Homebrew Website Club

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Homebrew Website Club Logo

Homebrew Website Club is a growing world-wide network of meetups for everyone who wants to take back their web experience from social media silos, and own their online identities & content, or just want support with blogging!

Want to blog more but struggling with*:

  • ideas
  • momentum
  • confidence
  • writing skills

Join a gathering of like-minded people and get friendly support with writing, creating, and anything to do with using and improving your own website!

* via Amy Hupe

You can also join our chat to talk with the community between meetings! 💬

Meetings

Meetings take place every other Wednesday right after work in most cities. If it collides with an official holiday in your country, simply skip that one and resume two weeks later as usual.

See https://events.indieweb.org for specific dates/locations/URLs of upcoming meetings, or this handy summary of upcoming/past dates:

Homebrew Website Club
Events are listed on events.indieweb.org as of 2020-01
2024 01-03 🎡🌎 • 01-10 🏰🎡 • 01-13 🌌 • 01-17 🎡🌎 • 01-24 🎡 • 01-31 🎡🌎 • 02-07 🎡 • 02-14 🏰🎡🌎 • 02-21 🎡 • 02-28 🎡🌎 • 03-13 🏰🎡🌎 • 03-20 🎡 • 03-27 🎡🌎 • 04-03 🎡 • 04-08 📜 • 04-10 🏰🎡🌎 • 04-17 🎡 • 04-24 🌎 • 04-27 🌌 • 05-01 🎡 • 05-08 🏰🎡🌎 • 05-09 🌐 • 05-15 🎡 • 05-22 🎡🌎 • 05-23 🌐 • 05-27 📜 • 05-29 🎡 • 06-05 🎡🌎 • 06-12 🏰🎡 • 06-19 🎡🌎 • 06-26 🎡 • 07-01 📜 • 07-03 🏰🎡🌎 • 07-10 🏰🎡 • 07-11 🌐 • 07-17 🎡🌎 • 07-24 🎡 • 07-31 🎡🌎 • 08-07 🎡 • 08-14 🎡🌎 • 08-28 🎡🌎 • 09-04 🎡 • 09-11 🎡🌎🌎 • 09-18 🎡 • 09-25 🎡🌎🌎 • 10-02 🎡 • 10-08 📜 • 10-09 🎡🌎 • 10-16 🎡 • 10-23 🎡 • 10-30 🎡🌎 • 10-31 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 • 11-06 🎡 • 11-13 🎡🌎 •
2023 01-04 🎡🌎 • 01-11🌎 • 01-18 🎡🌎 • 01-25 🌎 • 02-01 🎡🌎 • 02-08 🌎 • 02-15 🎡🌎 • 02-22 🌎 • 03-01 🎡🌎 • 03-08 🎡🌎 • 03-15 🎡🌎 • 03-22 🎡🌎 • 03-29 🎡🌎 • 04-05 🎡 • 04-12 🎡🌎 • 04-15 🌌 • 04-19 🎡 • 04-26 🎡🌎 • 05-03 🎡 • 05-10 🎡🌎 • 05-17 🎡 • 05-20 🌌 • 05-24 🎡🌎 • 05-31 🎡🌎 • 06-07 🎡 • 06-14 🎡🌎 • 06-21 🎡 • 06-28 🎡🌎 • 07-01 🌌 • 07-05 🎡 • 07-12 🎡🌎 • 07-19 🎡 • 07-26 🎡🌎 • 08-02 🎡 • 08-09 🎡🌎 • 08-16 🎡🌎 • 08-23 🎡🌎 • 08-26 🌌 • 09-06 🎡🌎 • 09-13 🎡🌎 • 09-20 🎡 • 09-27 🎡🌎 • 10-04 🎡 • 10-11 🎡🌎 • 10-18 🎡 • 10-25 🎡🌎 • 11-01 🎡 • 11-08 🎡🌎 • 11-15 🎡🏰 • 11-22 🎡🌎 • 11-29 🎡 • 12-06 🎡🌎 • 12-13 🏰🎡 • 12-20 🎡🌎
2022 01-05 🌎 • 01-12 🎡🌎 • 01-19 🌎 • 01-26 🎡🌎 • 02-02 🌎 • 02-09 🎡🌎 • 02-16 🌎 • 02-23 🎡🌎 • 03-02 🌎 • 03-09 🎡🌎 • 03-16 🌎 • 03-23 🎡🌎 • 03-30 🌎 • 04-06 🎡🌎 • 04-13 🌎 • 04-20 🎡🌎 • 04-27 🌎 • 05-04 🧭 • 05-11 🌎 • 05-15 🌐 • 05-18 🎡🌎 • 05-25 🌎 • 06-01 🧭 • 06-08 🌎 • 06-15 🎡🌎 • 06-18 🌌 • 06-22 🌎 • 06-29 🎡🌎 • 07-06 🌎 • 07-13 🌎 • 07-20 🌎 • 07-27 🌎 • 08-03 🌎 • 08-10 🎡🌎 • 08-17 🌎 • 08-24 🎡🌎 • 08-31 🌎 • 09-07 🎡🌎 • 09-14 🌎 • 09-21 🎡🌎 • 09-28 🌎 • 10-02 🌌 • 10-05 🎡🌎 • 10-12 🌎 • 10-19 🎡🌎 • 10-26 🌎 • 11-02 🎡🌎 • 11-09 🌎 • 11-16 🎡🌎 • 11-23 🌎 • 11-30 🎡🌎 • 12-07 🌎 • 12-14 🎡🌎 • 12-21 🎡🌎 • 12-28 🌎
