timeline

From IndieWeb

The timeline briefly documents key IndieWeb (and influencing thereof) terms/ideas/concepts, implementations, specifications, events, and other achievements; people involved, and dates/URLs for each.

In every case, a source pointing to an exact date or community verification should be used.

Key (in rough order of how ideas develop, succeed)

  • (C) - Conceived. Concept/idea presented, published, discussed.
  • (T) - Terminology proposed/defined. Naming things helps talk about them (so says @timoreilly, Brooklyn Beta, 2013[1])
  • (E) - Event. A notable meeting or event that furthered the IndieWeb.
  • (I) - Implemented. Implementation shipped and deployed live and working on a personal indie web site.
  • (L) - Launched. Site, service, software, channel, or group launched.
  • (D) - Discontinued. Site, service, software, channel, or group discontinued, closed, shutdown.
  • (S) - Specified. Specification written down and publicly published on the web.

For significant IndieWeb / silo / social media / federated / decentralized web companies, products, and services, see and add to:

1992

1997

1998

  • ...

1999

2000

  • ...

2001

2002

  • 2002-05-08 (T): indie web phrase mentioned publicly as an adjective in phrase indie web publisher by Jeffrey Zeldman. See also #1997 use of phrase.
  • 2002-06-26 (T)(I): Trackback first implemented in Movable Type v2.2 [2] [3]
  • 2002-07-07 (C): Pingback concept described as "automatic trackback" by Stuart Langridge[4]
    • first automatic way to let someone know that you linked to their site.
  • 2002-08 (S): Trackback specification released by Six Apart [5]
  • 2002-09-02 (T): Pingback term introduced by Stuart Langridge[6]
  • 2002-09-02 (I): Pingback first implemented by Simon Willison ([7] (UK timestamp?)
    • Additional source: Tantek conversation with Simon in Brighton, UK 2013-09-07
  • 2002-09-02 (I): Pingback second implementation by Stuart Langridge[8] (US/CA timestamp?)
  • 2002-09-04 (S): Pingback first specified by Stuart Langridge[9]
  • 2002-09-06 (S): RSS 3.0 spec published by Aaron Swartz[10]
  • 2002-09-23 (S): Pingback 1.0 spec published by Ian Hickson[11][12][13]

2003

  • 2003-03-11 (C): XFN conceived by Tantek Çelik at SXSW with proposal of rel=friend
  • 2003-03 (E): SXSW Interactive: Tantek Çelik & Matthew Mullenweg meet, work on XFN
  • 2003-05-27 (L): WordPress open source project launched[14]
  • 2003-06-29 (C): Atom - concepts described for why Atom (then working name "Echo") was needed and shortly thereafter RSS Atom Wars began
  • 2003-12-15 (S): XFN 1.0 specified by Tantek Çelik[15], Eric Meyer[16], and Matt Mullenweg[17]

2004

2005

  • 2005-06-20 (L): microformats.org launched
  • 2005-08-19 (E): First BarCamp held in Palo Alto, CA. http://barcamp.org/BarCamp, creating the template for IndieWebCamp and many others.
  • 2005-09-24…25 (E): Webzine 2005 conference held in San Francisco, CA. http://webzine2005.com/ (see also Flickr tags #webzine05, #webzine2005, and album). A few BarCamp Founders including Tantek Çelik participated in helping with the long planning/organizing for this conference, and the logistics discussed there contributed to inspiring them to believe they could create something similar, simpler, which became the first BarCamp, ironically held before Webzine.

2006

  • ...

2007

  • ...

2008

2009

  • 2009-01-08 (E): First Activity Streams Meetup[24]
  • 2009-01-14 (I): First implementation to publish rel=in-reply-to in StatusNet[25]
  • 2009-04-17…19 (E): Social Web FooCamp at O'Reilly Campus, Sebastopol, CA(archive)[26][27]

2010

  • 2010-02-01 (C): RelMeAuth concept described by Tantek[28]
  • 2010-02-01 (T): RelMeAuth term proposed by Jeff Lindsay moments later[29]
  • 2010-02-01 (C): RelMeAuth user flow, fallback algorithms by Tantek[30]
  • 2010-02-03 (C): backfeed concept as "reverse syndication" by Tantek[31]
  • 2010-04-30…05-02 (E): FOO East at Microsoft N.E.R.D., Cambridge, Massachussetts
  • 2010-05-02 (C): microformats 2.0 proposed by Tantek at FOO East[32]
  • 2010-05-03 (T): indie web as a noun published publicly as contrast to an (implied) silo example by Tantek[33]. See also #1997 and #2002 uses of phrase.
  • 2010-05-26 (C): POSSE concept described by Tantek[34]
  • 2010-06-06 (T): indie web term & concept as distinct from large companies used in private email interview response by Tantek to journalist Craig Grannell of .net magazine (Practical Web Design in the US), later published in said magazine (when? citation?)
  • 2010-07-18 (E): Federated Social Web Summit (FSWS2010) in Portland, Oregon
  • 2010-07-18 (C): IndieWeb concept refocused as build/selfdogfood/ownyourdata principles conceived by Aaron Parecki & Tantek Çelik in person in Portland, Oregon, the evening after FSWS2010
  • 2010-10-06 (C): POSSE architecture drawn by Tantek at Mozilla, Mountain View[35] including backfeed functionality, then referred to as "reverse syndicate".
  • 2010-10-08 (E): Open Web FooCamp at O'Reilly Campus, Sebastopol, CA, attended by Tantek where upon arriving he blogged What is the Open Web? before the opening session.
  • 2010-12-31 (T): IndieWebCamp as an event name & date proposed by Tantek to Aaron on IM.(AIM logs/archives), and shortly thereafter reached out to Amber Case & Crystal Beasley to start organizing the event together.

