I’ve always been about having my own site to control my own longform content instead of relying on for-profit companies to have my best interests in mind — but the IndieWeb is more than that. The IndieWeb is a different philosophy and approach to using the internet. It reverses people from being mere users of corporate silos, where their value is how much ad revenue they can generate directly through clicks or indirectly through providing free content, into beacons of thought and information and connectors themselves.

A Human-Centered, Less Corporate Approach to the Web

Recentering How I Use the Web Based on My Needs Rather Than the Private Services That are Available

Because the IndieWeb is a complete system of tools that can be used to do almost anything you want to do on the web, it’s been a lot to wrap my head around. Taking advantage of the whole ecosystem and going full IndieWeb can be a dramatic shift in how we use the web. Instead of checking in on various social sites, you can use your own home base to communicate with others across the web, no matter where they are. Rather than email being the hub of your daily web experience, your website is. It appeals to me for communication the same way RSS appeals to me for following blogs. I’m still soaking it all in, but getting more excited about all the possibilities!

Making the Web A Little More Alive

So much of the web is “sanitized,” nipples deemed inherently sexual and therefore offensive, and yet full of content that is actually offensive like hate speech and bullying and racism and straight-up false information. When the internet makes money through clicks and shares, and money is the only decision-making filter, content that outrages is good. I have enough stress in my life without manufactured crises — especially since there are real crises happening in the US that we shouldn’t lose sight of for the outrage-of-the-day. Having our communication tools controlled by for-profit companies means that our human needs for safe, good-faith conversational spaces come second to maximizing the number of users on the site and drumming up “engagement” even when it is unhealthy in human terms.

Give me nipples over trolls any day.

Computers guess what demographic I fit in — they’re right on my age and marital status, yet wrong about my goals and lifestyle. (Psst, AI! Not all women in their thirties have or want kids.) Algorithms recommend content that will reinforce what I already think since that makes people feel good, or show me art and design similar to what I’ve seen and liked before. In a web dominated by AI and algorithms, it takes effort to seek out quality material that will challenge you, whether visual aesthetics or political.

On social sites, algorithms decide what content to show me, even though I’ve chosen who I want to follow purposefully. In Gmail, Google decides what emails are spam or promotional, even for newsletters I signed up for (with CAPTCHAs and double-opt-ins and everything!) — and they’re wrong a lot of the time. Personalized recommendations make sites like Amazon and YouTube into echo chambers. I’m tired of AI deciding what to show me.

I’ve long said the future of the web is curation — there’s so much content, much of it crap or irrelevant — and I want to hear what real people find interesting. As a designer, I want to be shown a wide variety of other creative work, not just art that I already like. As a thinker and writer, I need to be exposed to different ways of thinking and other approaches to problems. For me, there is value in seeing and reading (some) things I don’t like or disagree with — and it’s hard to train an algorithm to do that.

Meet Other People Who Run Their Own Websites

It’s fun to meet other people who also run their own websites, even if their interests are different! (Yet another way to get to learn about new things.) The Indie Web community seems very active, with lots of online events held during the pandemic and an open chat.

Better Ways to Share Thoughts and Connect with Others

Micropublishing as a New Way of Saving and Sharing Info and Short Thoughts

I don’t have a great system for keeping track of information on the web. I have a terrible habit of keeping 50+ tabs open on my phone because I don’t want to forget about them, but I don’t have a system for filing them. Or, I’ll read an interesting article, and want to refer to it a couple months later, but didn’t save it at the time. (Happened while writing this article 🙄) Apparently a lot of ideas take longer to incorporate than I expect!

Recently I tried out the beta of a promising-sounding service, but it didn’t work for me at all. Currently I use a blend of Pinterest, Trello, and emailing notes to myself. But why am I waiting for others to make a system for me? Why not make my own filing system, that will never get shut down? I don’t need anything complicated. I can use micropublishing to create my own record and repository of information, thoughts, inspiration, and articles!

I stumbled across the concepts of both “digital gardens” and commonplace books as places to keep disconnected notes and thoughts before they’ve coalesced — thinking and learning in public. Micropublishing seems like a simple way to accomplish this without setting up complicated infrastructure. I’m long overdue to update tracydurnell.com, which no longer reflects a need I have, so I think I’ll set it up to host more of a directory and personal journal, while keeping my articles here. I’m most excited by micropub options for logging books, notes and bookmarks, and drinks.

Theoretically, I could post all those things on this blog — but my goal for this site is talking about productivity and creative work and finding inspiration in the Pacific Northwest’s outdoors. Sometimes I find things that don’t neatly fit into that, or are political, or I’m not sure what I think of something and I want to digest it a little more. I’m OK with posting quotes, but here I’d like to add commentary to any other article I share — which doesn’t quite work if I don’t yet have anything to say. This is kind of an “in my head” problem about how I approach things, but one I’ve suffered from a long time — even in high school I hated to write things down in the “wrong” notebook!

“Leading by Example” and Adopting Better Systems, Even with the Kinks

The IndieWeb is still in its early stages, with a small (but active) community. There are definitely some technical hurdles to widespread adoption, but I am a proponent of acting based on how I would like to see the world run, rather than accepting the status quo, even if it takes a little more work.

Although some question the value in individual environmental action when so many problems are systemic, I believe it’s important to do what we can to live in accordance with our personal values, and participate in the process of culture transformation by shifting my lifestyle to use less resources. As a consumer, I’ve been shifting away from using Google and Amazon, and trying to shift my purchasing power to local and independent businesses whenever possible. And as a user of the web, I want to participate in the internet I want, in an internet I believe in — one that centers people instead of companies, ideas and conversation instead of profit, and self-empowerment and personal action over inertia.