2021 01-06 🎡🌎 • 01-13 🌎 • 01-20 🎡🌎 • 01-27 🌎 • 02-03 🎡🌎 • 02-10 🌎 • 02-17 🎡🌎 • 02-24 🌎 • 03-03 🎡🌎 • 03-10 🌎 • 03-17 🎡🌎 • 03-24 🌎 • 03-31 🎡🌎 • 04-07 🌎 • 04-14 🎡🌎 • 04-21 🌎 • 04-28 🎡🌎 • 05-05 🌎 • 05-12 🎡🌎 • 05-19 🌎 • 05-26 🎡🌎 • 06-02 🌎 • 06-09 🎡🌎 • 06-16 🌎 • 06-23 🎡🌎 • 06-30 🌎 • 07-07 🎡🌎 • 07-14 🌎 • 07-21 🎡🌎 • 07-28 🌎 • 08-04 🌎 • 08-11 🌎 • 08-18 🎡🌎 • 08-25 🌎 • 09-01 🌎 • 09-15 🎡🌎 • 09-22 🌎 • 09-29 🎡🌎 • 10-06 🌎 • 10-13 🎡🌎 • 10-20 🌎 • 10-27 🎡🌎 • 11-03 🌎 • 11-10 🎡🌎 • 11-17 🌎 • 11-24 🌎 • 12-01 🌎 • 12-08 🎡🌎 • 12-15 🌎 • 12-22 🌎 • 12-29 🌎
2020 2020-01 • 2020-02 • 2020-03 • 2020-04 • 2020-05 • 2020-06 • 06-17 🌴 • 2020-07 • … • 08-05🌴 • 08-12🌴 • 08-19🌴 • 08-26🌴 • 09-02🌴 • 09-09🌴 • 09-16🌴 • 09-23🌴 • 09-30🌴 • 10-07🌴 • 10-14🌴 • 10-21🌎 • 10-28🌎 • … • 11-04 🌎 • 11-11 🌎 • 11-18 🌎 • 11-25 🌎 • 12-02 🌎 • 12-09 🌎 • 12-16 🌎 • 12-23 🌎 • 12-30 🌎
2019 12-22 • 12-11 • 12-04 • 11-27 • 11-21 • 11-16 • 11-13 • 11-06&07 • 10-30&31 • 10-16&19 • 10-02 • 09-26 • 09-18&19 • 09-11&12 • 09-04&05 • 09-02 • 08-28 • 08-21 • 08-19 • 08-15 • 08-07&08 • 08-05 • 08-01 • 07-24&25 • 07-22 • 07-18 • 07-10&11&13 • 07-03&04 • 06-26&27 • 06-24 • 06-20 • 06-12&13 • 06-10 • 06-09 • 06-06 • 05-29&30 • 05-27 • 05-23 • 05-15 • 05-09 • 05-01&02 • 04-29 • 04-25 • 04-17&18 • 04-15 • 04-11 • 04-03&04 • 04-01 • 03-28 • 03-20&21 • 03-06 • 02-27 • 02-20 • 02-06 • 01-23 • 01-09
2018 12-26 • 12-12&11 • 11-28&27 • 11-14&11-13 • 10-31 • 10-17&16 • 10-10&09 • 10-03 • 09-19&18 • 09-05 • 08-22 • 08-08 • 08-01 • 07-25 • 07-11 • 07-04 • 06-27 • 06-13 • 05-30&29 • 05-23 • 05-16&15 • 05-02&01 • 04-18 • 04-11 • 04-10 • 04-04 • 03-27 • 03-21 • 03-14 • 03-07 • 02-21&20 • 02-14 • 02-07&06 • 01-24&23 • 01-11&10&09
2017 12-27 • 12-14&13&12 • 11-30&29 • 11-22 • 11-16&15 • 11-01 • 10-19&18 • 10-05&04 • 09-21&20 • 09-13 • 09-07&06 • 08-23 • 08-15 • 08-09&08 • 08-02 • 07-26&25 • 07-12&11 • 06-28 • 06-20 • 06-14 • 06-07&06 • 05-31 • 05-17 • 05-10 • 05-03 • 04-26 • 04-19 • 04-12 • 04-05 • 03-22 • 03-08 • 03-02&01 • 02-22 • 02-14 • 02-08 • 01-25 • 01-11
2016 12-28 • 12-21 • 12-14 • 12-07 • 11-30 • 11-23 • 11-16 • 11-09 • 11-02 • 10-26 • 10-19 • 10-05 • 09-21 • 09-14 • 09-07 • 08-24 • 08-17 • 08-10 • 07-27 • 07-13 • 07-06 • 06-29 • 06-15 • 06-08 • 06-01 • 05-25 • 05-18 • 05-11 • 05-04 • 04-27 • 04-20 • 04-12 • 04-06 • 03-23 • 03-09 • 02-24 • 02-10&09 • 02-02 • 01-27 • 01-13
2015 12-30 • 12-16 • 12-08 • 12-02&01 • 11-24 • 11-18&17 • 11-10 • 11-04&03 • 10-21&20 • 10-13 • 10-07&06 • 09-24&23 • 09-17 • 09-10&09 • 09-03 • 08-27&26 • 08-20 • 08-13&12 • 07-29 • 07-15 • 07-01 • 06-17 • 06-03 • 05-20 • 05-06 • 04-22 • 04-08 • 03-25 • 03-11 • 02-25 • 02-11 • 02-07-ko • 01-28 • 01-14
2014 12-17 • 12-03 • 11-19 • 11-05 • 10-22 • 10-08 • 10-05-par • 09-24 • 09-10 • 08-27 • 08-13 • 07-30 • 07-16 • 07-02 • 06-18 • 06-04 • 05-21 • 05-07 • 04-23 • 04-09 • 03-26 • 03-19 • 03-12 • 02-26 • 02-12 • 01-29 • 01-15
2013 12-18 • 12-04 • 11-20

