Aral Balkan
So did I mention that no company or government pays me for the work I do?
But you can support my work if you want to live in a world where we have the Small Web as an alternative to the Big Web of Google, Facebook, and other people farmers.
https://small-tech.org/fund-us
#SmallWeb #SmallTech #funding #foss #freeSoftware #openSource #web #dev #tech #technology
Aral Balkan
Folks: where’s the alternative to the trillion-dollar surveillance capitalists you’re working on? Why isn’t it ready yet?
Also folks: Here’s your €457/mo war chest… don’t spend it all in one place now!
(I can’t express how grateful I am to our patrons over the years but how the fuck do we compete when we live in a world where some random techbro raises $2.6M to build a people farming social network where you can only say “Yo!“ while we struggle to pay the rent?)
Aral Balkan
“We’re so glad you exist.” is a phrase I hear often.
Say what you will about Silicon Valley and venture capitalists but when they say “we’re so glad you exist” to the latest people-farming startup, they back it up with, on average, $5M in cash.
When MEPS, etc., tell me they’re so glad we exist, they back it up with perhaps an invitation to talk for free at their next event.
(We’ve had exactly €0 in EU funding but I’ve spoken twice at the parliament so yay, I guess.)
Evan Prodromou
@aral I'm now a patron! And I'm so glad you exist. Please keep up the great work.
Aral Balkan
So, yeah, regardless of whether we receive any funding or not I’m going to keep doing the only thing I can, which is to keep working on making the Small Web exist (https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/).
And the goal is that once we get to the point where we (and anyone else who wants to) can host Small Web places, that will hopefully make us sustainable (because clearly we can’t depend on public funding).
But it sure as hell would be nicer if we didn’t have to keep living a precarious existence until then.
Aral Balkan
@evan Thanks, Evan. Really appreciate it.
💕
Aral Balkan
@fasterandworse Thanks so much, Stephen. Once things are a little further along, I might just take you up on your offer :) (Right now, the ability to iterate quickly is actually a feature not a bug and I don’t want to waste anyone else’s time as I do so but once the core things have stabilised a bit more I’m very much looking forward to working with members of the community.)
Stephen Farrugia
@aral I can't help financially, but I'm a 20+ year experienced web dev based in the EU who can find spare time for the right things. I do some design research and writing and I've come across your work many times before because of my own similar perspective.
Aral Balkan
@munterluggauer Thanks. I’ve actually stopped applying for NGI/NLNet grants (and basically grants in general) as they’ve only been a waste of time in the past.
The goal is to make the Small Web sustainable for us within the current system, show that it works, and then see if we can get any funding for it (because things that already exist seem to be the only things that get EU funding – for new features, etc.)
munter
i guess, you know that funding call but thought i send you a pointer. just in case, and to consider: https://ngisargasso.eu/
ራስ ባሪያው Rass Bariaw
@aral appreciate your vision and can relate; however, how do (would) non-techies use your concept?
Aral Balkan
@RassBariaw Once released:
1. Go to small-web.org (or any other Small Web host)
2. Choose a domain (e.g., rass.small-web.org)
3. Somehow pay for the resources it will use (eg., €10/mo to Small Technology Foundation or via a code mailed to you by your city/government if they subsidise it from your taxes)
And you get a place where you can be public (ala Twitter/Facebook) or talk privately with other people who have Small Tech places.
There’s more but that’s the gist of it.
Aral Balkan
@2qx Thanks so much for the offer but, sadly, no. I can’t in good conscience accept payment from a system that uses proof of work (proof of waste).
Appreciate your wanting to support our work though; the thought alone is enough :)
2qx
@aral I see you have a nano address listed, would you consider receiving monthly support in Bitcoin Cash?
Aral Balkan
@RassBariaw We’re tiny; we don’t need millions of people to be sustainable. We don’t even need tens of thousands. If we eventually have five thousand paid for domains we’d be fine. And it’s ok if even that doesn’t happen overnight.
I’d much rather we were sustainable and independent than to be at the whim of fickle public funding that shifts with the political winds.
(Wouldn’t consider Mozilla as they’re funded by Google/surveillance capitalism to the tune of ~$500,000,000/yr)
ራስ ባሪያው Rass Bariaw
@aral thank you for sharing this. Only an extremely few number of people would pay. With rare exception, nobody pays for Mastodon, Twitter, BlueSky, Facebook, Gmail, Outlook, WhatsApp, Tik Tok, Instagram.
Ally yourself with Signal, Mozilla, EFF, or identify a grant giving organization for your nonprofit status.
Aral Balkan
@RassBariaw (The goal is that we will be one of hopefully many small hosts.)
Aral Balkan
@williambondj Hi William, one of my goals is to use Kitten to teach (small) web development. I’m just waiting so that folks who are learning have a way to deploy their sites easily and thus share what they’re making. Watch this space :)
William Bond
@aral I love this! First time I've heard of it. How can I learn to be a developer and help this concept grow in the United States?
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