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

  • ...

Anniversaries

Particularly notable or impactful events from the above, that are worth celebrating as birthdays or anniversaries:

January

February

March

  • ...

April

May

June

July

  • 04

August

September

October

November

December

Main article: December

Needs Dates and incorporation above

Need Dates/Who/Citations for the following, creators and the first example of each:

Webmention

Micropub

  • YYYY-MM-DD (CT) Micropub first proposed as a concept and/or named as simple mf vocab + OAuth API to post content
  • YYYY-MM-DD (S) first draft published on the web (at Micropub?)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (S) FPWD/CR/PR/REC at W3C
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) micropub.rocks test suite launched
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) micropub.rocks test suite completed
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ interop clients & 2+ servers impls confirmed via test suite impl reports
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 10+ interop clients & 10+ servers impls confirmed via test suite impl reports

WebSub

  • YYYY-MM-DD (CT) PubSubHubbub proposed as concept and/or named
  • YYYY-MM-DD (S) PubSubHubbub drafts published (dates & permalinks)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (S) FWPD at W3C (as PubSub?)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (T) WebSub named (at Social Web WG)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (S) first WD/CR/PR at W3C as (WebSub)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) websub.rocks test suite launched
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) websub.rocks test suite completed
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ interop publishers & 2+ hubs & 2+ subscribers impls confirmed via test suite impl reports
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 10+ interop publishers & 10+ hubs & 10+ subscribers impls confirmed via test suite impl reports

IndieAuth

  • YYYY-MM-DD (CT) IndieAuth as a concept and/or named as something beyond RelMeAuth
  • YYYY-MM-DD (S) first specified as a way to do delegated authentication

WebActions

  • YYYY-MM-DD (CT) Webactions first proposed as a concept and/or named
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) Webactions implemented cross-site (with or without a library)

Microsub

  • 2017-04-02 (CT) Microsub first proposed conceptually and named
  • 2017-04-09 (S) first draft published on the web at Microsub-spec
  • 2017-11-24 (I - server) initial private launch of Aperture [68]
  • 2017-11-27 (L - client) Together adds Microsub support [69] available at https://alltogethernow.io
  • 2018-01-27 (I - client) Indigenous iOS app adds Microsub support
  • 2018-02-27 (L - client) Monocle launched at https://monocle.p3k.io
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ interop clients & 2+ servers impls confirmed by regular use
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) test suite launched
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) test suite completed
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ interop clients & 2+ servers impls confirmed via test suite impl reports
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 10+ interop clients & 10+ servers impls confirmed via test suite impl reports

like

  • YYYY-MM-DD (C) conceived as a noun, with permalink, in contrast to ActivityStreams "like" verb
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) first IndieWeb favorite/like published and original notified via webmention
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) first IndieWeb likes displayed on a post received via webmention
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ published on different sites with different tools/code (and webmentions sent)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ sites (with different implementations) displaying them received via webmentions
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 3+ published (same criteria)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 3+ sites displaying received (same criteria)

repost

  • YYYY-MM-DD (C) conceived as a noun, with permalink, in contrast to ActivityStreams "share" verb
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) first Indieweb repost published and original notified via webmention
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) first IndieWeb reposts displayed on a post received via webmention
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ published on different sites with different tools/code (and webmentions sent)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ sites (with different implementations) displaying them received via webmentions
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 3+ published (same criteria)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 3+ sites displaying received (same criteria)

RSVP

  • YYYY-MM-DD (C) conceived as a noun, with permalink, in contrast to ActivityStreams "RSVP" verb (or whatever their responses to events were for attending and such)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) first Indieweb RSVP published and original notified via webmention
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) first IndieWeb RSVPs displayed on an event received via webmention
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ published on different sites with different tools/code (and webmentions sent)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 2+ sites (with different implementations) displaying them received via webmentions
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 3+ published (same criteria)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (I) 3+ sites displaying received (same criteria)


other post types

When were other posts types first posted?

