User Interface to Indicate Posting Activity

In addition to the sparkline graphs I’ve got in the sidebar of my website, I’ve recently been looking at alternate ways to indicate the posting activity on my own website.

An example of a sparkline graph on Boffosocko.com. A blue line indicates the comment posting velocity and an orange line indicates the comment velocity.
“Monthly activity over 5 years” for both posting activity as well as commenting activity on my website.

Calendar Heatmaps

Yesterday I was contemplating calendar heatmaps which are probably best known from the user interface of GitHub which relatively shows how active someone is on the website. I’ve discovered that JetPack for WordPress provides a similar functionality on the back end (in blue instead of green), but sadly doesn’t make it available for display on the front end of websites. I’ve filed a feature request to see if it’s something they’d work on in the future, so if having something like this seems useful to you, please click through and give the post a +1.

Orderly grid of squares representing dates which are grouped by month with a gradation of colors on each square that indicate in heat map fashion how frequently I post to my website.
A screen capture of what my posting “velocity” looks like on the back end of my website. The darkest squares indicate 30+ posts in a day while the next darkest indicate between 15-30 posts. My “streak” is far longer than this chart indicates. I obviously post a LOT.

Circular Widthmaps

Today I saw a note that led me to the Internet Archive which I know has recently had a redesign. I’m not sure if the functionality I saw was part of this redesign, but it’s pretty awesome. I’m not sure quite what to call this sort of circular bar chart given what it does, but circular widthmap seems vaguely appropriate. Here’s a link to the archive.org page for my website that shows this cool UI, screencaptures of which also appear below: http://web.archive.org/web/sitemap/https://www.boffosocko.com/

Instead of using color gradations to indicate a relative number of posts, the UI is measuring things via width in ever increasing concentric circles. The innermost circle indicates the root domain and successive levels out add additional paths from my site. Because I’m using dated archive paths, there’s a level of circle by year (2019, 2018, 2017, etc.) then another level outside that by months (April 2019, March 2019, etc.), and finally the outermost circle which indicates individual posts. As a result, the width of a particular year or month indicates relatively how active that time frame was on my website (or at least how active Archive.org thinks it was based on its robot crawler.)

Of course the segments on the circles also measure things like categories and tags on my site as well along with the date based archives. Thus I can gauge how often I use particular categories for example.

I’ll also note that in the 2018 portion of the circle for July 11th, I had a post that slashdotted my website when it took off on Hacker News. That individual day is represented as really wide on that circular ring because it has an additional concentric circle outside of it that represents the hundreds of comment URL fragments for that post. So one must keep in mind that things in some of the internal rings aren’t as relative because they may be heavily affected by portions of content further out on the ring.

Interface that presents concentric circles with archived links of a website. The center circle is the domain itself while outside portions of the circle include archive pages, categories, pages, posts, and other portions of a site.
My website posting activity (and a little more) from 2018 and before according to the Internet Archive.
Interface that presents concentric circles with archived links of a website. The center circle is the domain itself while outside portions of the circle include archive pages, categories, pages, posts, and other portions of a site.
My website posting activity (and a little more) from April 2019 and before according to the Internet Archive.

How awesome would it be if this were embed-able and usable on my own website?

📺 April 18, 2019 – PBS NewsHour | PBS

Watched April 18, 2019 - PBS NewsHour from PBS
Thursday on the NewsHour, Attorney General William Barr releases a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on possible cooperation between Russian government operatives and members of President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Plus: Legal and political analysis of the Mueller report, as well as how the report is being received abroad.
Replied to Hypothes.is and Remi Kalir on Twitter (Twitter)
Here’s a link to the report from CNN with searchable text, which means that you won’t get all the orphaned comments and annotations other versions of the Mueller Report will show using Hypothes.is.

https://via.hypothes.is/cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/18/mueller-report-searchable.pdf

Read What you need to know about the Mueller report (cnn.com)

The Department of Justice released special counsel Robert Mueller's long awaited report earlier this morning.

The report — which only included "limited" redactions, according to Attorney General William Barr — detailed his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

The bottom line: We learned a lot.

You can read the full report for yourself, or get caught up with these key takeaways:

  • Mueller was unable to conclude that “no criminal conduct occurred.” The investigation was also unable to clear President Trump on obstruction. The report states that the evidence obtained “about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred.”
  • Why obstruction by Trump failed: Efforts by Trump to obstruct justice failed because others refused to "carry out orders," the report said.
  • Trump tried to remove Mueller: Trump called former White House lawyer Don McGahn at home and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say Mueller "had conflicts of interest and must be removed." McGahn refused.
  • What the Trump campaign knew: The special counsel’s investigation into possible collusion found that members of the Trump campaign knew they would benefit from Russia’s illegal actions to influence the election, but didn’t take criminal steps to help, the report said.
  • Why Mueller didn’t subpoena Trump: The special counsel believed it had the authority to subpoena President Trump — but decided against doing so because it would delay the investigation, according to the report. Prosecutors also believed they already had a substantial amount of evidence.
  • Sarah Sanders misled the media about the firing of the FBI director: The White House press secretary conceded in an interview with Mueller she made statements to the media that were not based in fact.
  • Trump dropped F-bomb after Mueller got the job: In May 2017, shortly after Trump learned from his then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had appointed Mueller, Trump “slumped back in his chair and said, ‘Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f***ed.’”
  • Mueller said Trump's public acts can be considered obstruction: The special counsel wrote about how the President’s public comments can be considered as obstruction efforts because of his power.
  • Congress has the right to investigate: Mueller’s report laid out the case for why Congress is able to investigate and take action against Trump on obstruction of justice.
  • Trump asked campaign aides to find Clinton’s emails: After Trump publicly asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails at a July 2016 press conference, he privately and repeatedly “asked individuals affiliated with his campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails,” the report said.
  • Mueller considered different possible collusion crimes: The special counsel looked at potential crimes outside of conspiracy as he investigated collusion —including crimes under campaign finance law and regarding individuals potentially acting as illegal foreign agents for the Russian government.
  • Mueller investigated rumored compromising tapes of Trump in Moscow: The special counsel examined whether Trump learned during the presidential campaign of the rumored existence of compromising tapes made of him years earlier when he visited Moscow.

