Driven by curiosity, I discovered the Indie Web was more than nostalgia; it was a movement with concrete protocols and an active community.

I traced its roots back to 2010, when Aaron Parecki and Tantek Çelik attended the Federated Social Web Summit in Portland, deciding a new, creator‑focused approach was needed. The first Indie Web Camp in 2011 cemented the idea that personal sites should own their data, stay connected across platforms, and remain under user control.

The movement opposes the “silo” model, warning that 38% of web pages from 2013 are now inaccessible, citing the shutdowns of Geo Cities, MySpace, and Google+. Its 11 guiding principles—Own your data, UX before plumbing, Modularity, Longevity, and Fun—encourage builders to publish visible data, keep content human‑first, and embrace diverse tools.

Technically, the community relies on small, composable standards like microformats2, h‑card for identity, and h‑entry for content, all anchored by a personal domain. These practices make sites interoperable, resilient, and permanently yours.