IndieWebCamp Austin 2019 wrap-up
We had the 2nd IndieWebCamp Austin over the weekend. As I did after the 1st IndieWebCamp Austin, I’m going to summarize some of what I took away from the event.
Saturday morning started with my quick introduction to the IndieWeb, some thoughts from the perspective of Micro.blog, and then laying out the schedule for IndieWebCamp. Next up, Aaron Parecki gave a keynote on the state of social readers: how we can use apps to both read other people’s blogs and also reply to posts.
There was a time for personal site demos, where any attendee could show their web site and talk a little about what they’ve done with it recently or what improvements they might want to make. We then had a planning session, proposing ideas for sessions to organize the schedule for the afternoon. This is the un-conference style that I’m still getting used to, but which is really effective at shaping the conference for what attendees are actually interested in.
For the Sunday hack day, I focused on 2 things: experimenting with a Micro.blog export for the Blog Archive Format that I proposed here, and implementing the Microsub API in Micro.blog as a server. Along the way I also improved Micro.blog’s support for replies via Micropub.
Having everyone in the same room is a great chance to bounce ideas off one another or find and fix bugs. Cornelius Toole was also working on a script to create archive files, so we were able to work together and brainstorm on whether this could be used to transfer podcasts between providers. Aaron Parecki and I talked through a couple aspects of the Microsub and Micropub APIs that needed tweaking.
I’ll have more to share about the Blog Archive Format when it’s live on Micro.blog. I’ve been testing it this morning with a fix that wasn’t ready in time for my IndeWebCamp demo.
If you’re interested in attending an IndieWebCamp, there will be several more this year at cities from New Haven to Berlin, including IndieWeb Summit in Portland in June. I’m always inspired to see what people are working on, and it usually leads to new features in Micro.blog as well. Thanks again to everyone who made it to IndieWebCamp Austin!