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silveradept[This Year's December Days Theme is Community, and all the forms that it takes. If you have some suggestions about what communities I'm part of (or that you think I'm part of) that would be worth a look, let me know in the comments.]
The Small Web is what a fair number of Internet Ancients and Great Old Ones are looking for when they wax nostalgic about the the way the Web used to be, before it became corporatized and centralized. And in addition to that, they're interested in moving web sites and interactions away from centralized servers with many users toward each person having their own server and domain and linking themselves between servers. If you are old enough to remember webrings, it seems like that's the idea going on here. More modern and younger audiences will see some of the same principles with decentralized, federated networks using the same protocols to communicate, like the significant number of entities that all communicate using ActivityPub as their protocol (or OStatus, or Zot).
I also think that projects like Neocities are also on board with the idea of the Small Web, because they're about giving people space to develop their own personal websites, mostly using simple tools like HTML, CSS, and perhaps a small amount of Javascript to go along with it.
I like the idea of keeping things outside of the control of large corporations. I'd much rather have the ability to discover small pockets of the Web, and interesting people, and be able to keep myself as myself all the way through, instead of having to register a new identity on every site and then try to use other cues for consistency of identity across those various sites. At the same time, server administration is not necessarily a thing that everyone wants to do for their own selves, and so if we want to encourage more people to have their own servers, their own presences, and to run their own services in relation to that, we have to do a few different things.
One of the first things that has to happen is for the tools and the servers to run on spare computing - which often means older hardware and/or inexpensive single-board computers. Which also means that people who want to join self-hosting, running their own servers, and administrating their own servers also have to learn how to run and administer Linux systems, as so many of the Free and Open Source utilities that run servers and hook them up to the Internet are designed for and run most smoothly on Linux. Most of those tools are also meant to be administered and set up through the command line, rather than any kind of graphical interface, including the use of secure shell (SSH) to do remote administration from anywhere.
So not only do we need people comfortable with the command line, and server packages that can run on old and underpowered hardware, we also need easy ways of making sure that systems and servers stay updated against threats and bots scanning for vulnerabilities in systems so they can exploit them. Those servers need to be deployed in ways that don't require someone to learn how to get elbows-deep into configuration files and to know what tricks are going to be used against them. Sensible and secure defaults, and most likely, hooking into systems like Let's Encrypt and other things that are meant to make sure that a server joining the Web is as secure as it can be made. And for most people, who won't want to administer the server, even if they do want to have control over their own websites and their own services, that means a lot of making things easier, using wizards and interactive setups, and otherwise putting in a lot of effort to make the process smooth and understandable, from the installation of Linux to the deployment of the server, and possibly some additional scripting tools to install and configure whatever services are desired on these Small Web servers. Or even building some GUI tools to make that work. It's the kind of thing that Y U No Host is developed for, for a single user, or a small group of trusted users, rather than a thing that's meant for the general Internet at large to use, so that could be a way of merging everything together. It would be something to try, certainly, although I think the best candidate box that I have for doing this would need some additional cabling run to it, or another network switch attached to that spot, so that there would be a cabled connection available for it to run.
Past that point, though, there's still one other issue for most people who want to host their own services on their own hardware - the Internet Service Provider that they get their connection from. A fair number of people get their Internet access from an ISP that believes they're mostly going to be using it for downloading things, streaming, and otherwise a regular amount of bandwidth and transfer for common household access. Adding a server and services that would have outside access and using more data transfer might either be something that the policies of their provider forbid, or it might move them closer to any bandwidth caps that might be part of their connection. (Because in the United States, even things that are billed as "unlimited" often have caps on them, because the service providers often think that such uses are stressing their networks or are "excessive" uses. And, in many parts of the country, there's one ISP for everyone in a geographic area, unless someone wants to change to a different method of delivery that may or may not actually exist in their area. Such monopolies are often functional, even if there are theoretical competitors in the area so that captured regulators don't actually start making noises about the need to have real competition in the area. Those kinds of situations can be avoided by hosting on other people's servers, but the Small Web people are about owning and hosting your own things and not being beholden to someone else to provide you with server space, or to have centralization points like server farms that are getting in the way of communication between people. And, of course, server hosting elsewhere costs money, much like domain name registration costs money. And once again we get back to the concept of "free as in 'free kittens' " as the underlying problem.
