In regards to your current project of engaging with the #IndieWeb, I came across this post recently from Cathie LeBlanc discussing her experiences with the IndieWeb:
I have spent the last five days working on my own web site (which I’ve owned for a long time) to IndieWebify it. Check it out at cathieleblanc.com. Be warned that I’m in the early stages of setting my IndieWeb site up so things will evolve. This work has inspired me and I’m sure I’ll be writing about these efforts and my thoughts about them as I move forward.
What it made me realise is that some bigger projects are ongoing. They are almost a mindset, a way of seeing, doing and thinking. There is always something else to be done. The challenge is to break it all down into its parts. I guess that is the point of calling out your goals on the #IndieWeb wiki. This might also be a part of what Greg McVerry is investigating in regards to ‘onboarding’.
I wonder if something like a ‘Now’ page might be useful for this? I like how Chris Aldrich also breaks it down. There is always something more.
Hey Aaron, thank you for the comprehensive reply. I’m also on my own journey in terms of playing with indieweb philosophies. I appreciate the link to Cathie’s site…I’ll be following with interest. I also agree with Greg’s thinking about “onboarding” individuals. I think that is a common thread across tech…but it’s important to remember that we’re all playing on the bleeding edge of this.
Finally…I like the idea of a “now” page. I’ve been thinking about that for some time, but now that I’m switching up my signals…I think it might come soon. 🙂
In addition to my “Now” page, I’ve been thinking about having a projects/planning page where I keep my own copy of my longer term goals or to do type lists. It might be something akin to my IW user page where I list the things I’d like to work on. Then on my “Now” page I could add the things I’m actively working on completing this week/month.
Chris, I think that I like that better than the ‘Now’ page. I always wondered how the now would look over time.
Is your ‘Now’ page automated? I was looking at it and thinking how it could be organised using the feeds associated with the Post Kinds. I know how I would do this in Google Sheets, but not so sure about PHP etc … I might make a prototype to think it through a bit more.
Hey Aaron
I haven’t read Ian’s piece yet but I can guess where it’s going. It’s the same place you have been traveling with us. You know the destination..just over the horizon, to the left when you look right and yonder over right when you glance left.
Cathie rocks. Her call for the mindset first made me rethink how onboarding works. Do you plan for the person knocking on your door or hang a welcome sign in the yard?
I am exploring and contributing to the #indieweb WordPress community for a variety of reasons. First I want to say thanks to folks like David Shanske and Chris Aldrich by giving back to the community.
I also believe in the #indieweb goals found on https://indieweb.org/ and the principles of the community. If my school has a social justice mission this must include protecting the web and more importantly the people who use the web.
To this end I usually onboard people on the web through WordPress so learning about the user experience in spaces that we want to intentionally to design groom the mindsets Cathie discusses is critical. Focusing on the importance of owning your data and shaping your privacy requires long conversations with learners. I can’t contribute much to the plug-ins beyond some basic design but I can do user research and help shape tools to make the experience more user friendly.
I also see evidence of the headless CMS I have always wanted is closer with #indieweb technologies. We have all taught through RSS for some time. There are short comings but I see a future that addresses our issues while still preserving “loosely connected” learning.
I am especially thinking about OER and course materials. I wonder how microformats can be used to make our courses more remixable while providing attribution to creators. It startled me when I asked about OER18 about standards and all I could find was documentation from 2013. The elements of instructional design are not endless. We can develop the classes to get this done.
I also know markup can be counted. Things that can be tallied can often be modeled. I don’t want all the machine learning models and AI in education to be new silos. I want to think long term as an OER community not simply about resources but about the future. A standard language today will ensure we all have access to the bots of tomorrow.
I also want to think about our role in Higher Education. For the last five years I have tried to dedicate 15-20% of my work each week to open source projects. I believe we need to fundamentally rethink what counts as research in higher education. We need to push for open data when possible, community based research, and flexibility over fidelity. So I am contributing to #indieweb because I believe I can still conduct research that meets the rigorous standards of the academy while creating community and not simply chasing citations.
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