Regular Meetings

Just show up. These Homebrew Website Club chapters are well established and meet regularly at least once a month (often fortnightly AKA bi-weekly). If it has been more than a month since a city has met, move them down to popups until a regular pattern is re-established.

Alphabetical by city/region, see each city for regularity.

Americas Pacific Online

🌎 Americas / Pacific Online, AKA Virtual HWC North American Time:

Europe / London Online

🌎 Europe / London Online, AKA Virtual HWC UK Time:

Nuremberg

Popups

These cities have held popup Homebrew Website Club meet-ups at least a couple of times recently, and are working hard to get established!

After three consecutive months of successful regular meetings, popups get bumped to Regular meetings! Or if they do not happen for three months, bump them back down to Getting Started.

Cities getting started

Speak up and help make another meetup happen in your city! These cities have organizers (can always use more), have (re)started with at least one meeting (hopefully with a photo posted), and would love to hear from you to help make more happen. If it's been more than six months since a meet-up or organizers have all moved to other cities, move a city to "Up-and-coming or needs restarting" in the next section.

Ordered alphabetically:

Edinburgh

  • Edinburgh, UK monthly
  • Organizer(s): Harry Reeder
  • First meeting 2015-08-13 (Thursday)
  • Restarted 2024-03-26
  • Met nearly every Tuesday night during 2015 from 2015-10 onward, and every Thursday night before that since 2015-08-13!
    • TODO: note when meetings went on hiatus


Needs restarting

Step up and make a meetup happen. These cities have one or more organizers interested in helping making a meetup happen and are up for grabs. Step up, contact the folks below, and make a meetup happen!

At your first (or first in at least six months) meet-up be sure to take and post photos, then link to them and bump up your city to Cities getting started above.

no other cities have organizers for an in-person meetup

🇪🇺 Virtual HWC European time

More cities with interest

Interested in helping start a Homebrew Website Club? Find or add your city and name below!

