And 7 years later?

What does that mean? It means you can write a post that is directed within the network. If you want to get on the radar of a blogger – write about their ideas and reference them. The lowly hyperlink is a connective tissue that creates a network graph between the nodes.

~ Tom Critchlow, from Experiments in Networked Writing

Critchlow wrote that in 2018. 7 years down the road, all the technology (for the web and blogs) works great, it’s easier than ever to blog, and in 14 years / 5,000 posts I’ve never had anyone (an author of something I’ve linked to) reach out to me. I’m not complaining—I don’t blog as a way to fish for connections like that. (I blog as a way of working with the garage door up.)

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Also, how is this the first time I’ve used the tag “Blogging”?

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#Blogging #TomCritchlow

Long live the indie web, indeed

So, here’s something of a little manifesto or rallying cry:

• If you only spend your time on Facebook/Twitter/Medium then stream in, stream out – you’re going to get what you ask for. A fleeting set of stories loosely bound.
• So, spend time in the corners of the web. Subscribe to some newsletters. Bookmark some forums and blogs in your browser and show up regularly. It’s hard, there’s no stream. But you’ll start to find the mom & pop internet not the shopping mall internet.
• Dabble with your own space. Dabble with your own voice. Own your own platform.
• But don’t stop there – own your own distribution too! Build a newsletter. Build a messenger bot to alert people to new posts. Build your own stream. Create a shared delusion of showing up regularly.

Long live the indie web.

~ Tom Critchlow, from Indie Blogging & Distribution

slip:4utoii1.

I was a frequent user of the Internet before the web. Today is vastly better than then. The web straight up kicks ass, and the web is not just alive and well, it’s flourishing. If you aren’t seeing great content, you simply haven’t yet figured out where to look for it. Go look. (Right after you go read the above, of course.)

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#InternetTech #TheOpenWeb #TomCritchlow

Keeping it weird

In summary – I believe you should be publishing something to the web, maybe an esoteric spreadsheet, perhaps an open source javascript library, a deep dive into semantic analysis of your favorite author? Who knows? Publish, but keep it weird and humble.

~ Tom Critchlow, from An alternative to the bullshit industrial complex

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It’s probably confirmation bias, but I definitely agree with this sentiment. The internet enables an endless array of things. For me it’s mostly about me being enabled to share what I’m creating. Weird? Definitely. Humble? …uh, okay okay still working on that.

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#OpenSystems #PublishingPlatforms #TomCritchlow