“The simplicity of HTML and CSS now feels like a radical act. To build a website with just these tools is a small protest against platform capitalism: a way to assert sustainability, independence, longevity.” — Jarrett Fuller
#Ghost#ActivityPub#Decentralization#OpenWeb: "They say the best way to predict the future is to create it, so two weeks ago we shared our intention to connect Ghost with the ActivityPub Network to bring back the open web. We were delighted when our ideas managed to spread even further and wider than we'd imagined, and that so many of you signed up to be a part of the journey."
"In 2024, for the first time, it finally feels like we have a critical mass of people and platforms who are interested in rewilding the internet to bring back what we lost, and create something new. ... There's a palpable feeling that this just might be the year of the open web."
#OpenWeb#BigTech#Interoperability#Splinternet: "If we’re make a serious case for a splinternet, the central plank should be the elimination of massive global platforms like we’ve gotten used to over the past couple decades. Governments will have to use regulatory and legal tools to erode the power and influence of those firms, squeezing their business models by restricting the ways they can use and collect data and enforcing much stronger rules on their operations. Higher taxes wouldn’t hurt either — something the US has been holding up globally for years. Regulation of global firms can be hard when undertaken by a single state on the national level, which is why it’s so important to start building an alliance of states that refuse the binary choice being offered by the United States — and rein in both US and Chinese tech giants with sectoral rules.
At the same time as regulatory pressures escalate, governments will need to think about what alternatives look like. This is where forced interoperability and open protocols come in, as long as they’re paired with regulatory measures and efforts to build public technology. Users will still want to communicate and share things with people they know from around the globe, and they should still be able to do that. But access to those federated services should instead happen through platforms conceived of and developed on the regional, national, or even local level. That will allow governments and communities to exert much more power over how they work and what they deem acceptable on them — instead of leaving it to a global monopoly or a tech-savvy group that has technical skill few other people hold — and given the different rules and cultural contexts of different countries, the choices they make may differ."
#Internet#OpenWeb#Ecology#Environment#Ecosystems: "Rewilding the internet is not a nostalgia project for middle-aged nerds who miss IRC and Usenet. For many people across the generations today, platforms like Facebook or TikTok are the internet. They’ve long dwelled in walled gardens they think are the world. Concentrated digital power produces the same symptoms that command and control produces in biological ecosystems; acute distress punctuated by sudden collapses once tipping points are reached. Rewilding is a way to collectively see the counterintuitive truth; today’s internet isn’t too wild, even if it feels like that. It’s simply not wild enough.
It’s important to share that ecological rewilding is a work in progress. What do you rewild to? Humans have shaped and cultivated landscapes for tens of thousands of years, so what does “wild” even mean? Just as there’s no ecosystem on Earth untouched by human actions, there’s no “true” wildness to return habitats to. And what scale is needed for rewilding to succeed? It’s one thing to reintroduce wolves to the 3,472 square miles of Yellowstone, quite another to cordon off about 20 square miles of a reclaimed polder near Amsterdam. Large and diverse Yellowstone is likely complex enough to adapt to change, but the small Dutch reserve known as Oostvaardersplassen has struggled."
After maintaining an #OpenSource project for more than two years, I took the decision to shut it down in order to focus my energy elsewhere.
While I am proud of shipping something that is useful to hundreds of users, this project does not bring me joy anymore because it ties me to a user-hostile commercial web that I want to leave behind. Instead of making the commercial web more bearable, I'd rather spend my energy on making the non-commercial web more attractive.
@bentsai Not exactly about #IndieWeb / personal blogging but I think the @wedistribute podcast (from @deadsuperhero ) touches on a lot of common IndieWeb principles, i.e. empowering people, decorporatization, owning their own web, #openweb, etc… 6 episodes in and I've enjoyed each one!
#WebApps#Privacy#Cybersecurity#OpenWeb: "The problem with in-app browsers is that they play by a different set of rules from standalone browsers. As noted by OWA in its 62-page submission [PDF] to regulators:
They override the user's choice of default browser
They raise tangible security and privacy harms
They stop the user from using their ad-blockers and tracker blockers
Their default browsers privacy and security settings are not shared
They are typically missing web features
They typically have many unique bugs and issues
The user's session state is not shared so they are booted out of websites they have logged into in their default browser
-They provide little benefit to users
They create significant work and often break third-party websites
They don't compete as browsers
They confuse users and today function as dark patterns
Since around 2016, software engineers involved in web application development started voicing concerns about in-app browsers at some of the companies using them. But it wasn't until around 2019 when Google engineer Thomas Steiner published a blog post about Facebook's use of in-app browsers in its iOS and Android apps that the privacy and choice impact of in-app browsers began to register with a wider audience." https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/inapp_browsers/
The World Wide Web turned 35 this year! But its creator is profoundly disappointed in what it turned into.
"There are two [...] issues to address. The first is the extent of power concentration, which contradicts the decentralised spirit I originally envisioned. [...] the second, the personal data market that has exploited people’s time and data with the creation of deep profiles that allow for targeted advertising"
After ten years, today was my last day at WP Engine. Over my career, I've been a podcaster, video producer, illustrator, tailor, game developer, musician, community manager, and professional yo-yoer.
I found that what I've most enjoyed doing, and what I did on the WPE's Press This podcast for two years, was spotlighting interesting people and projects. I've been interviewing artists and makers since I was a teen, and I hope I can continue doing that in my career.
I loved working on podcasts, illustrations, videos, and many other projects in the #WordPress space, and I hope to find a role that fits my skills. I'm particularly interested in a Digital Campaign Manager role in the #Fediverse and #OpenWeb space if anything like that exists.
@BeAware that's an interesting reply, am not talking about a personal expirence, am talking about a generalisation of thusends of users over 5 years. Good to focus. Signal-to-noise.
What happens if you are the admin of the instance, why are you running it? If the "users" do not care enough to engage and can leave as if it was disposable?
"Another benefit, for me at least," and "you can mostly be seen across Fedi with little issues" "I can be on"
Is the kinda issues that make the "community" based "native" crew reluctant.
And yes, what you are doing and saying is "common sense" of the influx. This is what the original post is about "shouting into the void"
Without community, this #openweb reboot fails no mattery how meany "users and reach" they get. As there will be nobody to run it, good to think about this.
I’m seeing more and more sites not working in #Firefox for iOS - the latest is LinkedIn.
It was working a few months ago, but now it’s completely messed up compared to how it displays in Safari and Chrome. I refuse to download their app.
It always seems to be companies that very much have the resources to make their website interoperable, so it’s very obviously an intentional choice. Not a great sign for the #OpenWeb.
This is not a criticism of Firefox, quite the opposite.
🧵1/ Decentralized and federated social networks are reshaping our digital interactions, offering privacy-focused alternatives to the giants like TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. Here's a dive into some platforms leading this change. #DecentralizedSocialMedia#Privacy
9/ What are your thoughts on decentralized and federated social networks? Have you tried any (except Mastodon)? Share your experiences and let's discuss the future of social media beyond the control of tech giants. #OpenWeb#FutureOfSocialMedia