Sorted alphabetically by city.

  • Brisbane, Australia - Malcolm Blaney is interested, has an office walking distance from train.
  • Cincinnati, OH - Dave Menninger is interested in meeting up
  • Durham, NC - Kimberly Hirsh is interested in meeting up in Durham, NC.
  • Glasgow, Scotland - Donald McIntosh is interested in meeting up.
  • Melbourne, Australia - vishae is interested in meeting up
  • Rochester, MN - David Williamson is interested in organizing a meetup.
  • Sarasota, FL – TheDavidJohnson is interested in organizing a meetup in Sarasota, FL
  • Savannah, GA - User:Lawver.net is interested in organizing!
  • St. Louis, MO – Mark87 is interested in meeting up in St. Louis, MO.
  • Vienna, Austria - Rosemary Orchard is interested in attending/organising something.
  • Düsseldorf, Germany - Johan Bové is interested in co-organizing. Looking into location options and others to help out.
  • Athens, Greece - User:Heracl.es is interested in co-organizing. Looking into interested homebrewers for setting up a community.
  • ... add your city and your name here if you're interested in co-organizing a Homebrew Website Club in your city.

Past Meetings

These cities used to have meetings and could totally use a new space(s) and/or another/new co-organizer(s) to step and make one happen! Past co-organizers are more than happy to help connect you to the existing community, so definitely reach out!

Accra

🌮 Austin

  • Austin, TX - first Wednesday of the month
    • Organizers: Tom Brown, Manton Reece
    • First meeting: 2017-09-06
    • Venue: Mozart's Coffee

🦀 Baltimore

  • Baltimore, MD - monthly or sometimes biweekly!
  • Organizer(s): Marty McGuire, Jonathan Prozzi
  • First meeting 2016-09-21
  • We meet at least once per month. We aim to meet fortnightly to match the usual HWC schedule, but sometimes skip or move a week to avoid conflicts with our venue.
  • Venue is consistently: Digital Harbor Foundation Tech Center, 1045 Light St. Baltimore, MD http://www.digitalharbor.org/

Barnsley

Bellingham

Berlin

Birmingham

Main article: homebrewbrum

🎪 Brighton

  • Brighton, ENGLAND - weekly
  • Organiser: Jeremy Keith
  • Every Thursday from 6pm to 7:30pm (unless Jeremy is out of town).
  • Venue is consistently: Clearleft, 68 Middle Street, Brighton BN1 1AL

https://clearleft.com http://68middle.st

Brussels

Chicago

Detroit

Edmonton

Fort Collins

Frederick

  • Frederick, MD monthly
  • Organizer(s): Eddie Hinkle
  • First meeting on 2017-07-26, on a hiatus as of 2018-03-01.
  • Some lessons learned: having a co-organizer is helpful for days when there are low attendance.
  • Future plans: potential rebranding to IndieWeb Meetup vs. HWC to broaden external appeal, potentially find a co-organizer, etc. Considering restarting in the first quarter of 2019.

Gent

🏖 Goa

Gothenborg

Guadalajara

  • Guadalajara, Mexico
    • Organizer(s): Ken Bauer
    • First meeting was a success (7 people) Mar 20, 2019
    • Second meeting was also a success and the third was small
    • New site created specifically for the club
    • On hiatus, working on next meeting to start during the upcoming semester on campus that starts in August.
    • We plan to combine this club meeting with topics on use of open source software to give a broader draw and try to grow numbers.
    • Please help to invite others!

🇮🇳 Indian Standard Time Virtual HWC

🔺 Karlsruhe

Los Angeles

Madrid

Malmo

Minneapolis

  • Minneapolis, MN
    • Organizer(s): Nicole Tollefson - has moved
    • First meeting 2014-06-18
    • Waiting for: need new local organizer(s)!

Montreal

Mountain View

The Netherlands

  • The Netherlands 🎪 Moving Circus
    • Schiphol Airport Plaza: HWC will happen there when international travellers show an interest.
    • Nijmegen and Utrecht are discussed as well.
    • If LA can have just the one HWC, so can the Netherlands. [2] [3]
  • Organizers: Sebastiaan Andeweg, Peter Molnar
  • First meeting 2016-11-30
  • Meets when 2+ people shows interest
  • Most recently ... ?

