I presented during the 2022 Netherlands WordCamp edition in Arnhem on turning all WordPress sites into fully IndieWeb enabled sites. Meaning turning well over a third of the web into the open social web. Outside all the silos.
The slides are available in my self-hosted Slideshare replacement for embed and download, and shown below.
I have been blogging a long time, and can tinker a bit with code (like a home cook). I want my site to be the center of how I read and write the web. Its purpose is to create conversations with others, who write in their own spaces on the web. The IndieWeb community supports that with a number of technical building blocks that allow me a set of pretty cool things. But all that IndieWeb offers has a high threshold for entry.
The key parts of IndieWeb to me, the parts that make interaction between websites possible, that allow any site to be an active part of many conversations, are much simpler though:
- Microformats2 so that computers know how to interpret our blogposts,
- some class declarations, so computers know why we link to some other web page,
- and WebMention, the protocol that lets a web page know another page is linking to them.
Making interaction possible between site authors, across sites, just by writing as they already do, is both the simplest to arrange and the most impactful. It’s not something that site authors should have to deal with though, it should be in your website’s engine. WordPress in my case, and an enormous amount of other websites.
Ensuring that WordPress Themes, and Gutenberg blocks would support and could handle Microformats2 and classes correctly therefore will have a huge impact.
Over 40% of the open web would then with a single stroke be the open social web. No need for data hungry silo’s, no place for algorithmic timelines designed to keep you hooked.
WordPress wants to be the Operating System for the Web. That OS is missing social features, and it’s not a big leap to add them with existing web protocols. No website owner would have to be a coder, be it home cooking style or professional, to use those social features and create conversations. It would just be there.
If you build WP Themes, if you create Gutenberg blocks, you’re invited to help make this happen.
Just great. Could quote every slide.
Somewhat inspired by https://www.zylstra.org/blog/2022/09/wordpressindieweb-as-the-os-of-the-open-social-web/, I did some experimenting with WordPress’s new Full Site Editor. The result is this, still very hacky, Twenty Twenty-Two child theme. https://github.com/janboddez/tt2-mf2
Thanks Jan, Experimentation is appreciated!
@m2m ask @jan he’s been busy trying to make it work.
@m2m Most if not all WordPress themes did once support mf1.With classic themes, yes, it’s most definitely possible to add common microformats, including mf2. A few people have done it, myself included (through child themes, or directly).Now, while the Full Site Editor and block themes mean we’ve got take a rather different approach, it certainly isn’t impossible: https://github.com/janboddez/tt2-mf2. @barrysampson
GitHub – janboddez/tt2-mf2: A Twenty Twenty-Two child theme with minimal microformats2 support.
@m2m Still, I feel WP core and its “default themes” (or any starter themes from Automattic and the like) could do a lot more to make this easier (or directly add mf2 themselves, which is what @ton suggests).This is where I’m less hopeful. I just learned the “starter theme of all starter themes” had their support for mf1 *removed* in 2018. (And there’s indeed no trace of them in, say, Twenty Twenty-Two.) @barrysampson
@m2m (The other thing is, the current “IndieWeb” plugins are sort of confusing. Plus, and that’s kind of the issue: microformats are *theme territory*. And *then* there’s these plugins, Webmention easily being the most important one.If we could get themes to “just work,” then it’d be a matter of installing just the Webmention plugin and off you go. Instant, meaningful site-to-site conversations.)
@ton I just posted a link to the same post of yours ignoring that you’re on Mastodon too 🙂
Thursday I visited the first day of the two day Netherlands WordCamp that, after a 6 year hiatus, took place again. Some observations:
The venue was fun, in the middle of Burgers Zoo in Arnhem. From the room where I presented you looked out over the enclosure where the giraffes and rhino’s were. The entrance to the venue was through the tropical jungle greenhouse, with unseen birds and other animals making lots of noises somewhere above in the foliage.
The atmosphere was excellent, very laid back as well as open and curious to engage in conversation
It was my first time at WordCamp and somewhere above a third of the participants were as well, meaning there was a good mix of new people and old hands. A mix that helps set the atmosphere and tone of an event.
