archipelago

web-ring infrastructure

starting examples / uses

• create a webring of all my domains and projects, some floating little stamp in the bottom left?
  • how to handle rendering this when connected to multiple web rings?
  • methods of connecting
    • single centralized text file that you add as the source and it validates that the url the code is calling from matches one of the entries in the source, if so, renders the webring marker
    • provide a list as source that is just hardcoded in code, same thing applies?
    • how to provide consent for this? what happens when someone wants to link to you but you don’t link back?
      • normally CORS means that you can’t get data from another site without explicitly giving permission to them (or having to set up a complex setting), but what if you could implicitly set up a websocket for anyone with a well known endpoint or html page that follows some sort of structure? the websocket just streams the latest data on connect and changes on some interval? provide a status page that is open to the public so you can see a feed of website friends and their latest statuses on your site?
    • what kind of content do you want to link?
      • just the url (traditional webring)
      • url and “status” located at the resource (webring + friend status or latest nuggets, like alicia guo)
      • url and “story” located at the resource (webring + photo and optional description(?))
      • generally feels like url + optional arbitrary content that needs to fit at the resource in some well known format…
        • could be a JSON file
        • or an html file with the json backing it located in some hidden HTML fragment with a wellknown ID?
        • or in a wellknown HTML format like in a table format

archipelago is infrastructure for creating communal internet spaces.

• your website state can be made available as ""ambiently available state"" ↗ for your community to play and interact with

• your personal state is remembered globally and can be accessed by each domain ↗

• you can specify smaller representation of your website to be embedded on other sites, as a successor to the web ring and [portal constellation]↗)))) )

• every year (some other time period?) there is an event for creating a communal place in the spirit of Ise Jingu ↗

• components involved:

  • list for all the people in the webring -> this can probably just be a text file in some github.. how does this work when everyone has equal ownership though? it needs to be decentralized rather than core to one person’s repo. Maybe everyone just duplicates the same list… (or it can be different to everyone), and then you can make a collective website that combines the lists from every person
    • this is to allow cross-origin requests
    • jacky zhao revealed that websockets aren’t subject to CORS restrictions.. How could you co-opt websockets to pass this required information between each site?
  • some way to delineate spaces for other websites to stream to? how do you send things to other websites without a server… maybe it only happens when someone is on on your site?
  • windows into other member sites (can become stale, “last seen …”). Maybe it matches up with the last time that they updated their site? or it could be when a visitor from your site visited there and brought back a picture
  • favicon ring that shows who was last on the site?

• this could..

  • make communal websites (exquisite-corpse style)
  • make a chain of websites
  • make an engine for talking to other websites
  • create portals between websites iframe quilt

• specific media queries as konami code

  • 

Things to co-opt / leverage

• specific IP addresses
• tracking cookies which allow for incremental leveling up of experience depending on how many sites you’ve visited
  • https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/01/get-ready-for-new-samesitenone-secure#:~:text=Every%20cookie%20has%20a%20domain,%22third%20party%22)%20context

References

• “*#ideas/art a communal website which the community gathers to rebuild every 20 years like Ise Jingu so that we pass down our handmade processes for creating sites to new generations
  • we need to cultivate more of this in digital spaces: “tokowaka (常若), which means renewing objects to maintain a strong sense of divine prestige in pursuit of eternity, and as a way of passing building techniques from one generation to the next."" ↗

• ”- discovered portal constellation, an effort to “revive the webring,” through sarah frend’s site. It embeds a window from the web ring into a site web ring evolution
  • ” ↗

• ""ambiently available state"" ↗
• ↗
• “-#ideas/writing a case for the open and cozy internet: increasingly the dialogue around these two concepts has been to show that they are on two ends of a spectrum. You can either choose an open internet, where you are at risk of getting barraged by millions of people, harassed, and taken advantage of, OR you can choose a private cozy internet that is invite-only (but also can be inherently stifling and exclusive). There’s an in-between I’m reaching for that feels like your local cafe, library, or community center. Where it does feel cozy, private to a degree (you can’t just come in and cause a ruckus without consequences), but it is also inherently (and radically so) open to everyone, which is something we need more of in this increasingly hyper-capitalist and transactional world. ” ↗
• “creating a generic solution for having a core “host"" ↗
  • and hosting on the web (being a website host)