What makes the corporate, centralized system of social media and hosted material work is that it abstracts or offsets the administration and hosting costs so that someone can focus on the things they actually want to do. The money they pay or the data they give up is an acceptable trade compared to having to do the work of maintaining systems themselves. I'm still not feeling up to it myself, either for the expense of maintaining a domain and a server, or for the necessities of server maintenance. Yes, I run Linux and use those tools regularly for updating and maintaining my systems, but stepping up into doing self-hosting and data work in that way is still scary for me, so I figure that if I'm still hesitant about it, instead of enthusiastic about it, it's probably better for me not to do it, or to find some way of doing it that stays on the local network without popping out to the Internet at large until I feel like it would be useful to have remote access to things. I support having better tools, easier setup and hosting, and the ability to manage things sensibly and automatically, rather than having to do a lot of work and arcane things to get it all ready to go and then to keep up with arcane things to secure and harden the hosting against the probings of things looking for exploitation. For the moment, though, I'm more of a philosophical supporter than a hands-on person. If and when a use case shows up where I think the effort of self-hosting, or elsewhere-hosting, is the best idea to go with and start deploying those tools, well, you'll probably hear me swearing a blue streak as I go through all of that necessary setup, examination, testing, choosing, and everything that will get it to the point where I feel comfortable letting it ride and continue to exist.
Until then, though, I'll definitely continue to try and see where I can support and use things like Dreamwidth, or the server that my fediverse presence is on, and Neocities, and other things that, while I won't ever be completely free of large corporate services, I can try to minimize them and see how little of them I can use and still have a good experience with everything in my life.
The Small Web is what a fair number of Internet Ancients and Great Old Ones are looking for when they wax nostalgic about the the way the Web used to be, before it became corporatized and centralized. And in addition to that, they're interested in moving web sites and interactions away from centralized servers with many users toward each person having their own server and domain and linking themselves between servers. If you are old enough to remember webrings, it seems like that's the idea going on here. More modern and younger audiences will see some of the same principles with decentralized, federated networks using the same protocols to communicate, like the significant number of entities that all communicate using ActivityPub as their protocol (or OStatus, or Zot).
I also think that projects like Neocities are also on board with the idea of the Small Web, because they're about giving people space to develop their own personal websites, mostly using simple tools like HTML, CSS, and perhaps a small amount of Javascript to go along with it.
I like the idea of keeping things outside of the control of large corporations. I'd much rather have the ability to discover small pockets of the Web, and interesting people, and be able to keep myself as myself all the way through, instead of having to register a new identity on every site and then try to use other cues for consistency of identity across those various sites. At the same time, server administration is not necessarily a thing that everyone wants to do for their own selves, and so if we want to encourage more people to have their own servers, their own presences, and to run their own services in relation to that, we have to do a few different things.
One of the first things that has to happen is for the tools and the servers to run on spare computing - which often means older hardware and/or inexpensive single-board computers. Which also means that people who want to join self-hosting, running their own servers, and administrating their own servers also have to learn how to run and administer Linux systems, as so many of the Free and Open Source utilities that run servers and hook them up to the Internet are designed for and run most smoothly on Linux. Most of those tools are also meant to be administered and set up through the command line, rather than any kind of graphical interface, including the use of secure shell (SSH) to do remote administration from anywhere.
