There is no doubt that the siloed, social web has been revealed for the limiting, sometimes destructive force it can be; the question is: why has it been so destructive?
One part of the answer might be to do with the open web and its apparent lack of signalling, specifically to the wider web-using public, the ease with which people can escape the siloes even if momentarily. When people are offered superior alternatives – what you might consider competition – there is at least a much greater possibility those alternatives will be able to exist, thus enabling the chance for higher quality, substantive contributions to be made to the web as a whole. The important part here is that people are offered the alternative. Not just enthusiasts, or enterprise clients, or niche vendors; rather, the average everyday web user. Even as an enthusiast and (relatively) longtime user of the web I find it hard to say that the open web has met some of its potential by surfacing the alternative.
The wave of apparently-shocking incidents involving the siloed web has, however, prompted action where before there was either little or just too little; substantial figures in influential web communities are putting their resources where their mouths are and genuinely prodding at alternatives to what some people consider The Internet (aka the Facebook news feed). Some are even pushing forward with ambitious plans to create much-needed competition.
With that idea in mind we now have Micro.blog, which is awesome.
The applicance of a layer running between the open web and people’s desire to make the web personal is a brilliant move, especially with the focus on blogs and the idea that even the siloed social web is something to be plugged into rather than swept away in a destructive manner.
Manton Reece and his team have gradually and carefully begun piecing together a platform that can satisfy a number of different people in different ways, without approaching the idea that the only way to provide people with the opportunity to partake in the web is to control them entirely.
Micro.blog works as a mixture of blog feeds, blog hosting, and comments. It’s social media but you own your stuff and you do not have to tolerate ads, curated timelines, and a limited selection of limited apps.
These are two sources of information and help:
- Help -- the official Micro.blog documentation
- Micro.wiki -- the community-made and maintained wiki
The following are other introductory posts for more information:
- Why I created Micro.blog
- Getting started
- What's the difference between Micro.blog and Twitter?
- A Guide to Micro.blog For People Who Have A Love/Hate Relationship With Twitter
There is more out there and it’s not to difficult to find once you start looking, however the Micro.blog community is constantly attempting to make it easier to get involved and get on with doing your thing. In the spirit of this activity – and all activity from the community which is in fact one of the biggest reasons to join Micro.blog at all – I am today announcing the effort with which I will attempt to help as much as possible…
I am launching Today I Learned, a Micro.blog project for… well, Micro.blog. Through this I will provide hints, tips, links, and more with which anybody can use to become comfortable with Micro.blog. All of the relevant links are:
Micro.blog has played a big part of the past 8 months of my life, an inspiration for many things and most importantly the gateway to a wonderful community within which it is possible to find solace from the world of social media and 24 hour news. The good parts of the internet are not dying and it is no small part due to projects such as Micro.blog. With @til I only hope I can help make it even easier for people to also find their way to such a good place.
Now there is work to be done, more words to be written, and more Micro.blogging to be microblogged. With that I bid you adieu and…
Welcome to Micro.blog!
