Bringing people together with the web

At Homebrew Website Club this evening we had a conversation about how to encourage people to make things together using the web. This could mean writing a blog post with someone, responding to someone’s blog post to continue a conversation, contributing to a wiki, creating a list of links, and more. There are so many ways to create with others on the web.

My recent blog post about categories was inspired by a discussion with Thomas about work he was doing on his site. Thomas then wrote a blog post in response to mine, and several people reached out with their ideas. I was delighted to see how much discussion and inquiry can come from a single blog post.

The discussion this evening got me thinking more broadly about times when websites have brought me closer with people.

On the weekend of IndieWebCamp Düsseldorf this year, a few people did my “What HTML element are you?” quiz. It was a joy to see people compare results and to hear the extent to which each person’s results resonated. It was delightful to see a website bring people together in the real world. (Side note: I felt a sigh of relief every time someone said their results were meaningful; making quizzes is hard!).

Another example of the web bringing me closer with people comes to mind. Earlier this year, I was on a call with several people playing a game that invites players to match as many related concepts as possible on a web page. There were dozens of groups and over a thousand labels to match. Despite the scale of the task of matching them all, the game was fun, perhaps because there were so many dimensions to explore: figuring out groups, finding labels to go into a group, realising some of your groups merge together, and more. The website brought us together to do something fun and challenging.

The IndieWeb Carnival – and all the other carnivals going on – bring people together. In the case of the IndieWeb Carnival, dozens of people from all over the world get together to write about the same topic.

Maybe every blog post brings us a little bit closer together. I have read blog posts that have made me curious, excited, validated, inspired, and more. I have read blog posts that have made me feel closer to others. I make a point of writing emails as much as I can to tell people with personal websites I enjoy how much I appreciate their websites.

With the web I can see photographs of Earth that a friend shared in a chat, awe-inspiring reminders of this wonderful place in which we live.

The more I think about it, the more I see the web as a place to bring us together.

Which makes me wonder: do you have any stories of the web bringing you closer together with people?

Also posted on IndieNews.