I spent some time this morning doing a dry run through setting up a suite of IndieWeb plugins on a fresh WordPress installation. Going off of a scant outline I talked for almost two hours describing IndieWeb functionality as I set it all up. Hopefully it will provide a useful guide to newcomers to the space until I can write up a more solid outline and take a more polished approach. Apologies in advance for the roughness of the audio, lack of quality, and even live mistakes. Hopefully folks won’t mind suffering through until we can come up with some better tutorials.
As prerequisites, I assume you’ve already got your own domain and have installed WordPress on a server or other host. I actually finish setting up the WordPress install as I start the video and then sign in for the first time as we begin.
While many of the core plugins are straightforward, there is a huge amount of leeway in how folks can choose (or not) to syndicate to sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others. Here I make the choice to use the Bridgy Publish plugin and only demonstrate it with Twitter. With one example shown, hopefully other silos can be set up with Brid.gy as well. The IndieWeb wiki details other options for those who want other methods.
At the end I walk through creating and syndicating a post to Twitter. Then I demonstrate commenting on that post using another CMS (WithKnown) from a separate domain.
I do my best to provide verbal descriptions and visual examples, but these can certainly be supplemented with further detail on the IndieWeb wiki. I hope to come back and add some diagrams at a later date, but this will have to suffice for now.
For those who would like an audio only version of this talk, you can listen here (.mp3):
🔖 Bookmarked http://boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/setting-up-wordpress-for-indieweb-use/
<a href="http://boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/setting-up-wordpress-for-indieweb-use/">Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb use</a><blockquote>
“I spent some time this morning doing a dry run through setting up a suite of IndieWeb plugins on a fresh WordPress installation. Going off of a scant outline I talked for almost two hours describing IndieWeb functionality as I set it all up.”
Listened Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb use by Chris Aldrich Chris Aldrich from Chris Aldrich | BoffoSocko I spent some time this morning doing a dry run through setting up a suite of IndieWeb plugins on a fresh WordPress installation. Going off of a scant outline I talked for almost two hours describing IndieWeb functionality as I set it all up. Hopefully it will provide a useful guide to newcomers to t…
A really clear guide to setting up your WordPress for IndieWeb use. Available as a screencast and audio file. I’ve listened to about half the audio so far. I would love to have had this when I started adding plugins in a random fashion. Like this:Like Loading…
Listened Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb use by Chris Aldrich Chris Aldrich from Chris Aldrich | BoffoSocko I spent some time this morning doing a dry run through setting up a suite of IndieWeb plugins on a fresh WordPress installation. Going off of a scant outline I talked for almost two hours describing IndieWeb functionality as I set it all up. Hopefully it will provide a useful guide to newcomers to t…
A really clear guide to setting up your WordPress for IndieWeb use. Available as a screencast and audio file. I’ve listened to about half the audio so far. I would love to have had this when I started adding plugins in a random fashion. Like this:Like Loading…
Listened Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb use by Chris Aldrich Chris Aldrich from Chris Aldrich | BoffoSocko I spent some time this morning doing a dry run through setting up a suite of IndieWeb plugins on a fresh WordPress installation. Going off of a scant outline I talked for almost two hours describing IndieWeb functionality as I set it all up. Hopefully it will provide a useful guide to newcomers to t…
A really clear guide to setting up your WordPress for IndieWeb use. Available as a screencast and audio file. I’ve listened to about half the audio so far. I would love to have had this when I started adding plugins in a random fashion. Like this:Like Loading…
Another great listen David and Chris. I have taken to using Post Editor Buttons Fork plugin to add custom code, such as embedding audio and syndicating to #IndieNews. I am happy with any other solution, especially as I imagine Gutenberg may break my buttons?
I am really interested in your work in combining Bridgy Publish and Syndicated Links. I currently use SNAP for Twitter, Flickr and Diigo, Mastodon Autoposter and Jetpack for G+. (I could never get Bridgy Publish to work, but after Chris’ recent walkthrough, I think that I need to have a second look.) I find it really tedious to remember which ones to turn on and off for each post. I really like the idea of one space to control them all if that is what you are proposing.