  • ... (copy from list of post kinds)
  • ...

When were other responses first posted, and first received / shown by recipient, 2+, 3+


IndieMark

When was IndieMark

  • (C) conceived as a concept
  • (T) named as a term
  • (S) first specified

more microformats history


Need Dates/Who/Citations for the following, creators and the first example of each:

hCard

  • (CT) hCard first proposed as a concept and/or named as vCard in HTML by re-using vCard vocab as HTML class names
  • (S) hCard first draft spec published (was on Technorati dev wiki (defunct) before microformats.org, check archive.org)
  • (S) hCard specified on microformats.org

h-card

  • (CT) h-card first proposed as a concept and/or named (likely at FOO East session)
  • (S) h-card first specified at microformats.org/wiki/h-card

hCalendar

  • (CT) hCalendar first proposed as a concept and/or named as vCard in HTML by re-using vCard vocab as HTML class names
  • (S) hCalendar first draft spec published (was on Technorati dev wiki (defunct) before microformats.org, check archive.org)
  • (S) hCalendar specified on microformats.org

h-event

  • (CT) h-event first proposed as a concept and/or named (likely at FOO East session)
  • (S) h-event first specified at microformats.org/wiki/h-event

hReview

  • (CT) hReview first proposed as a concept and/or named
  • (S) hReview first draft spec published (likely was on Technorati dev wiki (defunct) before microformats.org, check archive.org)
  • (S) hReview specified on microformats.org

h-review

  • ... similarly

hAtom

  • (CT) hAtom first proposed as a concept and/or named
  • (S) hAtom first draft spec published (maybe was on Technorati dev wiki (defunct) before microformats.org? check archive.org)
  • (S) hAtom specified on microformats.org

h-entry

  • (CT) h-entry first proposed as a concept and/or named (likely at FOO East session)
  • (S) h-entry first specified at microformats.org/wiki/h-entry

microformats2

  • (CT) microformats2 first proposed as a concept and/or named (likely at FOO East session)
  • (S) microformats2 first specified as a format
  • (S) microformats2-parsing spec first published on microformats.org
  • (I) first microformats2 parser implemented
    • in each language, PHP, Python, JS, node, Ruby, Java
  • (L) mf2 test suite launched
  • (L) mf2 test suite relatively completed
  • (I) first microformats2 parser implemented
  • (I) second mf2 parser
  • (I) third


RelMeAuth

  • (I) RelMeAuth first implemented / library
  • (L) RelMeAuth as a service first launched (IndieAuth.com?)

Bridgy

  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) launched additional silo backfeed support (one by one)

Bridgy Publish

  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) launched additional silo support (one by one)

silo.pub

  • YYYY-MM-DD (C) conceived as an open source library / service to provide a Micropub-to-Twitter posting API (and other silos)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) launched with support for silos (which in particular)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (L) launched additional silo support (one by one)

needs cleanup

The following need cleanup for what aspects need to be documented as historical events of what types (conceived, term defined, specified, implemented, event, etc.)


Blog posts of why IndieWeb is important.

Webmention.io and pingback.me before that

---

Note: Below is a draft of unorganized data with rough dates. Needs cleanup. Source: @caseorganic conversation with @t, IndieWebCamp UK 2013-09-08

---

2003:

Rise of Pingback Spam

Decline of Personal Sites

  • Distracted by RSS/ATOM wars, blogs began to decline
  • Hosted blogs, people turned to social networks more than blogging
  • Eventual fade of RSS/ATOM

2007:

  • DiSo initiative launched

2010: State of Blogs

  • Not much personal blog activity
  • WordPress heavy and dominant
  • DiSo initiative last post - future of DiSo

2013:

  • Github hosted blogs, Medium for frontpage Hacker News

Siloed blogging and writing frameworks.

  • MEDIUM: Don’t claim ownership but reserve the right to use your content even if they get acquired in the future.
  • Wikia: Communities don’t own their content and can’t transfer it off their site.

Differences between 2013 and 2003

  • Short status updates became an acceptable form of content
  • Easy enough to show an entire conversation or a link to another page

2011 (E): IndieWebCamp Conf

  • Purpose: Show, don’t tell
  • Builders Only. Must have your own domain name and actively build stuff for it to attend.
  • Use your domain name and OpenID to sign into the IndieWebCamp MediaWiki. http://indiewebcamp.com/
  • Could only add self to the attendee list if you use your domain name to log into the site.

2012:

  • IndieAuth implemented on IndieWebCamp.com (replaced OpenID)
  • 2012-06 (E): IndieWebCamp2012: changed from Builders-only to Creators-only to more explicitly include UX+design
    • Again, could only add self to the attendee list if you use your domain name to log into the site.
  • Domain Name, rel=me, mediawiki
  • 2012-09 (E): IndieWebCampUK 2012 (first in the UK)

Similar Resource

See also these timeline examples:

See Also