Sustainability was a big theme. Multiple speakers explored how WP web developers can reduce the footprint of the sites they create. Heard several things (reduce the number of URLs WP exposes, find ways of limiting hits generated by crawlers and bots, reduce the size of various elements in your WP site etc.) that I can follow up on. Also made me think again about running a RSS-only, otherwise completely headless website. Though given another takeaway further down the list, that isn’t a good idea.
The organising team had also focused on sustainability, and I was happy they went the same route as is the custom at IndieWeb events: all catering was vegetarian. I also learned that all food that wasn’t used was donated, pre-arranged with the local foodbank.
It was fun to meet several people in person that I’ve known online for a long time, such as Roel Groeneveld and Gerard van Enk, and co-organisers Marcel and Remkus. Others I had met before, like Bert Boerland. Plus I met some new people.
I think my presentation was well received.
I was a bit the odd one out, as I am a non-professional blogger who is a WordPress user, not a developer. It was a WordCamp, by the WP community and ecosystem, so the audience was largely commercially oriented. Web agencies, SEO, UX design etc. I am also someone who has a longer history with WordPress than some others, having seen it start as a blogging tool.
The WordPress community is large and densely connected, I’m an outsider to it, although I know quite a few people who are part of it. So this wasn’t ‘my’ crowd, but the energy from people meeting in person again after several years was palpable.
When the opening speaker asked ‘who here still reads RSS’ and only 5 or so raised their hands, in line with his expectations, was surprising to say the least. People either ditched RSS when Google Reader went away in 2013, or if they were younger never started with RSS. How do people read at volume if not through feeds? Actually going to websites and newsletters is the answer apparently.
Only a few people had ever heard of IndieWeb, although there definitely were some.
One of the volunteers I chatted with never heard of BarCamp. Nor realised that the Camp in WordCamp speaks of its lineage. This is akin to how in 2021 the supposedly first Dutch BarCamp was going to take place.
Those last three things underline what E and I have been chatting about in the past months regularly. How it is needed to keep talking about, writing about and transfer to others these things, repeatedly that we think are ‘just normal’ and essential. For things to be used, and be useful, you can never assume that telling the world about it is ever done. Which brings me back to why I was at WordCamp in the first place, talking about IndieWeb.
My first encounter with WordPress, at BlogTalk 2006 in Vienna. Photo Matt Mullenweg, used with permission.
Last week I was too busy and tired to write my week notes, so I skipped them. Meaning a double helping this week. There’s a lot going on at the moment, and I don’t feel fully on top of things. Next week looks mostly the same, as does the week after it. Need to get more strict in defending my own time, also for going through what I saw someone describe as ‘the introvert’s hangover’ after intensive interaction.
The previous week I
Did the administrative (tax, payroll info) and tooling steps (new laptop and software) to onboard a new hire, who started this week
Prepared a session with all major Dutch gov geo data holders at the end of the month, with those responsible at the Ministry for the Interior
Spent a day and a half with a client on their yearly retreat, discussing next year and their new multiyear planning
Emptied our top floor so new ceiling high cupboards could be constructed
Made a new iteration for the plans for a interprovincial digital ethics commission, and presented it to the first tier of the decision making process
Presented some work I did 2 years ago to the same client team now they have largely new people
Spent a day at the office, meeting our new hire and working with our team
Felt ill for a day
Started a major rewrite of a project proposal for a police organisation on AI ethics
Took Y to her swimming lesson
Outlined my presentation for Netherlands WordCamp, and started on making slides
Went to the zoo with E and Y
The past week I
Finished a major rewrite of a project proposal for a police organisation on AI ethics, discussed it with 2 colleagues, concluding it needs more rewriting still (which I didn’t get around to this week)
Drove a car full of stuff to the city’s recycling station, much more to do
Had the weekly client meetings
Discussed presenting to a client’s board on short notice, early next week
Made a new iteration for the plans for a interprovincial digital ethics commission, and presented it to the second tier of the decision making process. Made and shared a longlist of potential members of such a commission.