Syndicated copies:
This was a really helpful walk-through Chris. I agree with your point in the IndieWeb podcast that it could be compressed into half an hour, but I always thought that was the point of adjusting the playback speeds?
I just had a few thoughts / questions while watching / listening:
I never realised that I could add all my Rel=Me links within my profile, does that mean that I do not have to go through all the rigmarole of adding them to my ‘child theme’? That definitely makes it a lot easier to setup.
I am really interested in modifying / developing a custom post kind, but what happens when David Shanske updates the plugin? How do I set up to allow for updates and customisation? Is this some sort of ‘child theme’?
I wonder if it were possible (maybe in the IndieWeb multisite or something) to customise the ‘Welcome’ box when you first start WordPress? Imagine if the information that is detailed in the IndieWeb plugin area could be placed there, front and centre?
Aaron, sorry I must have missed the notification for your comment, or was overwhelmed when it came in.
Yes, you should be able to add all the rel=”me” links in your profile, though I prefer to do that by hand myself to get the exact display I want.
If you created a custom post kind and added custom code, it will be overwritten on an update. I might recommend doing a pull request for it into the main plugin so that all the code is there for yourself and everyone else. In this case you’d like just need to change the false to true in the code to be able to easily activate it. If it’s something you’re experimenting with there typically isn’t much code to change so doing it manually after an update is easy enough. There’s also apparently some built-in filters and code that would allow you to create a mini-plugin so that it sits next to the main plugin without being overwritten, but that’s a tad above my pay grade at the moment.
I like your idea of a Welcome box and there are multiple ways of doing that. Alas, many of them are beyond me at the moment. I suspect they’ll get there eventually.
Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb use
boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/set…
Hope this will be of interest to those who saw my IndieWeb presentation at the Auckland WordPress Meet Up
https://t.co/EhBiTYF3Ema%20class=u-mention%20href=https://boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/setting-up-wordpress-for-indieweb-use//a
Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb use by Chris Aldrich (Chris Aldrich | BoffoSocko)
Thanks for such a detailed walkthrough! I watched the video version at 2x speed and find it still quite easy to follow. Being able to see the screen is useful, especially around filling out metadata for Post Kinds. I think this also serves well as a WordPress 101 for newbies like me. I popped out of the video a few times just to try what you’re showing.
This reply is a test run of webmention. Hopefully it works! 🙂
Danyao, I’m glad it all seemed to work out so well. Your webmention came through loud and clear, though apparently I missed the email notification I set up for them. Congratulations!
This week I took a mini-sabbatical from work to explore the IndieWeb movement and really liked what I found. It’ll be exciting to see what future holds for this vision of creating people-focused technology to enable social interactions on the open web.
Aaron Parecki’s Building an Indie Web Reader strikes a chord particularly close to my heart. Currently I manage my information influx clumsily via a combination of Feedly, email newsletter (mostly Medium), Nuzzle, Google Now, a couple of magazines and the family/friends network on WhatsApp and WeChat. I have quit Facebook 7 years ago, have been pondering about going back as a particular community I’m now involved with is more active there, but am worried about the deluge there. I’m new to GitHub and IRC but haven’t figured out a good way to incorporate them into my information consumption. This leaves me feeling overwhelmed often. The Microsub server abstraction seems like a great idea. Normalizing various data sources will not only improve organization, but also provides a perfect seam for more “magic”, such as personalized algorithms for classifying and summarizing content for the user. I see this is distinct from the current social silos’ “algorithmic timeline” model because 1) it works across the web, and 2) the algorithm is a hackable module that the user can tinker with to their liking. This is an area I’d like to work more in.
I also followed Chris Aldrich’s Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb Use to set up this blog. The title says it all. It’s a very accessible step-by-step guide for getting a basic IndieWeb-compatible site up and running. It was amazing how much the community has already built up that I was able to post a cross-site reply using webmention and post to this blog from a 3rd party editor (Aaron Parecki’s Quill) using Micropub without writing a single line of code. Having abandoned many silos because of the lack of interoperable tools, this completely blew my mind.
I also found several interesting conversation within the community. How to design web services that properly respect user privacy yet still promote openness is something I’d like to learn more about. Sebastian Greger’s The IndieWeb Privacy Challenge is a great starting point.
