why is this a digital garden
what is a digital garden?
I describe this site as a digital garden, but what does that mean? digital gardening is a squishy concept, but sites that self-identify as such often feature
- liberal usage of linking between pages, posts, and outside sources
- much less structure than traditional blogs. In particular, little to no concern with the chronological ordering of content
- publication of incomplete or mutable content
I have seen it described as "learning in public". I see it as a version of alternative personal blogging that focuses on growth and development of ideas. To me, Private gardening is a note-taking system. Public gardening is an information-sharing philosophy. - digital gardening describes the practice of both. Some "gardeners" say that their site is not a blog. This is fine. I say digital gardening is an internet aesthetic.
- MIT Technology Review's article on digital gardening. An overview of digital gardening and thoughts on digital gardening from active gardeners.
- Maggie Appleton's page history and analysis of digital gardening, hosted on her own flourishing garden.
- Mark Bernstein's Hypertext Garden, often cited as the first instance of a digital garden. A pondering on the structure of information in websites, expectations of designers and visitors, and ways to organize material in an engaging manner.
why a digital garden?
I have thoughts and I like to organize them, and I also want to share them. There are a few reasons why I was drawn to this particular format:
- no need or expectation of perfection/presentability upon publication
- instead, the assumption that ideas will change and their expression will be refined over time
- minimal imposed structure / the ability to create intuitive structure based on the needs of the content created
- a more organic way of engaging with material when making contributions (or as a reader)
Basically, not just knowing that imperfection adds value, but actually understanding through practice that I don't need to create perfect products to share them. Relatedly, subverting the idea that the content that I choose to share to the internet needs to be geared towards an audience or prepared "for" someone else to consume - I like the idea that the things that I choose to publish are for future me first and anyone else second.
