New post format: notes written only for myself, but perhaps of interest to others. Will file under a new shared notes category for now, while also using the blog's other relevant categories.

I ran into the term “digital gardens” on the 🦣 profile of @[email protected], which I looked up because of a repost by @[email protected] of a piece on the latter’s search functionality. RDK’s whole website, Just Text, has a quirky feel that reminds me of some Micro.blog-hosted blogs. These have extra pages about stuff that matters to them, lists, photos, a Tweet archive, other collections of related content.

I did a web search and started with “Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet” (short). And then “A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden -"(detailed, thoughtful) by Maggie Appleton. The approach draws a contrast to (micro)blogging, and in some cases might take the form of a wiki, as in Tom Critchlow. Move. Think. Create.

This last one reminds me of my early course websites and source reference pages. At some point in the early aughts, I produced everything on VoodooPad (MacOS) and simply exported it into static html files. These I uploaded to whatever cloud-sharing service Apple offered its users before iCloud. The personal wikis also make me think about readings I did later for an unfinished project, “War, Gender, and Nation in 19th-Century Europe”. All my notes were in an iOS wiki made with an app that is no longer available. I hope my export of that file survived my various digital moves since then.

I don’t think there has to be a dichotomy between timelines and other forms of independent webby existence. I believe in my war and gender project, I not only interlinked reading notes and topic pages but also a research journal. I need that chronology too because I learn that way. This last point became clear again this past month while moving web hosts and redoing my categories. Revisiting the old has me making connections and gaining insights.

But I also need communication, and I like the Indie Web’s general outlook on that. References: indieweb.org, book.micro.blog.

A common theme in these various approaches to the web seems to be intentionality. Many of us practiced more of that in 2020–2021, during the worst of the pandemic. I find myself in need of that now, too, because of the major disruptions that continue to affect my life.

Possibly related: yesterday I was thinking that my portfolio, organized for others, could also be accessed through short, related blog posts. Maybe the bridge could be this notes format.

I won’t cross-post notes pages to any social accounts, unless one is relevant to a particular discussion.

Addition: I just ran across the website of Sarah Shotts via a query on Micro.blog’s forum. Their Artist’s Log page is subtitled “A Commonplace Book and Curiosity Cabinet of My Creative Ecosystem.” What a wonderful way to put it. This log is a menu item on a site that presents the artist’s portfolio, books, and bio to the world.