Had a great conversation with the national environmental institute on their national citizen science platform, and the plans they want to develop for it.
Started outlining my opening keynote for the Belgian national geo-information conference early next month in Brussels. Booked travel for it.
Discussed salary changes with two team members and decided on new pay levels.
Spent a day at Netherlands WordCamp, presenting about how IndieWeb could be part of WordPress
Took Y to her swimming lesson
Started outlining three presentations I am supposed to give early next week
Nice indieweb thoughts and presentation. As an aside, I’ve added Hypothesis annotations to my site, inspired by Ton’s site. #Technology
I wish I knew how to do this. It seems that if you want to make your site the central place, you need to have some technical expertise to do it. I like the idea of webmentions and also the annotations. Any place where you can refer me to a bare basic simplistic guide (“idiots guide”) would be greatly appreciated.
@ton I loved reading your presentation – is there any video posted? I will be writing a post soon on this topic, thanks for sharing!
@AndySylvester It was recorded yes which will be posted (don’t know when)
/where), however I presented in Dutch
@ton thanks for the info
WordPress+IndieWeb as the OS of the Open Social Web zylstra.org/blog/2022/09/w…
This Article was mentioned on cagrimmett.com
Re; WordPress+IndieWeb as the OS of the Open Social Web This is a very interesting post by Mr. Ton Zijlstra at Interdependent Thoughts. He explains how WordPress, in conjunction with two IndieWeb standards (Microformats2 and Webmentions) have the potential to be the operating system of an Open Social Web. The idea is that people can run their own sites (see my digital home concept, […]
Favorited Yes! My IndieBlocks plugin is now up on WP.org by Jan Boddez
Oh, nice! Jan has been working on his own WordPress plugins w.r.t. IndieWeb for some time and now released some of that work as a public plugin. Current IndieWeb set-ups do not support the Gutenberg editor in WordPress as blocks are not supported. Jan’s plugin is created for blocks. Will need to try this out (also because my recent presentation at WordCamp on making WP IndieWeb compatible by default played a small role). Nice timing Jan, releasing it just so it can dominate my weekend
Also on IndieWeb News
This is a terrific post that gave me a lot to think about.
WordPress+IndieWeb as the OS of the Open Social Web – Interdependent Thoughts (zylstra.org)
I share, and have been sharing, many of Wouter’s concerns. Mastodon is a resource hog, moderating even a smallish instance is harder than you think, and some servers will fold eventually.
I also feared the nice and quiet space I’d carved out for myself would quickly be overrun by “clueless tourists”; in reality, it’s been fine. Guess it’s not my job to keep the Fediverse elite.
Still, I much prefer my “traditional” feed reader, a dead-simple PHP application that runs just about anywhere, which provides me with (only) a (much slower) timeline of the people I follow—and, if I want to share something with the world, there’s always this blog.
That said, getting a Mastodon server up and running is, in fact, surprisingly easy. (It obviously helps to know Linux, and NGINX, and Docker—or Ruby and PostgreSQL—but web hosts could easily “abstract away” that part, like they’ve done for PHP and MySQL.)
The actual “admin tax,” keeping your server and the Mastodon software up to date, is rather low for a single-user instance—sure, it’ll eat through your disk space in no time, but that’s another thing (and why object storage exists).
If anything, it’s easier than getting a somewhat full-featured “IndieWeb” site off the ground, which, to do well, requires a fairly deep understanding of HTML, and microformats, and, sometimes, the back-end side of things.
The great thing about the “IndieWeb’s” building bricks is exactly that: ultimate flexibility. You first start a website, and only then slowly add and remove whatever bits work for you. It’s an ongoing process, of making what you need.
This is also why an “IndieWeb” for everyone isn’t exactly in the stars, yet. (Unless, of course, that “IndieWeb” turns out to be … the Fediverse.) There’s but one place you can simply sign up and get going, and that’s Micro.blog. WordPress-plus-plugins is way behind—the many incompatible themes don’t exactly help. (There’s hope, though, thanks to the Site Editor. But even then you’d need a separate reader, and IndieAuth, and Micropub—see what I’m getting at?—to tie your reading interface to WordPress.)