📺 Assistant v0.2 – Productivity Plugin for WordPress | YouTube

Watched Assistant v0.2 - Productivity Plugin for WordPress from YouTube
Assistant is an every day productivity tool for WordPress from the team that makes Beaver Builder. It exposes many of the tasks you do frequently right at your finger tips on the front end of your site. Assistant is free and is currently in the early stages of development and we welcome your feedback. This video is a look at our v0.2 release. You can install Assistant from the WordPress plugin repo for free. https://wordpress.org/plugins/assistant/

🎧 When 20,000 Nazis Gathered in New York | On the Media | WNYC Studios

Listened to When 20,000 Nazis Gathered in New York from On the Media | WNYC Studios

A documentary film takes us back to the most notorious event of the German-American Bund.

Founded in 1936, the German-American Bund had approximately 25,000 members and 70 chapters around the country. While the Nazis were building concentration camps, the Bund held pro-Hitler retreats and summer camps. February 20th marks the 80th anniversary of the Bund’s most notorious event when 20,000 of its members gathered at Madison Square Garden for a "Pro-American Rally" featuring speeches and performances, staged in front of a 30-foot-high portrait of George Washington.

The rally is the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary short "A Night at The Garden" by filmmaker Marshall Curry. In this On the Media podcast extra, Brooke talks with Curry about how the film's themes resonate today and how a 30-second broadcast spot has had a media moment of its own.

This interview was awesome. Also it’s a bit ironic that the interview is longer than the film they’re talking about.

🎧 Bad Reputation | On the Media | WNYC Studios

Listened to Bad Reputation from On the Media | WNYC Studios

Poor coverage of female candidates; re-examining Lorena Bobbitt's legacy; and the farce of Black History Month.

The 2020 Democratic field is the most diverse ever, and five women are running to be the party’s presidential nominee. This week, we look at the sexist coverage of female candidates with a new Breaking News Consumer's Handbook: Gender and Politics Edition. Then, a re-examination of a 90's tabloid spectacle, Lorena Gallo (Lorena Bobbitt), arrested for cutting her husband's penis off after he raped her. Plus, how Black History Month undermines black history. 

1. Lili Loofbourow [@Millicentsomer], staff writer at Slate, on the sexist coverage of women in politics. Listen.

2. Joshua Rofé [@joshua_rofe], filmmaker, and Lorena Gallo (FKA Lorena Bobbitt) on the new documentary "Lorena." Listen.

3. Doreen St. Félix [@dstfelix], staff writer at The New Yorker, on the commercialization of Black History Month. Listen.

It’s really stunning to look back at major media coverage of Lorena Bobbit, Anita Hill, and Monica Lewinsky and see how terribly wrong they all managed to botch it up. I’m glad that some of the record is beginning to be corrected.
Replied to Terry Greene on Twitter (Twitter)
#​PressEdConf19 #​hallwaytrack
Replied to a tweet by Dr LJ Dr LJ (Twitter)
Content doesn’t always need to be public. On my WordPress-based commonplace book (aka my website), a huge amount of it is either private or password protected for smaller groups. Would something like that have worked in your case?
Replied to a tweet by Dr LJ Dr LJ (Twitter)
I like that old school Blogroll you’ve got! I wish I could have kept mine small enough for a sidebar:
https://boffosocko.com/2017/11/10/a-following-page/
Replied to Fixing the financial dilemma at the heart of our broken tech industry by Ben WerdmüllerBen Werdmüller (Ben Werdmüller)

I was recently forwarded Jeffrey Zeldman's piece on A List Apart, Nothing Fails Like Success, on the impact of venture capital on startup business models. At the end, he questions whether the indieweb is a possible answer to the predicament we find ourselves in.

I feel uniquely positioned to answer, because I've been a venture capitalist (at mission-driven accelerator Matter Ventures) and have literally started an indieweb startup, Known. I've also bootstrapped a startup and worked at one that raised hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars.

Ben does an excellent job (in a short space) encapsulating what the VC world is and how it works. He also provides some insight into ways forward for those who might want to build businesses or infrastructure that have an indie web flavor.

I agree with him that we should ultimately be looking for more zebras instead of unicorns. This model is a much better method for building value and particularly for building long term societal value.  

In sum, Ben seems to be saying that it won’t be easy–but what process of business building ever is? This may seem to paint a less-than-rosy picture, but keep in mind that Ben also doesn’t touch on the sea change of individual people who are personally choosing IndieWeb solutions for their online identities, presences, and communication. And it’s just this audience of people which Jeffrey’s piece was trying to reach out to. At the same time a lot of that audience is also most likely to begin building out businesses based upon these things, and here Ben’s expertise will stand in good stead.

Ultimately I’m sure this technology will continue to build until it reaches a full boil, and this will make it much easier for a wide array of creative and service businesses to be built upon it.

For those considering businesses who’d like a leg up, especially if you’d ever written a Twitter client of any kind, take a look at the Micropub and Microsub concepts. I’ll bet that with some modular pieces (and potentially pre-existing ones), you could add these to that old client and bring it back to life for a growing universe of more than 10,000 active websites and a potential universe of millions more. Based on the reaction to my recent presentation of some example Micropub use cases at a WordCamp, there is a huge group of people who are excited to see and use these tools.

Thanks for writing this all out for us Ben.