Overall, I feel the time this week has been well spent. These are the main accomplishment:
Staked out my own IndieWeb presence at http://www.stillmuchtoponder.com. Tested that IndieAuth, Micropub and Webmention setup work on this domain.
Created a Microsub test server using Node.js (new to me too). It responds to /timeline, /channels and /follow API calls using canned data. I was able to create a simple Mocha test suite to verify these APIs.
Introduced myself on the IndieWeb IRC. People are super friendly. I hope to interact with this community more.
Wrote the first public blog entry (this one) in many years! This is a public commitment for me to continuing on this project.
Both the IndieWeb vision and the principles resonate a lot with me. So I’d like to continue in the following directions:
Microsub related:
Create a compliant Microsub server implementation.
Experiment with existing Microsub clients.
Explore algorithmic feed processing in the Microsub server so I don’t feel overwhelmed by my influx feed.
Micropub related:
Figure out how to post private messages via Micropub (may just need a small tweak). Bookmarking pages I’ve read is a typical use case for me, and I don’t feel comfortable yet to make all of them public. Especially that my current WordPress theme shows bookmark posts as regular posts. I feel this introduces clutter to the blog timeline.
Experiment with other Micropub clients.
Privacy and permissions:
Research more about permission model in the IndieWeb framework. Right now everything is based on public posts. An important use case for me to migrate out of the silos’ is being able to communicate with my close friends and family, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing all information there publicly. So some kind of permission model that I can express on my site to manage data requests would be useful.
…it appears that my server is grumpy about my setting up SSL on a sub.sub.subdomain, do, while I wait for DNS changes to propagate here is the micro.blog micro.wiki’s content, as of today, 2018-05-22:
Micro.wiki, Resources for Micro.blog
Community resources for the avid Micro.blogger
Micro.blog is groovy. This is a community index, champion’s enchiridion of all things Micro.blog. NOTE! This is a community resource and is in no way officially tied to Micro.blog. The bona fide documentation lives at help.micro.blog (make sure not to miss the community guidelines).
What is Micro.blog and how can I do it!?
A Guide to Micro.blog For People Who Have A Love/Hate Relationship With Twitter, by @macgenie, m.b’s community manager
How-to micro.blog, a micro.guide, by @eli
Why Micro.blog is Not Another App.net, by @brentsimmons
Diversity and Inclusion at Micro.blog: Where We Are, Where We Want to Go, by @macgenie
Migrating from WordPress.com to Micro.Blog, by @burk
Making my own photo timeline – adding a photoblog (hosted microblog), by @burk
Microblogging in Jekyll, by @fiona
How do I find users and cool content!?
https://burk.io/discover/ – a quick introduction to Micro.blog’s use of tagmoji, as well as a directory of all active a proposed tagmoji, by @burk
https://burk.io/micromeetup – IRL Micro.blog meetups around the world, by @burk
https://adnfinder.herokuapp.com/ – a utility to look for Micro.blog users by their App.net or Twitter handles, by @jeffmueller
A few tips for user discovery on Micro.blog, by @smokey
Micro.Threads – a tool for following Micro.blog threads and conversations…potentially defunct, by @amit
Micro Monday – a weekly micro cast, wherein @macgenie interviews 1 member of the Micro.blog community every week
How can I Micro.blog from WordPress!?
A Self-Hosted WordPress Blog with Micro.Blog, by @PhoneBoy
Configuring WordPress for Micro.blog, by @ChrisReed
Some tips for using WordPress with Micro.blog, by @smokey
My Micro.blog Setup With WordPress, by @40tech
My IndieWeb-ish WordPress Setup, by Ron (not sure of Ron’s m.b username)
Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb use, by @chrisaldrich
WordPress extensions, functions, and other useful bits and bobs:
Replace blank WordPress post title with the date/time , @colinwalker
Remove title for status posts from the RSS feed, @colinwalker
Open comments on WordPress posts submitted via XML-RPC , @colinwalker
WordPress filter to auto-linkify @-names for Micro.blog, @smokey
Feed Importer for Micro.blog fetches an RSS feed for Micro.blog and publishes entries to your WordPress site as a stand-alone post (status)
A potential fix for WordPress images not showing up in Micro.blog, by @matthilt
Various micro.blog specific functions, by @johnjohnston
How can I post to Micro.blog other than by using the native app(s)!?
