The Datawagon Manifesto
Over the last week while I was on vacation I had some time away from the day to day grind, and in between margaritas and tacos, had time to think about some ideas that have been kicking around in my skull. Toward that end, I have decided gone ahead and registered datawagon.org as the sibling of brainwagon.org, which will serve as a place to explore some of these ideas going forward.
I chose the name "datawagon" because of its obvious relationship to brainwagon, which I've been blogging under for over twenty years, and because of the notion that you should be able to pack up your data and take it with you to create new places that you can call your own on the Internet.
Principles of the datawagon manifesto
Ownership of your own identity and data
It should go without saying, but your identity and your data are, well, yours. The only person who should be able to say how that data is used or disseminated should be you. Your identity and data should be separate from media companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram or Youtube. While you might choose to use such services, your data (including the identity of those who make up your social network) should always remain yours, and you should be able to move your social network from those social media companies if they no longer serve your needs, goals, or aims.
Maintaining an online presence should be affordable to everyone
Ownership of your own identity and data is meaningless if you cannot afford the necessary resources to make it happen. Ideally, you should be able to maintain an online presence for little or even no cost.
The software that you use to maintain your online presence should be open-source and free
The way that you ensure that your presence remains under your control and affordable is through the heavy reliance on open-source software. Open source software is not owned by commercial entities, but is developed and distributed through the collaboration of a global community of developers.
The software should be small and rely on stable standards
In addition to being open source, the software that you use should be small and built on a stable foundation of technologies. It is easy to be lured into the promise of the latest frameworks for web development, new languages, or large language models. But these often are difficult to master and a distraction from actually doing the things that make you and your community special. They also frequently require greater maintenance and expertise to keep living. If you are going to try to maintain information on the Internet for years or even decades, relying on stable standards is essential, and by using small or minimalistic software to maintain that data means that reproducing your workflow in new environments is simpler as well.
Why a manifesto?
I have no real grandiose notion that I will suddenly become famous and that these ideas (which are not especially original) will become famous or widespread. I mostly drafted the manifesto as a way of focusing my own mine on a unifying theme that could help bind several project ideas I have had for a long time into a cohesive framework. Additionally, I wanted to publish this as a way of seeking out others on the Internet who have done the same thing, and/or who are interested in doing the same thing.
What are your immediate goals/projects?
The most immediate progenitor of this line of thinking was my decision to move away from Wordpress for blogging,
and using a static site generator written in Python.
Sunaina Pai's makesite script is less than 250 lines of Python code, and
while I have ballooned that a bit to nearly a thousand lines, through indiscriminate tinkering, I suspect that
a round of refactoring and cleaning will reduce that to around five hundred lines. It is currently
being used to generate the brainwagon (reborn) blog, and is in constant development,
and has made more frequent blogging more fun and productive.
I've also been seeking out inexpensive/free solutions to host websites.
- surge.sh is a very simple way to host static websites. If you merely wish to put some webpages somewhere on the Internet, it is a very simple and free way to get pages online. If nothing else, it could provide you with the means to practice your basic HTML/CSS skills.
- Firebase Hosting is a service provided by Google. Nominally it is hosting applications, but I am currently using it to host brainwagon.org which is entirely statically generated. It has the advantage of being entirely free, and if you have a domain name (like brainwagon.org) you can direct web traffic to the hosting.
- Hosting a VPS server on Google This is my most recent exploration. Firebase is a great way to host a static site, but if you want to run your own software, perhaps on a full Linux virtual machine, you might want to have a VPS or (Virtual Private Server). A variety of companies will sell you access to such a server, but Google has a "Free Tier" that will give you a small "micro" server with very modest limits for free. Forever. Or, until they change their minds anyway. I'm just beginning my exploration of as a possibility. It is more complex, but seems like an interesting way to get resources on the Internet outside of your own home. I'll be writing up more about this as I explore further.
How can I help?
If anything that I've written here seem interesting, then go ahead and send me an email. Perhaps you have created similar projects of your own that you'd like to share, or simply use other bits of software that have been helpful to you that you might wish to bring to my attention. Feel free to reach out and chat. And keep your eyes on brainwagon.org and especially datawagon.org which will concentrate more about this endeavor.