Masala Inc. #15 - Digital Manifesto

Overview of my manifesto to build a good web and a peek into my new work, Heartland

Digital Manifesto

I have been working in and around software for more than a decade now. In all this time, I have settled on an evolving set of principles that I would center my programming practice on.

• Make things with personality.

• Use tools that will work even a decade later

• Open better than closed. Closed better than it never existing.

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• Build your own garden, an open and welcoming place, and break the hegemony of walled gardens.

• Own your data.

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• Document your mind.

• Don’t load unnecessary junk. A side effect to not loading unnecessary junk, a fast website.

• Access is a civil right. Inaccessibility is poor craftsmanship

  ³

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Heartland

Head over to my website to see all the pictures

For years I have been planning a trip into the heartlands of Andhra Pradesh — East Godavari. Generations of my family made a life for themselves on the shores of Godavari. A lot of them made their way back to it cold embrace on their death.

Godavari has never been just a river to me. When I was a kid, the train would tremble with excitement when it made its way across the river. One could hear

the river whisper secrets. Secrets of the kind that families leave unspoken when they meet each other in weddings and funerals.

Art has always been a way for me to peek at the inner workings of the world. Of figuring out the unsaid. I wanted to see what lurked under that landscape. The stories lost with generations of my family. Struggles, subjugation and survival.

Ask any artist and they would be first to tell you. Never share your work prematurely. This work could evolve and grow into something else. By putting it out there, I could be limiting it's scope. But, this space is my garden. We can all watch this idea evolve together.

1. The Long Web

2. The indieweb played a big part early on in putting to words what I thought was missing in cookie cutter, dog-eat-dog internet of today

Marcy Sutton-Todd @marcysutton

My #A11y Thoughts for the day: 1. Access is a civil right. That's enough of a reason to prioritize it. 2. Digital accessibility is also a wise business decision that requires investment. Access = more customers. 3. Inaccessibility is poor craftsmanship. We can do better.

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3. yesh // july 25 2022

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