iOS
Drafts
Post to Micro.blog
Post to Micro.blog (with title)
Icro
Web
Quill
macOS and Unix-y
Oldpub
Speck
Android
Dialog for Android
Other community resources
http://john.philpin.com/wishes/ – a Micro.blog feature wishlist, maintained by @JohnPhilpin
Maintained w/♥ by @eli
@-me if you’ve got a resource to add, or a correction to make
Shout out to @smokey for tracking down the majority of these links
Download the raw markdown content of this document
Chris Aldrich wrote several weeks ago about Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb Use. I listened to the audio one weekend during several errands, and I thought it was an excellent overview of basic WordPress plugin support for IndieWeb.
Setting up WordPress with IndieWeb functionality by @ChrisAldrich boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/set…
It’s Open Domains Lab time! Today I am going to be playing with some of the #IndieWeb plugins for WordPress using this guide from @ChrisAldrich boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/set…
#DoOO
Replied to Why Not Blog? by Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Kathleen Fitzpatrick)
I really like where you’re coming from on so many fronts here (and on your site in general). Thanks for such a great post on a Friday afternoon. A lot of what you’re saying echos the ideas of many old school bloggers who use their blogs as “thought spaces“. They write, take comments, iterate, hone, and eventually come up with stronger thoughts and theses. Because of the place in which they’re writing, the ideas slowly percolate and grow over a continuum of time rather than spring full-formed seemingly from the head of Zeus the way many books would typically appear to the untrained eye. I’ve not quite seen a finely coalesced version of this idea though I’ve seen many dance around it obliquely. The most common name I’ve seen is that of a “thought space” or sometimes the phrase “thinking out loud”, which I notice you’ve done at least once. In some sense, due to its public nature, it seems like an ever-evolving conversation in a public commons. Your broader idea and blogging experience really make a natural progression for using a website to slowly brew a book.
My favorite incarnation of the idea is that blogs or personal websites are a digital and public shared commonplace book. Commonplaces go back to the 15th century and even certainly earlier, but I like to think of websites as very tech-forward versions of the commonplaces kept by our forebears.
I’ve seen a few educators like Aaron Davis and Ian O’Byrne take to the concept of a commonplace, though both have primary websites for writing and broader synthesis and secondary sites for collecting and annotating the web. I tend to aggregate everything (though not always published publicly) on my primary site after having spent some time trying not to inundate email subscribers as you’ve done.
There’s also a growing movement, primarily in higher education, known as A Domain of One’s Own or in shortened versions as either “Domains” or even #DoOO which is a digital take on the Virgina Woolf quote “Give her a room of her own and five hundred a year, let her speak her mind and leave out half that she now puts in, and she will write a better book one of these days.”
There are a growing number of educators, researchers, and technologists reshaping how the web is used which makes keeping an online commonplace much easier. In particular, we’re all chasing a lot of what you’re after as well:
To me, this sounds like one of the major pillars of the IndieWeb movement which is taking control of the web back from corporate social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et. al. Through odd serendipity, I came across your micro.blog account this morning which led me to your website. A lot of the underpinnings of micro.blog are informed by the IndieWeb movement. In many subtle ways, I might suspect the two had a lot of influence on your particular choice of WordPress theme.
Tonight I’ve also seen your reply to Dan Cohen’s question:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
I had previously replied to Dan’s original question, but somehow missed your side thread at the time. I suspect you didn’t see our branch of the conversation either.
Interestingly, your presumption that the replies/notifications stay within their own domains isn’t necessarily fait accompli, at least not any more. There’s a new web specification in the past few years called Webmention that allows notifications and replies to cross website boundaries unlike Twitter @mentions which are permanently stuck within Twitter. Interestingly, because of the way you’ve set up your WordPress website to dovetail with micro.blog you’re almost 90 percent of the way to supporting it easily. If you add and slightly configure the Webmention and Semantic Linkbacks plugins, the asides and other content you’re syndicating into micro.blog will automatically collect the related conversation around them back to your own posts thus allowing you to have a copy of your content on your own website as well as the surrounding conversation, which is no longer as diffuse as you imagined it needed to be. Here’s an example from earlier this evening where I posted to my site and your response (and another) on micro.blog came back to me. (Sadly there’s a Gravatar glitch preventing the avatars from displaying properly, but hopefully I’ll solve that shortly.)
