"We Need to Rewild the Internet" and other small web recommended reading

[matsushima]

If you were born around the 1970s, you probably remember many more dead insects on the windscreen of your parents’ car than on your own. Global land-dwelling insect populations are dropping about 9% a decade. If you’re a geek, you probably programmed your own computer to make basic games. You certainly remember a web with more to read than the same five websites. You may have even written your own blog.

But many people born after 2000 probably think a world with few insects, little ambient noise from birdcalls, where you regularly use only a few social media and messaging apps (rather than a whole web) is normal.
We Need to Rewild the Internet by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon

I've been slowly working my way through this article during my lunch breaks at work this week.

I thought of the smallweb community and wondered what other books, articles, etc. you would recommend as a sort of "small web syllabus." (I have tech, digital literacy and social media tags in my bookmarks that others might find interesting to peruse, although the media diary is mostly for my own recordkeeping and, thus, incomplete.)

Comments

[picori]

If we're talking specifically about the small web, then What is the Web Revival? is good because a lot of people will hear the term "web revival" thrown around in small web spaces, but not all of them know what it means. I think this essay outlines it pretty well. There's also What The Small Web Is Missing, which may not count as "syllabus" material, but I think it offers a good suggestion for what kind of content would draw more people's attention to the small web overall (as opposed to being viewed as a fad of some sort).

Maybe not directly related to the small web, but pandora's vox: on community in cyberspace has always been an interesting read just because of how much of it applies to the state of the web today (it was written in 1994, for context). Very interesting, at least to me! :)

(Thank you for the links to your bookmarks as well—they look super interesting and I'm really eager to dive into them when I get some free time!)

[alaterdate]

Wow! Pandora's Vox sure is interesting. Thanks for sharing, these are great.