Digging the digital

For some reason my old Digging the Digital blog got a ton of visitors the last two days. I have no idea why that happened. I have some basic analytics from Tinylytics (by Vincent Ritter) that showed a big spike.

Looking into Tinylytics also made me decide to install it here on this blog as well. Let’s see what happens on this here little corner of the internet!

The session by @nicole@pkm.social and @zsviczian@pkm.social on the use of Excalidraw in Obsidian for tabletop RPG’s was insane. I knew Excalidraw is powerful, but what I just saw was just incredible. Really something to dig deeper into. Not only for gaming, work as well. #PKMSummit2024

So now I follow @manton on his Threads account @manton@threads.net. With my Mastodon account @frank@indieweb.social. Whilst posting about it on micro.blog.

This might get confusing… 😂

Another fine example on how the small and personal web is so much more fun and human. This morning I asked on the micro.blog help-forum how I could use the new Blogroll functionality to create a page where I have more control over its appearance. Within hours did not only Manton Reece come to the rescue with a terrific explanation how to do this (build your own plugin, which is shockingly simple!), he also updated the original Blogroll dataset to include the RSS feed for use in my plugin. So now my /blogroll page is powered by the micro.blog functionality. It all just works. Now it’s time to hop on the Blogrollin’ Train again and see what Dave Winer is up to!

Can anyone help with how I show my micro.blog-based blogroll in a way I want it formatted?

“my own habits–how often do I have personal data on my phone in a public place? My website lists plenty of information about me, and other places on the Internet probably reveal even more.” Personal data is everywhere in public

I think about this more and more. Over the last 25 years online, I’ve published quite a lot about myself. From my blog to social networks. Photos, videos, LinkedIn information. I’ve been a freelancer, with my address visible on Google Maps. It’s pretty impossible to remove all this information and make me invisible online. Which in a strange way is a good thing. Because there is no clear line between online and offline anymore. To disappear completely online would, after all these years, in my specific situation, mean something bad has happened offline.

To quote Nathan again:

The real defense against burglary (and identity theft) is our social contract.

This social contract helps us to know from each other that we are who we say we are. By voice, sight or touch. It is interesting to see how technological advancements in generative AI will help but also harm this social contract. We’re in for a wild ride I guess…

This weekend I will be at the PKM Summit in my hometown of Utrecht. A two-day community-based event on everything regarding Personal Knowledge Management. Yes, it will a geeky and fun event on how to take notes. And actually do something with them. I look forward to two days in this safe and comfortable bubble of note-taking enthousiasts who also love to configure everything and anything under the sun when it comes to Obsidian. Or even Emacs perhaps? The timetable doesn’t say anything about Emacs-themed talks. And I am too much of a padawan to give a talk about this DIY kit for building Your Personal Text Editor myself. I still have to think about what I want to take out of it and plan accordingly. And I have to figure out how to combine this conference with the annual Mariokart Tournament on Friday evening at our corporate clubhouse!

The fine people at Neatnik keep coming with cool stuff. Next to the omg.lol universe, this summer we will see web1.land. I love the domainname. I love their explanation:

Web 1 Land is a place for people who remember and love the best parts of the web–or people who missed that era and want to experience it today. It’s a place where you can have fun writing HTML without the overhead of today’s “modern” content publishing ecosystems. A place where you can be yourself, do your thing, and make your web pages.

I love reading the latest P&B with Sara Joy. Her blogging adventures are filled with relatable stories and I really enjoy her recommendations of other blogs and sites. The whole series of People and Blogs is worth a read by the way!

De tweede Dungeons and Dragons quest met het hele gezin was weer de moeite waard. We zijn veilig in het stadje Phandalin aangekomen. Om daarna samen met zoonlief in de Stonehill Inn een bar-brawl te starten met vier oude vijanden. We konden het niet laten. Vrouw en dochter keken ons hoofdschuddend aan vanaf de tafel, terwijl we bijna het onderspit delfden. Gelukkig schoten ze ons toch te hulp. Nu is het weer tijd om uit te rusten en daarna op zoek te gaan naar de leider van de lokale Redbrands bende…

Irene en Karin ken ik inmiddels al jaren uit de Nederlandse weblogwereld. Zij zijn recent het platform Rocktheblog gestart, een blog over bloggen. Met advies voor zowel beginners als de ervaren bloggers. Ik kreeg een aantal leuke vragen voorgeschoteld over mijn drijfveren, inspiratie en bloggeschiedenis voor een artikel op de site. KLIK!

Voor de weblog-geschiedschrijvers onder u, ik heb mijn weblog-geschiedenis eens op een rij gezet. Van 2000 tot nu. Alle titels, alle URLs.

Zin in de dag! Vandaag spelen we het tweede hoofdstuk van het Dungeons and Dragons avontuur waar we in februari mee begonnen. Het complete gezin speelt mee, en ik ben benieuwd welk avontuur we vandaag beleven. Finn (12) telde de dagen al af tot vandaag, hij heeft enorm veel zin om weer in zijn rol te kruipen. Vanavond gaan we naar The Gaslight Anthem. De band zag ik voor het laatst in 2009 (denk ik?) en leadzanger Brian Fallon zagen we in 2016 nog eens op Lowlands. En de zon schijnt! Wat een dag, nu al!

Blogrolls are on a roll! (I know, I’ll see myself out…) Even de OG Blogfather Dave Winer now has a blogroll on his homepage and started a dedicated site blogroll.social for a fresh look on blogrolls. I like where this is going!

Jim Nielsen’s short manifesto professes his love to the hyperlink

Interconnectedness is the whole point. Links form the whole. Without links, there is no whole. No links means no web, only silos. Isolation.

It reminds me of an earlier post by Adrian Roselli about the beauty of hyperlinks

They represent the ideal of a democratized information system.

Which leads me invariably to the classic from The Cluetrain Manifesto:

Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy

This is what lead me to the web in the first place. The possibility to link to anything else on the web was an eye-opener to me. It gave me whole new world to explore and find new connections, new people. That’s why blogging and personal sites will always remain important to me. They give the freedom to discover and link on your terms.

What a nice coincidence with the web being 35 years young today!