New Haven

🗽 New York City

Norman, OK

🏹 Nottingham

  • Nottingham, England - fortnightly
  • Organizer(s):   Jamie Tanna
  • First Meeting [2019-03-20]
  • Venue is consistently: Ludorati Cafe 72 Maid Marian Way Nottingham United Kingdom NG1 6BJ

Portland

Saint Petersburg, Russia

🏄 San Diego

🌁 San Francisco

  • San Francisco, CA - was fortnightly until early 2020 (pre-lockdown)

Previously:

Seattle

🏗Teesside

Vancouver BC

Washington DC

Wellington

New Cities

The following cities / venues have had at least one local person express interest in organizing a Homebrew Website Club, so are parked here until an event happens.

If you would like to co-organize a Homebrew Website Club in one of the following cities / venues, speak up in our #indieweb-meta chat channel and see if you can find a co-organizer! After your first event, we’ll help with wikifying and move your city/venue to the appropriate section above.

Add a city

Organizers:

Who is interested in participating?

Possible dates:

  • ...

How to Organize Virtual Events

Organizers, use the following to keep your Virtual Homebrew Website Club meetups on time and on track.

Remember to take and post a photo to the event page!

Beforehand

  1. Post an event on https://events.indieweb.org/
    • You can reference or even clone a recent virtual HWC event as a starting point
    • If this is the first time you are hosting your meetup, you will need to write your own description for the event. Feel free to use existing pages on the events page as inspiration and to understand the format event pages typically use.
    • Include a link to a unique etherpad for the event using YYYY-MM-DD format and a short description, e.g. https://etherpad.indieweb.org/2023-01-18-hwc-pacific
    • Use one of the HWC Logos and Graphics for the event image. The retro image has been a popular one the last several years.
  2. Invite everyone who attended previous Homebrew Website Club meetups in the event's timezone, those you've invited before, and any friends you know who may be interested in having their own website, upgrading their blog, etc.
  3. (Optional) Announce your meetup on social media and/or your personal website to get the word out about the event.

On the day of the meeting

Setting up the meeting room

  • If you are using the IndieWeb Zoom account, familiarize yourself with Zoom - Tips for Hosts
    • Access to the IndieWeb Zoom account can be requested in the #indieweb-cafe channel
    • Screen sharing should be set to "Only Host". The host can share their screen to show people's sites during introductions. You may also be able to designate a co-host to handle screen sharing.
    • Experimental: Consider enabling in-meeting chat for hosts and co-hosts only. This will allow hosts and co-hosts to send links to the chat and etherpad, making it easier for attendees to join in the discussion and collaborative notes.
    • Start the Zoom meeting 10 minutes before the scheduled start time. The event listing on https://events.indieweb.org will automatically update to include a "Live Now" link that attendees can click to join.
  • If you are using a different video service, you will need to update the event listing on https://events.indieweb.org with the link to join.
  • Post a message in the #indieweb channel that the meeting is starting

Running the event

  • Welcome
  • Introductions
    • Introduce yourself and your site following HWC Broadcast, then offer each attendee to introduce themselves. Note: attendee videos don't appear in the same order on everyone's screen, so a host should select the order to avoid confusion.
  • Group photo: Explain you're taking a group photo (screenshot) that will appear in the event page, This Week in the IndieWeb newsletter, and the @indiewebcamp Twitter post. Allow people to turn off their video if they prefer to not be in the photo.
    • In Zoom, choose the option "Hide Non-video Participants" before taking the screenshot.
  • Main meetup: This is where the format can vary. Some approaches so far:
    • Ask what topics people are interested in discussing, noting them in chat. Then attendees can vote on their preferred priority in chat. Set a timebox for each topic then proceed through each topic.
    • Looser, general discussion without timeboxes
    • A quiet writing period followed by discussion
  • Group photo: if more people joined since the first photo, consider taking another photo
  • If you are meeting regularly, announce when the next event will be

After the event

  • Upload the photo to the event permalink on https://events.indieweb.org
    • Set the alt text to something describing the photo, including attendee's names as displayed in the screenshot. Example: "Zoom grid of attendees. Top left to bottom right: name1, name2, name3, and name4"
  • Archive the etherpad notes on the wiki, see Cali for bot commands you can use in chat to do this
  • Once you have verified the wiki archive of the notes, edit the event description and change the link to the Etherpad to link to the wiki archive of the notes instead.
  • Update the Homebrew Website Club template that display a list of meetups by year
    • Add a link to the events site date archive, e.g. [https://events.indieweb.org/2022/09/14 09-14]
    • Add an emoji link to the wiki page that was created when archiving the etherpad, e.g. [[events/2022-09-14-hwc-pacific|🌎]]
      • Refer to cities for emojis we've used for your city/region
  • Combine notes from the broadcast portion of the meetup into a post
  • Sign out of the organiser's Zoom account (if used)
  • If you are meeting regularly, set up the next event on https://events.indieweb.org
    • You can clone the current event by selecting the "Edit" menu at the top right and selecting "Clone Event". Don't forget to update dates and links in the new event's description.

