developer FAQ
Developer Frequently Asked Questions (AKA developer FAQ) are questions about the IndieWeb and IndieWebCamp that are more focused on the underlying technologies, standards, jargon, code than user-functionality.
See FAQ for more general, user-centric questions about the IndieWeb.
Why can no one make something consumer friendly
"Q: Why can't someone make something consumer friendly then?"[1]
A: Because they can't even make something self-friendly, that is, something that they themselves will use, daily, and thus continuously improve.
There are a growing number of creators & builders who are making self-friendly sites, services, and software, here in the IndieWeb community, and few elsewhere as well.
See also the next question: "Who are we making software for"
Who are we making software for
"Q: Who are we making software for?"
A: Make software for yourself which you use daily and rely on, before targeting some other demographic.(originally answered 2013-08-21)
And use it publicly on your personal site - that will motivate you to continuously iterate and improve it.
Share what you learn in the process. Post on your site, share briefly on chat, contribute to wiki.
By doing so we are together building a diverse plurality of software and systems that interoperate, by starting with our own individual & varied UX needs, wants, and specific real-world personal use-cases to derive the minimal protocols & formats necessary.
See also:
How should I markup my site
"Q: How should I markup my site?"
A: Use a classic microformat on the body of each page. For your index page, use an h-card. For your individual permalink pages, use h-entry.
For all of the data on your pages, use microformats2.
What are IndieWebCamp specifications
"Q: What specs does IndieWebCamp handle?"
A: The IndieWebCamp community develops several widely implemented specifications, including IndieAuth, Webmention, and Micropub. Additional specifications (like Microsub and Vouch) are in development. Lastly, IndieWebCamp also makes heavy (re-)use of microformats specifications.
See specifications for a longer list of essential IndieWebCamp specifications, both developed here in the community, and heavily (re-)used from other communities.
Any books or posts on federated networks
Q: Do you have any good books / posts you would recommend on the subject of federated networks?
A: There are no good books on the subject of federated networks, yet. There are very few actually good established federated networks, beyond perhaps the old NNTP networks. Email had a glimmer of federation but became an oligopoly (largely due to economies of scale addressing overwhelming spam), and is nearly impossible for new sites to federate. Chat networks with XMPP had an even briefer glimmer until major services abandoned their XMPP support.
There is some hope for the growing Matrix chat federated network, and the growing network of Mastodon and other ActivityPub compatible services, including many IndieWeb sites which federate directly or via BridgyFed. However both of these federated networks are dominated by their own primary implementation and thus at risk of all the downsides of software monocultures.
There are many aspirational posts about federated social networks (e.g. [2]) but few and far between are actual good posts about them. Here is a list of a few:
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