I remember my first website. Before WordPress, before MySpace, even before GeoCities. It was a simple tilde page on a local university server. And believe me when I say, it was nothing to brag about. Neither was my GeoCities page, nor my MySpace page, or even my WordPress page. They were all starts of things that never quite got to where I wanted them to go.

In many ways, this here is just another start. But this time I can actually see where I want to go. Because others have left me a map.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been watching as more and more people take to the web and start their own thing. Beautiful little projects popping up every day with actual people behind them. Some are ambitious, some are small, but all are amazing. Because each one is someone wanting to reach out to the world and help others to do the same.

One of the biggest sources of inspiration, not only for me but for many of these new bloggers, has been the push away from the monetized silos that have promised much but delivered on very little. Instead, we’ve turned to making our own things by following the examples of others, and finding our communities along the way.

Call it IndieWeb, SmallWeb, SmolWeb, Blogosphere, the Isles of Blogging, what have you, it’s all a movement toward owning our own space and making something of it. My goal here is no more or less than that. But I know I can’t do it alone.

So this is my call to you, Dear Reader. My plan right now is to build this plane as I’m flying it. So it’s going to be ugly a lot more often than not. But I’m putting it out there for any and all to provide feedback. However you’ve stumbled across this post, I encourage you to let me know how you think I can improve.

Amazingly, I’ve already heard from multiple people in response to yesterday’s post. And as silly as it may be, it was an awesome feeling to have people I’ve never met tell me they’re happy to have me in the mix. To all of you, thanks. You’re awesome. Until next time.