This same sort of thing can be done with Twitter including native threading and @mentions, if done properly, by leveraging the free Brid.gy service to force Twitter to send your site webmentions on your behalf. (Of course this means you might need to syndicate your content to Twitter in a slightly different manner than having micro.blog do on your behalf, but there are multiple ways of doing this.)
I also notice that you’ve taken to posting copies of your tweeted versions at the top of your comments sections. There’s a related IndieWeb plugin called Syndication Links that is made specifically to keep a running list of the places to which you’ve syndicated your content. This plugin may solve a specific need for you in addition to the fact that it dovetails well with Brid.gy to make sure your posts get the appropriate comments back via webmention.
I’m happy to help walk you through setting up some of the additional IndieWeb tech for your WordPress website if you’re interested. I suspect that having the ability to use your website as a true online hub in addition to doing cross website conversations is what you’ve been dreaming about, possibly without knowing it. Pretty soon you’ll be aggregating and owning all of your digital breadcrumbs to compile at a later date into posts and eventually articles, monographs, and books.
Perhaps more importantly, there’s a growing group of us in the education/research fields that are continually experimenting and building new functionalities for online (and specifically academic) communication. I and a plethora of others would welcome you to join us on the wiki, in chat, or even at upcoming online or in-person events.
In any case, thanks for sharing your work and your thoughts with the world. I wish more academics were doing what you are doing online–we’d all be so much richer for it. I know this has been long and is a potential rabbithole you may disappear into, so thank you for the generosity of your attention.
Syndicated copies to:
Replied to a post by David Shanske (David Shanske)
I suspect that @chrismessina could do it quickly, but for those who’d like to leave Twitter for #WordPress with similar functionality (but greater flexibility and independence), I recorded a 2 hour video for an #IndieWeb set up/walk through with some high level discussion a few months back. If you can do the 5 minute install, hopefully most of the rest is downhill with some basic plugin installation and minor configuration. The end of the walk through includes a live demonstration of a conversation between a WordPress site on one domain and a WithKnown site running on another domain.
tl;dr for the video:
WordPress base install
IndieWeb Plugin (gives you quick access to most of the plugins below)
The SemPress Theme or Independent Publisher Theme
Webmention and Semantic Linkbacks plugins (for site to site communication and notification)
IndieAuth plugin (for authenticating with Micropub, Microsub, and other related tools)
Micropub plugin (for a variety of clients you can use to publish to your site)
Syndication Links plugin (to indicate which sites, like Twitter, that you syndicate your content to to stay in touch with those left behind)
WebSub plugin (to ping feed readers for real-time communication)
Brid.gy for WordPress plugin (to pull in backfed comments from other social silos)
Post Kinds plugin (for better delineating articles, status updates (notes), replies, favorites, likes, etc. with appropriate microformats markup)
Aperture Plugin (allows you to sign into a variety of Microsub readers which also act as your stream and allow you to reply to others directly from your reading interface. This part is still a bit experimental, but the kinks are being worked out presently for a richer experience.)
Additional pieces are discussed on my IndieWeb Research Page (focusing mostly on WordPress), in addition to IWC getting started on WordPress wiki page. If you need help, hop into the IndieWeb WordPress chat.
For those watching this carefully, you’ll notice that I’ve replied to David Shanske’s post on his website using my own website and sent him a webmention which will allow him to display my reply (if he chooses). I’ve also automatically syndicated my response to the copy of his reply on Twitter which includes others who are following the conversation there. Both he and I have full copies of the conversation on our own site and originated our responses from our own websites. If you like, retweet, or comment on the copy of this post on Twitter, through the magic of Brid.gy and the Webmention spec, it will come back to the comment section on my original post (after moderation).
