GoKawiilDriven by curiosity, I decided to find out what the IndieWeb tag that kept showing up on some blogs and Mastodon toots was all about. I quickly discovered it was more than an empty concept or a feeling of nostalgia for the web of the 90s. It was a movement with concrete ideas, protocols and an active community! As I read through their wiki, I understood their position and the intelligence of their proposals more and more. Such was my enthusiasm that I decided to follow their advice and adopt the protocols that made sense for my site. After finishing the tests and adjustments, I can confirm that the experience has been very positive: I have learned a lot, the UX of my website has improved a bit more, and I enjoyed the process.
That is why I decided to write this article, cleaning up my notes from these last few months. Maybe it will help someone else discover it, and along the way, improve the health of the web. And for the nosy ones, I will also tell you which pieces I implemented, which ones I discarded and why, and which pieces of advice turned out to be the most useful.
But first, we need to answer a fundamental question.
What is the IndieWeb
The IndieWeb defines itself as "a people-focused alternative to the corporate web". It does not propose a piece of software or a framework, but an ideological foundation. It deliberately embraces a plurality of approaches and projects. As its homepage says: "we are people-focused instead of project-focused".
It all started in 2010, when Aaron Parecki and Tantek Çelik attended the Federated Social Web Summit in Portland. They left with the feeling that a different approach was needed: fewer protocols and more creators. In 2011 the first IndieWebCamp was held in Portland, and they have been celebrated every year around the world ever since, along with the Homebrew Website Club, meetups where people get together to improve their personal websites.
The 3 pillars that define it are:
Your content is yours : when you post something on the web, it should belong to you, not a corporation. Too many companies have shut down and taken their users' data with them.
: when you post something on the web, it should belong to you, not a corporation. Too many companies have shut down and taken their users' data with them. You are better connected : your articles can be distributed to any platform, not just one, and responses and likes from other services can come back to your site so you have everything in one place.
: your articles can be distributed to any platform, not just one, and responses and likes from other services can come back to your site so you have everything in one place. You are in control: you can post anything you want, in any format you want, with readable and permanent URLs that will always work.
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