Aral Balkan
Coming soon: it’s going to be trivial to deploy a different app on your Small Web server. Useful if you’re a dev and you’re playing around with different apps.
(Also, notice the speed at which deployment happens. I’m one step away from implementing this in Domain using pre-warmed Kitten instances – called toasty kittens – thereby bringing the time it takes to deploy your own Small Web place down to a handful of seconds.)
:kitten: 💕
Aral Balkan
If you watch my talks from a few years back, you’ll know that my goal has been to make owning your own place on the web as easy as renting it (in exchange for your human rights and dignity) from Big Tech like Facebook, etc.
A key aspect of this is to make it trivial – a few seconds and no technical knowledge – to get started with (and ditto, not require technical knowledge to maintain it).
Easier said than done, which is why control over the whole stack is so important…
Aral Balkan
… and why I’ve had to build so much infrastructure in the past few years. It wasn’t just to reinvent the wheel but to have control over every aspect of the experience.
Well, it’s getting closer to being a reality and I’m really excited to hopefully finally be able to share what will be culmination of the last decade of my work with more of you starting this year.
💕
PS. If you like where this work is heading, please consider funding it (https://small-tech.org/fund-us).
Aral Balkan
This is approximately how long it takes to deploy a Small Web¹ place currently using Domain² (under a minute).
I plan on having that reducing that another order of magnitude to single-digit seconds by the end of the week.
(Made a recording so we can compare it afterwards.) ;)
Learn more about Domain on our failed @NGIZero funding application: https://ar.al/2022/10/20/nlnet-grant-application-for-domain-rejected/
:kitten: 💕
¹ https://codeberg.org/domain/app
#Domain #SmallWeb #technical #design #ngi #NLNet #eu #funding
Aral Balkan
Interesting story: did you know the Web wasn’t initially understood or embraced at CERN? It was seen as a distraction.
Here’s Robert’s video of Ben Segal – lovely human being and Tim’s mentor – showing us around CERN ~15 years ago and telling the story (see if you can spot a much younger me in shot):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK3nF6Jw6uU
“The crucial thing was the development in the USA.”
Here’s hoping Europe will do better with the Small Web.
Doesn’t look like it, though.
Aral Balkan
@defred Um, fuck you, I guess?
deFraid
@aral are you the skinhead following him with a big smile on your face ? Like science-redskins-approves kinda of nerd shit ?
Fredrik
@aral 👏👏👏 so cool to follow the progress on this!
Aral Balkan
@frojd Thanks, Fredrik :)
Aral Balkan
@rigo Robert being Scoble. He was shooting the video.
Rigo Wenning
@aral What a travel into my past !! But he did not mention Robert.
Aral Balkan
@rigo Ah, sorry, definitely the more relevant Robert :)
Rigo Wenning
@aral I meant Calliau
Aral Balkan
When I speak about spending the last few years “building infrastructure”, you might be wondering what sorts of things I’m talking about.
Here are some examples:
• JSDB: an in-memory, in-process database that writes to a JavaScript append-only transaction log and which you can use as if you were interacting with regular JavaScript objects.
https://codeberg.org/small-tech/jsdb
(I’ve been developing it for the last four years and it is integrated into Kitten.)
Aral Balkan
Another example is Auto Encrypt – automatically-provisioned TLS certificates for Node.js servers using Let’s Encrypt:
https://codeberg.org/small-tech/auto-encrypt
Similarly, Auto Encrypt Localhost does the same thing – in pure JavaScript, without using mkcert, etc. – for keeping your dev and production environments identical:
https://codeberg.org/small-tech/auto-encrypt-localhost
And the @small-tech/https module replaces Node’s https module to transparently provision certs during dev/production:
Aral Balkan
And while Kitten is new, it uses those elements and more as well as all the lessons learned building Site.js (https://sitejs.org) – going back five years.
All-in-all I’ve been working towards creating the Small Web—and Kitten, Domain, and Place—for half a decade and, on the greater problem of trying to formulate alternatives to Big Tech for the last decade. All without any funding from the commons/EU.
So, if you can, please support our work:
Aral Balkan
🎉 w00t! Just got deployment from pre-warmed servers working for the first time :)
Will post a screen capture once I’ve cleaned up the interface.
It’s single-digit seconds to deploy your own Small Web place (server) at your own domain! :awesome:
(I’ve been working towards this moment for the past six years so apologies if I sound like a giddy schoolboy.)
:kitten: 💕
Aral Balkan
@oanab Oh, there will be posts and documentation and talks and all that ;)
Oana
@aral sounds like a blog post about the solution is in order :)
Aral Balkan
@dragnucs Will post a video soon :) Easier to show than to tell. *runs off to code*
التنينوكس
@aral can you explain, even broadly, how do you deploy a space, please?
Aral Balkan
@mackenzian Thanks so much Keisha :)
mackenzian
@aral Congrats Aral!
Aral Balkan
@CTD Thank you :)
CTD
@aral outstanding. Well done you!
Aral Balkan
It now takes ~10 seconds to set up your own Small Web¹ place using Domain².
This was closer to one-minute last week.
Been working towards this for six years… That’s ~10 seconds to get up and running with your own Small Web place at your own VPS server and at your own domain name.
Can owning your own place on the Web be as simple as setting up a Facebook account? Yes. Likely simpler. And this brings us one step closer to that goal.
Aral Balkan
CC @karlfilip It took six years but we’re getting there… remember when the folks running the .gent TLD told us it was impossible?
🥂
Aral Balkan
Haha, forgot the footnotes, sorry:
¹ Small Web: https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/
(Also see latest updates on: https://ar.al/)
² Domain: https://codeberg.org/domain/app
Aral Balkan
@hcv13 Thank you :) Here’s hoping! 🤞
💕
Aral Balkan
@mastobit @majorlinux Hey if you’re running it on your own device, I likely have no issues with it.
Mast0b1t
I realize A.I. and LLMs get bad press, and rightly so. Nevertheless, I wonder how Small Language Models will fit, if at all, into Small Web? 🤔💭
Aral Balkan
@MonaApp I can view the Vimeo video in the post above directly in the Mastodon app but not in Mona. Any chance you could add that feature for Vimeo videos please? :)
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