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The Small Web isn’t about going back to the days of GeoCities. It’s about going forward differently, using modern tech in a non-colonial manner.

It’s not about building clones of Twitter, YouTube, etc. There’s no way anyone can self-host a dozen different services. Instead, it’s about having a single-tenant place on the Web that you own and control without technical knowhow; a place you can add Twitter, YouTube, etc., *features* to.

https://small-tech.org/research-and-development/

#SmallWeb #SmallTech #SingleTenant

R&D

Building the Small Web: a public space of individually-owned and controlled places.
Small Technology Foundation
#SmallTech #SmallWeb #SingleTenant
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Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •
Thank you; here’s to building a better web together :)
in reply to Aral Balkan

Ash McAllan
Ash McAllan
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how much contact have y'all had with #indieweb folks? You seem pretty aligned. Indieweb.org is all about that self hosted life.
#indieWeb
in reply to Ash McAllan

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •
Hi Ash, this is what they think of us: https://indieweb.org/small_web

They’ve been incredibly hostile over the years and I actually considered not replying to this publicly in the interests of letting sleeping dogs lie.

Basically, we’re in no way affiliated with them. We’re just trying to do our own thing and would ideally like to do that without getting harassed by them.

small web - IndieWeb

indieweb.org
in reply to Aral Balkan

drewp
drewp
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Why can't anyone self-host a dozen services?They don't even all need to be uniformly up and secure all the time.

Our goal should be to automate the running of 1 svc so a dozen doesn't seem daunting to anyone.
in reply to drewp

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •
Yes, if we do latter (and if we optimise such services for ownership and control by individuals, not corporations or governments) then there’s no reason why you can’t.

My point was that you cannot expect everyday folks to self host a dozen of today’s multi-user services that are, for the most part, facsimiles of big-tech design, including all their complexity.
in reply to Aral Balkan

drewp
drewp
• •
Agree! But even one big-tech-style multi-user svc is probably too much.

We need to change expectations and highlight good examples of projects optimized for self-hosting. E.g. home automation may have an advantage, since at least part of it *has* to be self-hosted.

Also, bring back 'home pages' and let them be self-hosted.
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