How to Organize

Organizers, use the following to keep your in-person Homebrew Website Club meetups on time and on track.

Remember to take and post a photo to the event page!

Beforehand

  1. Get a venue!
  2. Post an indie event for your specific meeting city (at your specific venue - if you have one, otherwise post anyway, and add venue when you get it)
  3. Invite everyone who attended previous Homebrew Website Club meetups in your city, and those you've invited before, and any friends you know who may be interested in having their own website, or upgrading their blog etc.

Optional Domain Name

Some cities choose to set up a website to use as well post events to the wiki

Optional POSSE Events

Optionally post a POSSE event on:

  • Upcoming.org or any other event sites that might help promote the event
  • Facebook
    • Duplicate a previous Facebook HWC event for your city
      • Find the previous FB event for your city
      • Choose "Duplicate Event..." from the [...] button/menu next to the top right "Edit" button
      • Update references to previous date / wiki page / indie event to post to current one
      • Optionally update or rotate event header photo
    • Or create a new FB event (e.g. if duplicating just makes FB say Something went wrong) and:
      • Set the event header photo to a PNG like:
        • Retro Homebrew Website Club JPG
        • I'm attending [7] (Note: should be updated to current logo and "Homebrew Website Club")
        • or another clever variant (see previous HWC event wiki pages)
      • Add a brief description from a recent next-hwc
      • Link to the IndieWeb wiki page for the event, e.g. in the description like:

        More information: https://indieweb.org/events/2015-05-20-homebrew-website-club

      • Link to your indie event and auth Bridgy with FB to get RSVPs! e.g. in the description

        Originally posted at: URL-OF-INDIE-EVENT

      • Keywords: Technology, Digital art

Setup

  • 17:00 arrive at the venue and:
    • make sure there is suitable seating for those that have RSVPd
    • make or bring a sign that clearly indicates the presence of an IndieWebCamp Homebrew Website Club meeting. If you come up with a nice sign design, please upload it to the wiki!
  • 17:20 put the sign out (or put up the IndieWebCamp logo on monitors in the space if any)
    • save seats for at least a few of the folks who RSVPd
    • consider setting aside a separate room or space for "Conversation Corner" for those that can't help but want to carry on a conversation during Quiet Writing Hour!
  • 17:25 test your projector setup to make sure people can show demos of their sites during the "Broadcast" half-hour from 18:30-19:30.

Quiet Writing Hour

  • 17:30-18:30 optional Quiet Writing Hour: some locations have started hosting a quiet writing hour from 17:30-18:30 immediately before the meetup itself.

HWC Broadcast

  • 18:30-19:00: Broadcast - take turns with the microphone 1-2 minutes on:
  • if this is your first time, introduce yourself, name, URL, what you'd like to do next with your personal site.
  • something new you created on or for your site since the last time you attended
  • questions about anything you're stuck on about your personal site
  • notable indieweb / ownyourdata related press / events

HWC Group Photo

  • ~19:00: Group photo - organizers should call time on the "broadcast" phase and then organize and take a group photo to upload to the wiki and embed in the "Photos" section on the page for the specific event. This also helps break-up existing sitting patterns and gives people a chance to move around.

Please be sure to:

  • Give folks a heads-up before you take a photo, especially in virtual meetups, to give folks an opportunity to opt-out
  • Make sure there are 2+ people who want to be in the photo, otherwise it looks like a meetup by one person with only one person which isn't really a meetup.

You may omit a photo if there is only one person who wants to be in the photo.

HWC Peer to Peer

  • ~19:00-19:30: Peer-to-peer - encourage everyone to find others they heard in the previous half hour that were interested in similar topics. Help newcomers with getting started with their personal sites, and hopefully even logging into the wiki and adding themselves to the RSVP section for the meeting!

HWC Group Photo 2

  • ~19:30: Group photo - If you forgot to take a group photo, or anyone new showed up, use the end of the peer-to-peer session as an opportunity to take another group photo.

