Snippet: #OpenWeb ☇

I didn’t get a chance to share this yesterday, but Michael Rockwell (of Initial Charge fame) has a new project:

I spent a few days over the past week working on a little project that’s been bouncing around in my head lately. I’ve wanted something like this to exist for years and with the skills I’ve obtained from Treehouse over the past several months, I thought it was finally time to build it myself. Today, I’d like to announce #OpenWeb.

The site aggregates headlines from independent publishers that focus on Apple products and software. It also serves as a directory of single-person weblogs within our community. Over the past few years, social networks have become less and less exciting to use and there have been some subtle indications that the open web is poised for a comeback. With Micro.blog, JSON Feed, the meteoric rise in podcasting, and the frustration that many of us have had with Twitter and Facebook — I think weblogs could be the next big thing.[…]

But discovery is still a major problem. Why would you put the effort into buying a domain, setting up a site, and writing if no one is going to read it? And if you do manage to jump through all the hoops to start publishing, how do you find others in the community that have done so as well?

I was asked about bringing this site on board, and I like that the goal is to focus on non-linked-list items (aka Snippets on here). After just a day or two, I’ve already found some new content that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and it reminds me of the best goals of the “blogroll” from years’ past. Also, worth noting—it’s done on an iPad.