Hooray for web standards! And hooray for everyone in the IndieWeb who are helping to make this type of social interaction easier and simpler with every passing day.
Syndicated copies to:
Thanks for sharing information about #IndieWeb & #WordPress, Greg McVerry. Still just gradually trying out things here. This is a first stab at trying a webmention. The IndieWeb site and Chris Aldrich’s site have been very helpful in getting started, too.
https://indieweb.org/WordPress
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<em>Related</em>
This Video was mentioned on morethemes.baby
Read disconnected thoughts on fandom and the indieweb by Marianne (privilege escalation)
I love that this post has all sorts of ideas and itches which resonate with large swaths of the growing IndieWeb. Some problems here are solved, and many remain to be worked on and improved. Either way, this has a reasonable beginning roadmap for people who are interesting in taking a crack at solving or improving on some of these problems.
I hope Marianne joins into the fray to not only make things better for herself, but for all of us. I know I and many others are happy to help on the WordPress front or otherwise. Here’s an overview video that may help some of the less technical.
It also raises some questions for me:
Do any wikis, bulletin boards/forum software send or receive webmentions yet? I receive refbacks from the IndieWeb wiki, but shouldn’t it handle sending webmentions? How about software for wikis and fora that allow for micropub or simple syndication?
It’s never dawned on me to look before, but I’ve just noticed that at least the IndieWeb wiki actually has an h-card!
Syndicated copies to:
Syndicated copies:
By using WordPress on your own domain, you are already a part of the IndieWeb. Below are some suggestions to help you get started with upgrading your WordPress site to support IndieWeb philosophies.
Read a tweet by Larry Sanger (Twitter)
Larry, there are a large number of videos about the IndieWeb available. I’ll make a few recommendations from the broadest and shortest to the most specific and longer given what I suspect about you and your background.
This short 13 minute video Why We Need the IndieWeb by Tantek Çelik from 2014 has some of the best background, history, and broad philosophy.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNmKO7Gr4TE?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent&w=840&h=473%5D
A longer version of this video with more detail is his The once and future IndieWeb.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNr0JNwsLy8?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent&w=840&h=473%5D
Since I’m sure you’re aware of much of the history and some of the problems (though who couldn’t use a good reveiw), you may want to start with more practical concerns and for this there are several, roughly equivalent videos by Jeremy Keith that would be an excellent overview for you including Taking Back The Web (Webstock ‘18):
The following are similar, but excellent as well: Taking Back the Web and Building Blocks of the IndieWeb.
And finally, bringing things closest to home for you and potentially applying these pieces to a WordPress site, knowing that is what you use, I’ve got a (less exciting and more didactic) video Setting up WordPress for IndieWeb Use that walks through adding all of these pieces to a WordPress site in a step-by-step manner.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsPjdk2-m68?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent&w=840&h=473%5D
Please let me know if I can be of further help.
With luck, I’ll have created this entire #PressEdConf20 presentation on my own website and syndicated it to Twitter without actually needing to visit Twitter itself. I’m around for questions. Thank you for your time and attention. [more…]
Those looking for more details can find documentation on the IndieWeb wiki at https://indieweb.org/Getting_Started_on_WordPress, or https://boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/setting-up-wordpress-for-indieweb-use/
I’m also happy to help people set things up and make alternate suggestions via video chat or you can find online help in the IndieWeb WordPress chat.
Syndicated copies:
Last year I thought it would be fun to outline how people might use their #WordPress websites to actively participate in #PressEdConf20 by posting content on their WordPress website and syndicating copies to Twitter for those following that way.
(Meta: Welcome to my talk: I know it’s cheating & early, but I’m hoping a few presenters will borrow this method.)
My general thought was:
The only thing better than A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference on Twitter would be A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference using WordPress itself!
(Meta: Sure, post it to Twitter: but why not own a copy of your presentation on your own website when you’re done?)
So let’s give it a spin by providing an outline for how to accomplish it in true #IndieWeb & #DoOO fashion? Perhaps a few people might trying doing this year’s conference this way? Here’s an early #PressEdConf20 presentation to get the juices flowing.
