There are many opposing forces in the #IndieWeb that can seem like catch-22s, yet help clarify priorities, and balance present pragmatism & future optimism.

* Indie, yet often on corporate infrastructure
* Independent, yet dependent on community
* Own your content^1, yet share publicly, perhaps CC0^2
* Control of your design^3, yet lack of control elsewhere^4
* UX freedom & creativity, yet guidance toward common patterns for usability
* Decentralized, yet DNS
* Make what you need^5, yet open source^6 for others
* Plurality^7 of projects, yet conforming to standards^8
* Build it yourself, yet use services, software, & libraries built by others

These are a few off the top of my head and implied by the IndieWeb wiki home page^9 and principles^10.

Rather than contradictions, these tensions are a source of inquiry, questions, and conversations.

Each could be expanded into their own discussion or exploration.

Each of them is an axis of sorts, with different “right” answers for different people, depending on what they want, and how much time or other resources they have.

Each makes the most sense when explored in the context of a focus on solving real user needs to participate directly on today’s web.

Each is also a trap for abstract logic, theoretical purity, or dogmatic absolutism, especially when detached from real world goals, constraints, and efforts.


This is day 22 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb #100Days, written after a break. Many double days ahead.

← Day 21: https://tantek.com/2023/022/t2/own-your-notes-domain-migration
→ 🔮


^1 https://tantek.com/2023/001/t1/own-your-notes
^2 https://indieweb.org/IndieWeb:Copyrights
^3 https://indieweb.org/design
^4 https://indieweb.org/display-guidelines
^5 https://indieweb.org/make_what_you_need
^6 https://indieweb.org/open_source
^7 https://indieweb.org/plurality
^8 https://spec.indieweb.org/
^9 https://indieweb.org/
^10 https://indieweb.org/principles