It may sound bizarre, given how much so many use the web today, but it’s worth recognizing how many don’t think of the web at all anymore. It’s their social media app of choice, it’s Google, it’s some streaming services or YouTube.
The wider web, and the ability to participate in and build independent parts of it oneself, is an almost unheard of idea to many.
So trying to think of some tools/ways to ease them in, a few things come to mind.
Tools
- Publii for a basic WYSIWYG sitebuilding tool that can run on a local machine, offline.
- Zonelets an in-between blogging tool that also runs on a local machine, offline, but has one adjusting some pre-written html and javascript.
- Zoner, a static site generator to build Zonelets-style blogs without getting into the html/javascript, processes markdown files into html and produces a RSS feed if desired.
Info
- 32-bitcafe’s Create Your Own Website guide
- IndieWeb’s Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere guide
What other resources might you recommend?
On some further thought, if we wanted to go even smaller steps, it may be even better to encourage people to use web browsers more, instead of getting tied into single-purpose apps.
A lot of web browsers offer methods to sync one’s bookmarks and login info (for better or worse), and the portability of browser bookmarks compared to in-app favoriting/saving/bookmarking could be good ways to promote them.
Flipping it around, for those striking out into making their own sites, perhaps POSSE should be adjusted such that any syndication elsewhere is accompanied by reminders to sub to one’s RSS feed for a more direct and portable way to follow for further posts.
Step 1: realize that the web isn’t worth joining now.
There is no step 2. This whole experience is a overinflated sense of self importance from a service which at it’s core is nothing more than data connections, but serves instead as a service to control the general populace by tracking their thoughts.
I can empathize with your cynicism, but I do think it’s short sighted.
Due to a sleep disorder I only rarely get to see people face to face, the web is a small form of socializing I can still access. But I don’t wanna go on reddit or browse Pinterest, I wanna go be around other actual humans, see the things they make, and chat about life.
The web can still enable those things, the internet wasn’t always a corporate plane of existence that serves to extract money and data from people. Thats why I think looking to the web of the past is worthwhile.
Its nice to be able to connect with other people. And you find folks you can connect with even if your experience is uncommon enough that few people have it. If you’re a trans person, have an unusual disability, or like something obscure and live in a small town, you otherwise might never meet folks like yourself.
The web can still enable meaningful connection, if we’re intentional about what it looks like and build our spaces thoughtfully.