That said, WordPress may very well be our best bet at a widely supported, “easily” manageable basis for a self-hosted “social website.” Ton’s presentation is what inspired the birth of IndieBlocks, yet another IndieWeb plugin for WordPress. (I was this close to ditching WordPress altogether and moving to a homebrewed CMS, one that would require, well, a fairly deep understanding of HTML, microformats, and Markdown. Guess I’ll stick around a bit longer.)
One of the things I’ve been struggling with is exactly which microformats IndieBlocks should support. Blocks can only do so much; how you use them is equally important. I think I’ve got it figured out, though: any “off-the-shelf” solution will have to be somewhat opinionated. As long as it sufficiently lowers to bar for entry, that’s okay. More advanced users can then extend or override its default behavior.
Mastodon, after all, also doesn’t support all of ActivityPub. But it is liberal in what it accepts.
I share—and have been sharing online—many of Wouter’s concerns. Mastodon is a resource hog, moderating even a smallish instance is harder than you think, and some servers will fold eventually.
I also feared the nice and quiet space I’d carved out for myself would quickly be overrun by “clueless tourists”; in reality, it’s been fine. Guess it’s not my job to keep the Fediverse elite.
Still, I much prefer my “traditional” feed reader, a dead-simple PHP application that runs just about anywhere, and provides me with (only) a (much slower) timeline of the people I follow—and, if I want to share something with the world, there’s always this blog.
That said, getting a Mastodon server up and running is, in fact, surprisingly easy. (It obviously helps to know Linux, and NGINX, and Docker—or Ruby and PostgreSQL—but web hosts could easily “abstract away” that part, like they’ve done for PHP and MySQL.)
The actual “admin tax,” keeping your server and the Mastodon software up to date, is rather low for a single-user instance—sure, it’ll eat through your disk space in no time, but that’s another thing (and why object storage exists).
If anything, it’s easier than getting a somewhat full-featured “IndieWeb” site off the ground, which, to do well, requires a fairly deep understanding of HTML, and microformats, and, sometimes, the back-end side of things.
The great thing about the IndieWeb’s “building bricks” is exactly that: ultimate flexibility. You first start a website, and only then slowly add (and remove) whatever bits work for you (or don’t). It’s an ongoing process, of making what you need.
This freedom is also why an “IndieWeb” for everyone isn’t exactly in the stars, yet. (Unless, of course, that “IndieWeb” turns out to be … the Fediverse.) There’s but one place you can simply sign up and get going, and that’s Micro.blog. (Tumblr may be next.)
WordPress-plus-plugins is way behind—the many incompatible themes don’t exactly help. (There’s hope, though, thanks to the Site Editor. But even then you’d need a separate reader, and IndieAuth, and Micropub—see what I’m getting at?—to tie your reading interface to WordPress.)
That said, WordPress may very well be our best bet at a widely supported, “easily” manageable basis for a self-hosted “social website.”
Ton’s presentation is what inspired the birth of IndieBlocks, yet another IndieWeb plugin for WordPress. (I was this close to ditching WordPress altogether and moving to a homebrewed CMS, one that would require, well, a fairly deep understanding of HTML, microformats, and Markdown. Guess I’ll stick around a bit longer.)
One of the things I’ve been struggling with is exactly which microformats IndieBlocks should support. Blocks can only do so much; how you use them is equally important. I think I’ve got it figured out, though: any “off-the-shelf” solution will have to be somewhat opinionated. As long as it sufficiently lowers to bar for entry, that’s okay. More advanced users can then extend or override its default behavior.
Mastodon, after all, also doesn’t support all of ActivityPub. But it is liberal in what it accepts.
