Time is running out to support Indie Microblogging

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Help Manton reach his $80,000 stretch goal on Kickstarter.

I've posted before about Manton Reece's Indie Microblogging Kickstarter. It's fully funded and is going to happen, but with three days to go, he's about $9,000 short of his stretch goal. If he hits $80,000, he'll hire a community manager to help shape the service, trying to proactively address issues like harassment that have derailed Twitter.

And one more reason to support Micro.blog... It just occurred to me that if I host my own Micro.Blog site, when I make a typo in a Micro.Blog post, I can go back and fix it!

If you are concerned about the future of social media, I encourage you to back Indie Microblogging on Kickstarter before Wednesday morning. Every little bit helps... I just increased my backer level.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. In his spare time, he wishes he could fix typos on Twitter. Follow Bob on Twitter and Instagram.

I’m excited about indie microblogging.

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Manton Reece has big plans for microblogs.


A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about what would happen if Twitter disappeared or became unusable. I started to explore other options for connecting with others in the design community. I started posting to Dribbble again* and I started playing around with Medium.**

Last week, while listening to my usual playlist of podcasts, I stumbled on a couple of discussions about Manton Reese’s Indie Microblogging Kickstarter project.

I backed it instantly.

The Kickstarter has two parts: A book and a service.

The book will detail a framework for independent microblogging… basically a standards-based system for posting and sharing Twitter-like posts.

The service is Micro.blog. And it’s a fascinating attempt to make it as easy as possible to host your own micro blog, basically a decentralized version of Twitter.

I think Manton’s got some great ideas. And I think his heart is in the right place. I love the idea of leveraging RSS for the underpinning of the service. I think 280 characters is great. The iPhone app supports Markdown. You can use your own domain for free or pay $5/month for Micro.blog to host your microblog. An API that others can use to hook into the service. And oh yeah, and the name is perfect.

The Kickstarter project was funded on the first day. And he’s now got a stretch goal — $80,000 — to help fund a community manager to shape the service and actively address the bullying and nastiness that is rampant on Twitter. I don’t know if he’ll make the stretch goal, but I love that he’s already thinking about this.

Also, remember in the early days if Twitter, before they cracked down on the API usage, when third party developers were extending and improving the service. I hope those developers throw everything they’ve got at supporting Micro.blog.

Many people are skeptical that Micro.blog will blossom into a sustainable full featured Twitter replacement. And I completely get that. Look at all the failed attempts to replace or replicate the functionality of Twitter of the years. It's tough to build a large user base for a new social media site and it's too early to tell if Micro.blog will take off — after all, the service hasn’t even launched yet. But I think the service and the concept are the right idea at the right time. I’m looking forward to using the service and watching it develop in the coming years.

I’m excited about Micro.blog and about the plan to use RSS to power what is essentially an independent version of Twitter. If you are concerned about the future of Twitter and social networks, I really encourage you to head over to Kickstarter and back the Indie Microblogging project.

* Watch for another post about using Dribbble…
** Of course, who knows what Medium will become.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. In his spare time, he browses RSS feeds in Feedly. Follow Bob on Twitter and Instagram.

Finding that blogging rhythm

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It's amazing how a schedule change can disrupt your rhythm. When summer started, our family's whole routine changed. My wife is a teacher so as the school year ended, she was no longer waking up at 5:15 to get ready and I'm now the first one up. The kids have camps and programs. My daughter started playing lacrosse. I attended a conference. My wife attended a conference. We've tried to squeeze some vacation days into our busy schedule. Our air conditioner died and it's 100 degrees every single day. I'm trying to exercise more. And just like that, I'm not writing.

Now don't get me wrong... I'm having a blast this summer. But it's times like this I realize how challenging it is to blog* consistently. I've had Sketchbook B since 2007 and I'm still trying to find a consistent rhythm. It makes me really appreciate people who blog daily or weekly without fail for years on end.

I'm working on some projects this summer and so posting will continue to be erratic until fall. One of those projects is figuring out where I want to go with this blog over the next few years. What types of things do I enjoy writing about and how do I want to structure things? What does my audience look like and what do I want it to look like? Do I want to have ads? How do I use social media to promote posts? How do I improve the photography on the site? 

I'm looking forward to finding that focus that I've been missing. And hopefully finally finding a new rhythm.

* I try to avoid the words "blog" and "post," but sometimes, it's the most appropriate word to use.

Why do we do what we do?

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I came across this post about motivation from one of the guys behind Basecamp*. The thrust of the article is that too many people are obsessed with the process of building a business simply to get rich. The post is about the Silicon Valley, but it could just as easily be about art and design.

It seems today that designers have been successful making their side project a full time gig.** And so it seems that every side project is a failure if it doesn’t eventually become a full time job. 

At times, I’ve forgotten why I started Sketchbook B. I’ve started paying too much attention to web traffic and font sales. But the goals for Sketchbook B have never been about building an audience, selling ads or making money. It’s all about experimenting and having fun.

One of the goals for Sketchbook B was to give me a chance to write more, but I wasn’t writing consistently. So recently I started to post daily. I made the decision to try a publishing schedule to force myself into a routine because I wanted to get more disciplined about writing.

After a couple of weeks though, my weekly page views were pretty much unchanged. I wondered if it was worth the effort. No one new was reading. But I came across Matt Gemmell’s post about “blogging” and I remembered that page views aren’t the point. Writing was the point. And I’m enjoying my site more in the last few weeks than I have at any time since I started it in 2008.

I’ve come to the realization that “side project” might be the wrong term for what I do. Maybe “passion project” is a better phase. I write, design type and experiment because I love design and creativity. My typefaces and other random projects were never intended to be a full time job. I’m looking to be creative in ways that I can’t be at work.***

Sketchbook B is simply my creative outlet, and I'm proud of that.

* I’ve used Basecamp for years. And I was a devoted user of Backpack before 37 Signals phased it out. :(

** It probably seems that way because so many people were starting side projects during the recession.

*** I seriously have the best day job.

New Sketchbook B Schedule

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I've tried a couple times to have a publishing schedule and I've failed to be consistent. I enjoy writing and I want to get back in a rhythm of writing regularly. It's too easy to miss a week, and then a month, and then... So I'm trying again. Here's the schedule.

  • Monday: A Wanted in Columbia update on the Off Topic blog
  • Tuesday: A post on the main blog
  • Wednesday: Return of the weekly Creative Cloud quick tip
  • Thursday: A second major post on the main blog
  • Friday: Something completely random on the Off Topic blog

I'll supplement throughout the week with links and comments, but I'll plan on getting these five posts out every week.

I'm committing to this through the end of 2015 and will reevaluate then. Posting daily is pretty ambitious, especially since I intend to illustrate my Tuesday and Thursday posts. (And, oh yeah, I'm teaching this semester.) But I will make time for what I want to do and right now, I really want to write.