Happy #IndieWeb Birthday to Me!

wo years ago today, I officially began to (try to) own all of my own web data and host it on my own server.

It began when I moved from WordPress.com to my own domain at BoffoSocko.com. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the IndieWeb movement, but shortly thereafter I ran across IndieWebCamp.org and began using their principles and philosophy, which seemed to me to be how the Web and the Internet should have worked from the start.

Though I still use corporate-owned social media sites (primarily for increased distribution), I no longer rely on them for being the sole source of my internet presence or identity.

Now, through the boffosocko.com domain and a variety of tools, I post all of my content here on my own site first and then syndicate it out to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and any other useful sites. [Sadly, because of API restrictions I do still natively post to Instagram, but using OwnYourGram, I’m able to programmatically post the same photo on my site simultaneously.] This means that if any of these silos were to disappear, I would still own all of my own content (including comments I make on other sites, which sometimes could be blogposts/articles in and of themselves, or worse, through administrative interfaces could actually not be approved/published, and therefore completely lost as if I hadn’t written them to begin with.)

Also slowly, but surely, I’ve been able to have all of the resulting interactions that take place on my content on many of these silos (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) appear back on my site in the comments section on the original post. This way, if you’re commenting and interacting on this post on Facebook (for example) and you comment there, the comment is ported over to the comment section on my own site where it exists for everyone to see and interact with.

If you’re interested in joining the movement you can see if there’s a meeting in your neighborhood (or even create your own.) For those living in the Los Angeles area, there’s a meeting this week on Wednesday, April 27th! Click here for more details. Later this year, there’s also a bigger Indie Web Camp here in Los Angeles too!

If you think the mission and philosophy of the Indie Web are interesting and would like some help setting something like this up for yourself, I’m happy to help! Just post a comment below or reply to this post (depending on what platform you’re reading this.)

I also want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all those in the indieweb community who’ve helped me come much farther and faster than I would have done by myself!

I’m copying some useful introductory material from IndieWebCamp.org below for those interested:

What is the IndieWeb?

The IndieWeb is a people-focused alternative to the ‘corporate web’.

Join the IndieWeb

• Interested? Get Started Now!
• View current discussions and recent changes to this site to see what we’ve been working on lately
• Check out projects we’re building and join the discussion

Beyond Blogging and Decentralization

The IndieWeb effort is different from previous efforts/communities:

• Principles over project-centrism. Others assume a monoculture of one project for all. We are developing a plurality of projects.
• Selfdogfood instead of email. Show before tell. Prioritize by scratching your own itches, creating, iterating on your own site.
• Design first, protocols & formats second. Focus on good UX & selfdogfood prototypes to create minimum necessary formats & protocols.

Perhaps most importantly, we are people-focused instead of project-focused, and have regular meetups where everyone is welcome:

Homebrew Website Club

Homebrew Website Club is a (bi)weekly meetup of creatives passionate about designing, improving, building, and actively using their own websites, sharing their successes and challenges with a like-minded and supportive community. We have adopted a similar structure as the classic Homebrew Computer Club meetings. [1]

We typically meet every other Wednesday* right after work, 18:30-19:30, across cities and online. Some locations also have a 17:30-18:30 Quiet Writing Hour beforehand. Edinburgh is meeting every week, and some cities meet on Tuesdays!