaS platforms is the slow ramp of death.\nThere are effectively no success stories for Glass\u2019s current business model. Small clones of Instagram and Twitter usually fail. To break out, there has to be something fundamentally different. For Micro.blog, the answer is simple: we are a social network but our business is blog hosting, a proven model. For Glass, the answer is less clear: they care deeply about photography, community, and design. I think the founders deserve a lot of credit for creating something beautiful. Is that enough?\nI don\u2019t know what the right model is for Glass, but I\u2019m confident that it should include a strong foundation for open web standards. I hope that can be part of their vision. It might even be critical to the future success of the service."
},
"published": "2023-08-18T09:03:34-05:00",
"category": [
"Essays"
],
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "38679413",
"_source": "12",
"_is_read": false
}
Updated my personal #portfolio with a new contact session and a few more sprinkles of the #IndieWeb: added h-card information, more rel="me" links and added my site to a web ring! 🥰
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@Kovah",
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@Kovah",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@Kovah/110910741510352793",
"content": {
"html": "<p>Updated my personal <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/portfolio\">#<span>portfolio</span></a> with a new contact session and a few more sprinkles of the <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a>: added h-card information, more rel=\"me\" links and added my site to a web ring! \ud83e\udd70</p><p>Go have a look: <a href=\"https://kovah.de/\"><span>https://</span><span>kovah.de/</span><span></span></a></p>",
"text": "Updated my personal #portfolio with a new contact session and a few more sprinkles of the #IndieWeb: added h-card information, more rel=\"me\" links and added my site to a web ring! \ud83e\udd70Go have a look: https://kovah.de/"
},
"published": "2023-08-18T13:00:09+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38678051",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
If you could pick the brains of the smartest people in the web industry on the topic of building and maintaining your own personal website and publishing your work online – what would you ask them?
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@matthiasott",
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@matthiasott",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@matthiasott/110910405421330013",
"content": {
"html": "<p>If you could pick the brains of the smartest people in the web industry on the topic of building and maintaining your own personal website and publishing your work online \u2013 what would you ask them?</p><p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/personalsites\">#<span>personalsites</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/websites\">#<span>websites</span></a> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a> Repost=\ud83d\ude3b</p>",
"text": "If you could pick the brains of the smartest people in the web industry on the topic of building and maintaining your own personal website and publishing your work online \u2013 what would you ask them?#personalsites #websites #IndieWeb Repost=\ud83d\ude3b"
},
"published": "2023-08-18T11:34:41+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38678052",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
On this week's Press This podcast, I asked @david how the #IndieWeb, #Fediverse, and #WordPress can help keep the web weird and free. I enjoyed this conversation and I hope y'all do to.
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "@docpop",
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@docpop",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://mastodon.social/@docpop/110900079178409685",
"content": {
"html": "<p>On this week's Press This podcast, I asked <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://tech.lgbt/@david\">@<span>david</span></a></span> how the <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/IndieWeb\">#<span>IndieWeb</span></a>, <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/Fediverse\">#<span>Fediverse</span></a>, and <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/tags/WordPress\">#<span>WordPress</span></a> can help keep the web weird and free. I enjoyed this conversation and I hope y'all do to. </p><p>You can find \"Press This WordPress Community Podcast\" on your favorite podcasting app. Mine is <span class=\"h-card\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://mastodon.social/@overcastfm\">@<span>overcastfm</span></a></span> <a href=\"https://overcast.fm/+2e5-UjRSE\"><span>https://</span><span>overcast.fm/+2e5-UjRSE</span><span></span></a></p>",
"text": "On this week's Press This podcast, I asked @david how the #IndieWeb, #Fediverse, and #WordPress can help keep the web weird and free. I enjoyed this conversation and I hope y'all do to. You can find \"Press This WordPress Community Podcast\" on your favorite podcasting app. Mine is @overcastfm https://overcast.fm/+2e5-UjRSE"
},
"published": "2023-08-16T15:48:35+00:00",
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "38661643",
"_source": "7235",
"_is_read": false
}
Having spent a fair amount of time developing for all of them, my experience has been that most proprietary social network (“silo”) APIs are on the easy/low effort end of the spectrum, followed closely by the Bluesky API, webmention + microformats2, and Nostr, then a big jump up to ActivityPub at above average, then AT Protocol at the high end.
They all differ in many important ways beyond development effort, of course. Personally, I’m most excited about webmention + mf2, ATProto, and then ActivityPub, for all the obvious reasons. Still though.
(If not for all the NIPs, Nostr would be the easiest of all. Developing for Nostr is pretty simple, but the NIPs are so loose and terse and spread out that ramping up on them and grokking how they all fit together can feel chaotic, at least at first.)
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2023-08-15T21:50:51-07:00",
"url": "https://snarfed.org/2023-08-15_50774",
"syndication": [
"https://bsky.app/profile/snarfed.org/post/3k52fpwtnzt27"
],
"content": {
"text": "Having spent a fair amount of time developing for all of them, my experience has been that most proprietary social network (\u201csilo\u201d) APIs are on the easy/low effort end of the spectrum, followed closely by the Bluesky API, webmention + microformats2, and Nostr, then a big jump up to ActivityPub at above average, then AT Protocol at the high end.\nThey all differ in many important ways beyond development effort, of course. Personally, I\u2019m most excited about webmention + mf2, ATProto, and then ActivityPub, for all the obvious reasons. Still though.\n(If not for all the NIPs, Nostr would be the easiest of all. Developing for Nostr is pretty simple, but the NIPs are so loose and terse and spread out that ramping up on them and grokking how they all fit together can feel chaotic, at least at first.)",
"html": "<p>Having spent a fair amount of time developing for all of them, my experience has been that most proprietary social network (<a href=\"https://indieweb.org/silo\">\u201csilo\u201d</a>) APIs are on the easy/low effort end of the spectrum, followed closely by the <a href=\"https://blueskyweb.xyz/\">Bluesky</a> API, <a href=\"https://webmention.net/\">webmention</a> + <a href=\"https://microformats.org/\">microformats2</a>, and <a href=\"https://nostr.com/\">Nostr</a>, then a big jump up to <a href=\"https://activitypub.rocks/\">ActivityPub</a> at above average, then <a href=\"https://atproto.com/\">AT Protocol</a> at the high end.</p>\n<p>They all differ in many important ways beyond development effort, of course. Personally, I\u2019m most <em>excited</em> about webmention + mf2, ATProto, and then ActivityPub, for all the obvious reasons. Still though.</p>\n<p>(If not for all the <a href=\"https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips#readme\">NIPs</a>, Nostr would be the easiest of all. Developing for Nostr is pretty simple, but the NIPs are so loose and terse and spread out that ramping up on them and grokking how they all fit together can feel chaotic, at least at first.)</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Ryan Barrett",
"url": "https://snarfed.org/",
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