So not only do we need people comfortable with the command line, and server packages that can run on old and underpowered hardware, we also need easy ways of making sure that systems and servers stay updated against threats and bots scanning for vulnerabilities in systems so they can exploit them. Those servers need to be deployed in ways that don't require someone to learn how to get elbows-deep into configuration files and to know what tricks are going to be used against them. Sensible and secure defaults, and most likely, hooking into systems like Let's Encrypt and other things that are meant to make sure that a server joining the Web is as secure as it can be made. And for most people, who won't want to administer the server, even if they do want to have control over their own websites and their own services, that means a lot of making things easier, using wizards and interactive setups, and otherwise putting in a lot of effort to make the process smooth and understandable, from the installation of Linux to the deployment of the server, and possibly some additional scripting tools to install and configure whatever services are desired on these Small Web servers. Or even building some GUI tools to make that work. It's the kind of thing that Y U No Host is developed for, for a single user, or a small group of trusted users, rather than a thing that's meant for the general Internet at large to use, so that could be a way of merging everything together. It would be something to try, certainly, although I think the best candidate box that I have for doing this would need some additional cabling run to it, or another network switch attached to that spot, so that there would be a cabled connection available for it to run.
Past that point, though, there's still one other issue for most people who want to host their own services on their own hardware - the Internet Service Provider that they get their connection from. A fair number of people get their Internet access from an ISP that believes they're mostly going to be using it for downloading things, streaming, and otherwise a regular amount of bandwidth and transfer for common household access. Adding a server and services that would have outside access and using more data transfer might either be something that the policies of their provider forbid, or it might move them closer to any bandwidth caps that might be part of their connection. (Because in the United States, even things that are billed as "unlimited" often have caps on them, because the service providers often think that such uses are stressing their networks or are "excessive" uses. And, in many parts of the country, there's one ISP for everyone in a geographic area, unless someone wants to change to a different method of delivery that may or may not actually exist in their area. Such monopolies are often functional, even if there are theoretical competitors in the area so that captured regulators don't actually start making noises about the need to have real competition in the area. Those kinds of situations can be avoided by hosting on other people's servers, but the Small Web people are about owning and hosting your own things and not being beholden to someone else to provide you with server space, or to have centralization points like server farms that are getting in the way of communication between people. And, of course, server hosting elsewhere costs money, much like domain name registration costs money. And once again we get back to the concept of "free as in 'free kittens' " as the underlying problem.
What makes the corporate, centralized system of social media and hosted material work is that it abstracts or offsets the administration and hosting costs so that someone can focus on the things they actually want to do. The money they pay or the data they give up is an acceptable trade compared to having to do the work of maintaining systems themselves. I'm still not feeling up to it myself, either for the expense of maintaining a domain and a server, or for the necessities of server maintenance. Yes, I run Linux and use those tools regularly for updating and maintaining my systems, but stepping up into doing self-hosting and data work in that way is still scary for me, so I figure that if I'm still hesitant about it, instead of enthusiastic about it, it's probably better for me not to do it, or to find some way of doing it that stays on the local network without popping out to the Internet at large until I feel like it would be useful to have remote access to things. I support having better tools, easier setup and hosting, and the ability to manage things sensibly and automatically, rather than having to do a lot of work and arcane things to get it all ready to go and then to keep up with arcane things to secure and harden the hosting against the probings of things looking for exploitation. For the moment, though, I'm more of a philosophical supporter than a hands-on person. If and when a use case shows up where I think the effort of self-hosting, or elsewhere-hosting, is the best idea to go with and start deploying those tools, well, you'll probably hear me swearing a blue streak as I go through all of that necessary setup, examination, testing, choosing, and everything that will get it to the point where I feel comfortable letting it ride and continue to exist.
Until then, though, I'll definitely continue to try and see where I can support and use things like Dreamwidth, or the server that my fediverse presence is on, and Neocities, and other things that, while I won't ever be completely free of large corporate services, I can try to minimize them and see how little of them I can use and still have a good experience with everything in my life.