HWC Clean-up and close

  • ~19:45-20:00: Clean-up and meeting closure - get everyone to help clean-up and leave the meeting space cleaner than they found it (BarCamp style). Encourage folks to continue discussions at a nearby pub or cafe and get food/drink too!

HWC Immediately after

  • Combine notes from the broadcast portion of the meetup into a post.
  • Add to the event page on the wiki:
    • At least one group photo from your meeting.
    • Any other wrap-up posts with notes from the meeting.

Planning Questions

In rough order of when a co-organizer might encounter these:

Finding a venue

How do I find a venue?

  • Check out cafes that have an environment where people are sparse and the cafe is ok with hanging out with laptops for an hour or two.

What kind of food venue is works well?

  • Cafe style is best, where you order at the counter separately, and can come and go independently.
  • Wifi is a nice to have (or get someone to bring a mifi hotspot and share)
  • Power outlets are also a nice to have

Adding to the wiki

How should a co-organizer add a HWC-event to the wiki?

We are now using https://events.indieweb.org/ for HWC-events!

The easiest is to clone an existing event, e.g.:

  • Find the most recent HWC in your city in https://events.indieweb.org/archive
  • Click the drop-down next to "Edit" on the right and choose "Clone Event"
  • Edit the event details to fix the date, confirm the time & venue, update the description
  • Save!

If there isn't a previous HWC event in your city, feel free to clone from another HWC event, e.g.:

Promoting an HWC event

How do I promote an HWC event?

  • Invite participants from previous HWC events in the same city.
  • Invite participants from IndieWebCamps from that city

There are several logos and graphics you can use in your promotions.

Promoting Regular HWC Meetups

Some organizers have found it useful to create a separate web and social media presence for their group. This allows potential attendees to stay up-to-date on upcoming events without needing to follow the organizers' feeds, and (potentially) allows multiple organizers to manage announcements and marketing.

Examples of HWC sites and social media accounts

What to bring

What should I bring to the meetup?

  • A sign saying Homebrew Website Club might be helpful

How to wrap up

  • Make sure to take a photo and upload it to the event on events.indieweb.org!
    • There's a convenient "Add Photo" option in the drop-down menu next to "Edit" in the top right of the event page.
  • Let folks know you have to wrap up, and either
    • If the venue is public like a cafe, encourage them to stay as long as they like
    • If you’re the venue host like in an office, provide suggestions of nearby eating and drinking places where folks can continue discussions and perhaps grab a snack

Ask Organizers

Got more questions?

  • Ask active community members who (help) organize (or have organized) Homebrew Website Club meetups, e.g. in IRC, or in-person at a meetup!

Organizers (alphabetically by name, summary from the above lists, who has been active etc.)

Emeritus:

History

Tantek was inspired after attending the Homebrew Computer Club 38th Reunion and set up the first meeting 2013-11-20 in San Francisco.

Homebrew Website Club meetups were founded with the same structure as the classic Homebrew Computer Club meetings, for anyone passionate about or interested in creating, improving, building, designing their own website!

Logos and Graphics

Images you can use for the featured / banner image on event pages:

  • I'm attending (Note: should be updated to current logo and "Homebrew Website Club")

Brainstorming

Online Format

With the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWeb meetups have moved to online formats. Organizers have been rotating organizing duties and are experimenting with different formats. Here are some of my notes from the last few weeks: gRegor Morrill 14:35, 8 April 2020 (PDT)

  • Familiarize yourself with Zoom - Tips for Hosts
    • Screen sharing should be set to "Only Host". The host can share their screen to show people's sites during introductions. You may also be able to designate a co-host to handle screen sharing.
  • Welcome
  • Introductions
    • Introduce yourself and your site following HWC Broadcast, then offer each attendee to introduce themselves. Note: attendee videos don't appear in the same order on everyone's screen, so a host should select the order to avoid confusion.
  • Group photo: Explain you're taking a screenshot for the event page and the weekly newsletter, allowing people to turn their video on or off as they prefer.
  • Main meetup: This is where the format can vary. Some approaches so far:
    • Ask what topics people are interested in discussing, noting them in chat. Then attendees can vote on their preferred priority in chat. Set a timebox for each topic then proceed through each topic.
    • Looser, general discussion without timeboxes
    • A quiet writing period followed by discussion
  • Group photo: if more people joined since the first photo, consider taking another photo

Suggested Agenda

(via  一 Salt ♨️🚲🧂🧙‍♂️🐧🎓⚔️☠️ (talk) 18:00, 20 April 2020 (PDT)

For ease, markdown can be cloned from this event.