Thanks to the renewed interest in actual social media with conversations, rather than an algorithm-driven advertisement space, I find myself having interesting online conversations again.I really wanted to use my own website and domain for further engagement.But… experience with earlier attempts at federating networks made me cautious. Setting up and maintaining my own Jabber/XMPP and Diaspora servers was a lot of effort for little result. An excursion into the current field of microformats and protocols again suggested a lot to choose from, with very little guidance.So after reading about Ton Zijlstra’s vision on “an operating system for the Open Social Web” (presented at the Dutch WordCamp 2022), we had a good conversation about experiences and the state of things (thanks Ton!).I started playing with several WordPress plugins. And this morning, I came across Erik Visser’s experiences in putting all the pieces in place. Very helpful (dank, Erik!) to streamline a day of work to have my first version running as well.Next steps I see:
Write up my own technical experiences on getting it working.Figure out how my Fediverse handle @rolf@drostan.org can be a link.How to connect my site with my Mastodon account?Figure out lots more about the dynamics of interactions in the Fediverse.Start organising my stream of content in useful WordPress tags, post types, and categories.
You can follow my updates and react via @rolf@drostan.org in Mastodon!#fediverse #social_softwarehttps://drostan.org/2022/11/adding-my-site-to-the-fediverse/
fediverse
social_software
WordPress+IndieWeb as the OS of the Open Social Web – Interdependent Thoughts
Thanks to the renewed interest in actual social media, rather than an algorithm-driven advertisement space, I find myself having interesting online conversations again.
I really wanted to use my own website and domain for further engagement.
But… experience with earlier attempts at federating networks made me cautious. Setting up and maintaining my own Jabber/XMPP and Diaspora servers was a lot of effort for little result. An excursion into the current field of microformats and protocols again suggested a lot to choose from, with very little guidance.
So after reading about Ton Zijlstra’s vision on “an operating system for the Open Social Web” (presented at the Dutch WordCamp 2022), we had a good conversation about experiences and the state of things (thanks Ton!).
I started playing with several WordPress plugins. And this morning, I came across Erik Visser’s experiences in putting all the pieces in place. Very helpful (dank, Erik!) to streamline a day of work to have my first version running as well.
Next steps I see:
Write up my own technical experiences on getting it working.
Figure out how my Fediverse handle @rolf@drostan.org can be a link.
How to connect my site with my Mastodon account?
Figure out lots more about the dynamics of interactions in the Fediverse.
Start organising my stream of content in useful WordPress tags, post types, and categories.
You can follow my updates and react via @rolf@drostan.org in Mastodon!
Starting in 2010 I have posted an annual ‘Tadaa’ list, a list of things that made me feel I had accomplished something that year. I started doing it in 2010 because I tend to forget things I did after completion. Like last year I didn’t feel much like writing this. It seemed a greyish year, passing in the shadow of the war that Russia wages on Ukraine. A year where Covid is still very much around us, yet things sort-of returned to normal. But for a different value of normal, a somewhat twisted normal, a parallel one. An appearance and pretense of normal perhaps more than an actual normal. An intransitive year almost, taking me from 2021 to 2023, but without object. Or maybe it’s because the last few months were extremely busy, pushing through more than being in the here and now, which sapped the colour from the months preceding it. Which is as good a reason as any to try and list the things that did bring a sense of accomplishment. I do have my day logs from the entire year, as well as kept up posting week notes here, so I can look back at what went on these past 12 months.
So here goes, in no particular order:
The European High Value Data list has become law in December. Two years ago I had a defining influence on the data it lists for earth observation, environment and meteorology. Even if the implementation period is 16 months and some datasets may get a temporary exemption for another two years, and even if it doesn’t go far enough (mostly on company information) to the taste of many, it is an important milestone. It draws the line under discussions about paywalls and exclusive access rights that were already old when I got involved in open data in 2009, in favor of mandatory pro-active publication for all to use freely. I’m glad I could translate my experience in this field into something now enshrined much more solidly in EU law.
We took regular breaks as a family. We started the year in Luzern, spent a week in Limburg in April, spent three weeks in Bourgogne doing most of nothing. Had weekend trips, to various musea for instance. One of the things E and I decided, while hanging out in front of our tent in the Bourgogne last summer, was to mark all school holidays in our own calendar in the coming year, to either take them off ourselves, or to keep them free of work appointments. I think it should be possible without impacting my output, but it will require careful planning.