(Meta: Hint for those on Twitter: I’m including links to my website, so you can get just a little bit more information than Twitter limits me to–oh, the fringe benefits of having one’s website where they’re not censored by the confines of the platform on which they’re creating!)
First, we’ll start off by making the humble presumption that you’ve got your own domain and an install of WordPress running on it. Hopefully this covers most #PressEdConf20 attendees.
(Meta: If it doesn’t there are lots of options: You could do something similar a bit more manually if you like using WordPress.com. You’ve also got a great community of people who could help you to better own your online identity and domain right here! I’ll bet our friends at Reclaim Hosting could help as well.)
Next we’ll want the Webmention Plugin (+Semantic Linkbacks) which will let our site communicate with other websites as well as to receive replies and reactions on Twitter with the help of Brid.gy. Install and activate both.
(Want to go deeper into the idea of what Webmention is and how one could use it? I wrote an article for A List Apart that goes into details.)
Illustration by Dougal MacPherson
Image courtesy of A List Apart
One could manually syndicate content from WordPress to Twitter, but there are multiple plugins and ways to syndicate it. My favorite is the Syndication Links plugin, which we can use for syndicating to other services. Install and activate.
Next we’ll want an account on Brid.gy for Twitter. This will allow us to publish from our website to Twitter; it will also allow us to reverse syndicate reactions from #PressEdConf20 on Twitter back to our posts using Webmention.
(Meta: Publishing this way will require Microformats: Your theme will need the proper microformats support to use this method, but again other methods are available.)
Authenticate your website and Twitter account with Bridgy and enable Bridgy publish on your account page:
https://brid.gy/twitter/username.In Syndication Links settings at
example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=syndication_linksEnable Syndication to Other Sites
Enable Twitter via Bridgy
Add a custom provider using the following:
name: XYZ pressEdconf20
UID: XYZ-pressEdconf20
target URL: https://indieweb.xyz/en/pressEdconf20/
Save the settings.
(Meta: Syndication Links Settings: These will help you set up syndication targets on other platforms and can be configured for a variety of social media.)
Now write all of your posts in your presentation as status updates (without titles) and include any media (photos, videos, etc.) making sure to mark up the photos with a class of u-photo in the HTML. Don’t forget the hashtag #PressEdConf20.
Set posts for one every minute. Use the SL Syndicate To meta box to syndicate your Twitter account and to the indieweb.xyz sub where everyone can find them (if they’re not following the proceedings via Twitter).
Others at #PressEdConf20 with Webmentions can reply to your posts on their sites. Replies will show up in comments depending on settings. Bridgy will also find responses to your content on Twitter & syndicate those back to your website automatically.
(Meta: Give it a whirl!: Reply to this post on Twitter to see it boomerang back to the comment section of my website.)
Webmention rocks
Those who are paying attention at #PressEdConf20 will see the value in webmention for allowing cross-site interactions without the need for “social media”. WithKnown, Drupal, Grav, and other CMSs are capable of doing this too.
(Meta: Ownership of your Open Pedagogy Anyone? Who needs invasive corporate social media to interact online now?)
With luck, I’ll have created this entire #PressEdConf20 presentation on my own website and syndicated it to Twitter without actually needing to visit Twitter itself. I’m around for questions. Thank you for your time and attention. [more…]
Those looking for more details can find documentation on the IndieWeb wiki at https://indieweb.org/Getting_Started_on_WordPress, or https://boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/setting-up-wordpress-for-indieweb-use/
I’m also happy to help people set things up and make alternate suggestions via video chat or you can find online help in the IndieWeb WordPress chat.
P.S. There’s still some time to submit your talk for #PressEdConf20. Since it’s all designed to be online from the start, I’m hoping it won’t be cancelled like all the other events lately.
(Meta: PressEdConf 2020: A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference on Twitter March 26, 2020)
Syndicated copies:
By using WordPress on your own domain, you are already a part of the IndieWeb. Below are some suggestions to help you get started with upgrading your WordPress site to support additional IndieWeb philosophies and functionality.
By using WordPress on your own domain, you are already a part of the IndieWeb. Below are some suggestions to help you get started with upgrading your WordPress site to support additional IndieWeb philosophies and functionality.