  1. Pre-Meeting (~ 15 minutes)
    • Host creates virtual space that can support a video chat for a small / medium group of people
    • Host creates / clones and fills in details about event on https://events.indieweb.org
    • Host familiarizes themself with whatever virtual space was selected
    • Everyone is welcome to invite anyone who has attended previous HWC in the area or who might be interested in attending
  2. Arrive / Mingle / Unstructured Conversation (~ 5 minutes)
  3. Introductions (~ 15 minutes)
    • Each attendee, beginning with Host, is given time to cover some / all of the following:
      • Name, URL, what you'd like to do next with your personal site
      • Something new you created on / for your site since the last time you attended
      • Questions about anything you're stuck on about your personal site
      • Notable indieweb / ownyourdata related press / events
    • Once current speaker is done, they select who will go next until everyone has spoken
  4. Group Photo #1 (~ 2 minutes)
    • Host announces that a screenshot is going to be taken for the event page and weekly newsletter
    • Everyone is given some time to turn their video on / off as they prefer
  5. Lean Coffee Kanban Voting (~ 10 minutes)
    • Everyone writes down the topic(s) that they would like to discuss as a group in #indieweb-cafe
    • Each topic is assigned a number by Host who decides when to close the call for topic submissions
    • Everyone posts their preference via a list of numbers, ordered with highest interest first
  6. Lean Coffee Discussion (~ 1 hour)
    • Topics are dicussed in order of group consensus
    • Host starts a timer when discussion begins
    • At ~10 minutes, a Roman vote (up/sideways/down) is taken to determine whether to keep on the same topic
    • If the topic is voted up, Host adds ~5 minutes to the timer before calling for another vote
    • If the topic is voted down, the group moves onto the next topic, this pattern repeats until time runs out
  7. Co-working Space (~ 45 minutes)
    • Find others that might be interested in similar topics
    • Help newcomers getting started with their personal sites
    • Make sure everyone has RSVPed to the event
  8. Group Photo #2 (~ 2 minutes)
    • Host announces that a screenshot is going to be taken for the event page and weekly newsletter
    • Everyone is given some time to turn their video on / off as they prefer
  9. Closing Round (~ 10 minutes)
    • Each attendee, beginning with Host, is given time to cover some / all of the following:
      • Meeting evaluation / feedback / suggestions
      • Appreciations / Goodbyes
  10. Post-Meeting (~ 10 minutes)
    • Host uploads group photo(s)
    • Everyone combines and uploads notes from the meetup

Appearance refresh or new site

Would it be helpful to do a refresh of this page as a reference, or perhaps a separate site entirely like:

Which has a similar list of active cities, how to start your own, but presented much more simply.

Archived

Past Description

Are you building your own website? Indie reader? Personal publishing web app? Or some other digital magic-cloud proxy?

Come on by and join a gathering of people with likeminded interests. Bring your friends who want to start a personal web site. Exchange information, swap ideas, talk shop, help work on a project...

  • Finish that blog post you’ve been writing!
  • Discuss difficult and/or open ended questions that you ran into!
  • Demos of recent IndieWeb breakthroughs, share what you've gotten working!
  • Whatever you want!

See the Homebrew Website Club Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 1 for a description of the first meeting.

HWC 2016

This is an archive of the HWC 2016 planning, originally found here.

2016 Homebrew Website Club start date! Should we start the 2016 HWC meetups on:

  • 2016-01-06 only one week after 2015-12-30,
    • but avoids having a meetup land the day before US Thanksgiving
    • 0 Tantek Çelik ok with this. no longer any preference.
    • 0 gRegor Morrill OK with this. Not attending an HWC currently so does not impact me.
  • 2016-01-13 two weeks after 2015-12-30,
    • but collides with Wednesday before US Thanksgiving thus unlikely to have much (any) participation at US venues.
    • 0 Tantek Çelik ok with this.

Based on lack of strong input on this, we are going with the default continuing every two weeks from 2015-12-30 and starting 2016 HWC with 2016-01-13. - Tantek 14:56, 23 December 2015 (PST) (updated, no objections, going with this plan. Tantek 07:51, 31 December 2015 (PST))

Getting some feedback that pages on organizing HWC hard to find, I think it maybe best to make a new page that is an HWC toolkit and port most of this content over.

At top of this page put two buttons one "Attend an HWC" and another "Organize an HWC"


See Also

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