I’ve kept an actualised guide about the incoming EU data legislation in Dutch for a client. It gets automatically generated directly from my own working notes in Obsidian which appeals to me in terms of nerdy workflow, and it is highly used by Dutch government data holders and regularly mentioned as a very useful resource which speaks to its utility.
I enjoyed homecooking a few software tools. Early in the year I adapted my OPML booklists so they are generated directly from my own book notes. (Although the negative side effect has been I did not blog about my reading at all, which I intend to change soon) I particularly enjoyed enabling myself to post through Micropub to my various websites. Through it I can post from various sources bypassing the WordPress back-end, inluding directly from my local notes in Obsidian, and from my feedreader. Every time feels like magic despite the fact I wrote the scripts myself. I think that sense of magic stems from the reduction of friction it affords.
I helped the foundation I chair through a inconvenient period of administrative issues. Nothing serious in itself, but right at a moment where it did have consequences for the team, which I was able to cushion. We also extended the number of board members, laying a better fundament for the coming years.
The influx of many new users into the Fediverse spurred my involvement in the use and governance of Mastodon. I helped plan a governance structure for the largest Dutch instance, and intend to help out in the coming year as well. We’re building a non-profit legal entity around it, and secured initial funding for that from a source in line with that non-profit status. I enjoyed also kicking off some discussion within the Dutch forum for standards that prescribes the mandatory standards for the Dutch public sector.
I keynoted at BeGeo, the Belgian annual conference of the geo-information sector, at the invitation of the Belgian national geographics institute. It was fun to create the story line for it, as well as enjoyed the sense of traveling and meeting with a professional community I’m normally not part of. It’s the type of thing I often did for years, and I miss it I noticed. Something to look out for in the coming months.
My company had a great year, apart from a hick-up after the summer, to the occasion of which the team rose fantastically. We grew despite that hick-up, adding two new team members in May and September, and signed an additional new hire in December. As of February we will be ten people. The work we’re doing is highly interesting, around digital ethics, data governance mostly, engaging new clients frequently. Our team is a great group of people, and I think we all take good care of eachother. We completed the 11th year of my company which I think is already an amazing run. For next year our portfolio is already mostly filled.
During the pandemic lock-downs in 2021 we hired cabins for all team members at a holiday park to work and hang out together for a week while maintaining social distancing advice. We realised we wanted to do that yearly regardless of pandemics, and did so in 2021 again. It’s an important thing for both the social and professional dimensions of our company.
I took my homecooked projects as the starting point for a presentation at WordCamp Netherlands to plead for more general adoption of IndieWeb principles, specifically webmention and microformats in WordPress which met with good responses and helped spur on at least one coder to finish and publish a plugin. I’m mostly a boundary spanner in these settings, at the edge of communities, in this case the WordPress community, and being able to bring a story and suggestions for change into a commmunity from another context and see it getting a response is something I enjoy.
Seeing Y grow and thrive, in school, socially, reading, swimming, skating.
Decided to join my old fraternity on their 30th anniversary trip to Montenegro, and am glad I did. Montenegro is a beautiful and rugged country.
I’ve been writing in this space continuously for twenty years now. Even if my writing here in the past few months has been less frequent, an expression of how busy it was in other aspects of my life, blogging has been a constant and a key to creating new conversations, connections, ideas and experiments.
I explored new tools to integrate in my personal workflow, like annotating with Hypothes.is, using machine translation (DeepL) and AI text and image generators. This as starting point for turning them into personal software tools in future months.
We spent some days around New Year in Switzerland, visiting dear friends. As years go by, such things become more important, never less. The simple fact of time passing means old friendships carry ever more context and meaning.
Ever onwards! (After having the first week of January off and spending it with the three of us that is.)
E and Y discussing artworks in the Rijksmuseum Twenthe. A great way to spend time together.