Homebrew Website Club - IndieWeb
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From IndieWeb
Homebrew Website Club
is a growing world-wide network of meetups for everyone who wants to take back their web experience from social media
silos
, and own their online identities & content, or just want support with blogging!
Want to
blog
more and looking for: ideas, momentum, and a supportive community?
📆 Join the
next gathering
of like-minded people and get friendly support with writing, creating, and anything related to using and improving your own website!
💬 You can also
join our chat
to talk with the community between meetings!
Meetings
Meetings take place
most Wednesdays
virtually across timezones and a few cities in-person. If it collides with an official holiday in your country, skip that week and resume the next week!
2026-04-29
18:00
20:00
Homebrew Website Club - Pacific
2026-05-06
19:00
20:30
Homebrew Website Club Europe/London
2026-05-13
18:00
20:00
Homebrew Website Club - Nuremberg/Germany
2026-05-30
18:00
19:30
Homebrew Website Club - Writing Edition
See
for more details and dates/locations/URLs of upcoming meetings.
Past meetings and notes
Homebrew Website Club
Homebrew Website Club events are listed on
events.indieweb.org
as of 2020-01
2026
01-07
01-14
01-17
01-21
01-22
01-24
01-27
01-28
02-03
02-04
02-10
02-11
02-18
02-19
02-21
02-24
02-25
2025
01-08
01-15
01-22
01-29
02-05
02-12
02-19
02-26
03-05
03-12
03-19
03-26
04-02
04-09
04-16
04-23
04-30
05-07
05-14
05-21
05-24
05-28
06-04
06-11
06-18
06-25
07-02
07-09
07-16
07-23
07-30
08-03
08-06
08-13
08-20
08-27
09-03
09-10
09-17
09-24
10-01
10-05
10-08
10-22
10-28
10-29
11-05
11-12
11-19
11-20
11-22
11-25
11-26
12-03
12-10
12-13
12-16
12-17
12-18
12-23
2024
01-03
01-10
01-13
01-17
01-24
01-31
02-07
02-14
02-21
02-28
03-13
03-20
03-27
04-03
04-08
04-10
04-17
04-24
04-27
05-01
05-08
05-09
05-15
05-22
05-23
05-27
05-29
06-05
06-12
06-19
06-26
07-01
07-03
07-10
07-11
07-17
07-24
07-31
08-07
08-14
08-28
09-04
09-11
09-18
09-25
10-02
10-08
10-09
10-16
10-23
10-30
10-31
🏴
11-06
11-13
11-20
11-27
12-04
12-11
12-18
12-25
2023
01-04
01-11
01-18
01-25
02-01
02-08
02-15
02-22
03-01
03-08
03-15
03-22
03-29
04-05
04-12
04-15
04-19
04-26
05-03
05-10
05-17
05-20
05-24
05-31
06-07
06-14
06-21
06-28
07-01
07-05
07-12
07-19
07-26
08-02
08-09
08-16
08-23
08-26
09-06
09-13
09-20
09-27
10-04
10-11
10-18
10-25
11-01
11-08
11-15
11-22
11-29
12-06
12-13
12-20
2022
01-05
01-12
01-19
01-26
02-02
02-09
02-16
02-23
03-02
03-09
03-16
03-23
03-30
04-06
04-13
04-20
04-27
05-04
05-11
05-15
05-18
05-25
06-01
06-08
06-15
06-18
06-22
06-29
07-06
07-13
07-20
07-27
08-03
08-10
08-17
08-24
08-31
09-07
09-14
09-21
09-28
10-02
10-05
10-12
10-19
10-26
11-02
11-09
11-16
11-23
11-30
12-07
12-14
12-21
12-28
2021
01-06
01-13
01-20
01-27
02-03
02-10
02-17
02-24
03-03
03-10
03-17
03-24
03-31
04-07
04-14
04-21
04-28
05-05
05-12
05-19
05-26
06-02
06-09
06-16
06-23
06-30
07-07
07-14
07-21
07-28
08-04
08-11
08-18
08-25
09-01
09-15
09-22
09-29
10-06
10-13
10-20
10-27
11-03
11-10
11-17
11-24
12-01
12-08
12-15
12-22
12-29
2020
2020-01
2020-02
2020-03
2020-04
2020-05
2020-06
06-17
2020-07
• … •
08-05
08-12
08-19
08-26
09-02
09-09
09-16
09-23
09-30
10-07
10-14
10-21
10-28
• … •
11-04
11-11
11-18
11-25
12-02
12-09
12-16
12-23
12-30
2019
12-22
12-11
12-04
11-27
11-21
11-16
11-13
11-06
07
10-30
31
10-16
19
10-02
09-26
09-18
19
09-11
12
09-04
05
09-02
08-28
08-21
08-19
08-15
08-07
08
08-05
08-01
07-24
25
07-22
07-18
07-10
11
13
07-03
04
06-26
27
06-24
06-20
06-12
13
06-10
06-09
06-06
05-29
30
05-27
05-23
05-15
05-09
05-01
02
04-29
04-25
04-17
18
04-15
04-11
04-03
04
04-01
03-28
03-20
21
03-06
02-27
02-20
02-06
01-23
01-09
2018
12-26
12-12
11
11-28
27
11-14
11-13
10-31
10-17
16
10-10
09
10-03
09-19
18
09-05
08-22
08-08
08-01
07-25
07-11
07-04
06-27
06-13
05-30
29
05-23
05-16
15
05-02
01
04-18
04-11
04-10
04-04
03-27
03-21
03-14
03-07
02-21
20
02-14
02-07
06
01-24
23
01-11
10
09
2017
12-27
12-14
13
12
11-30
29
11-22
11-16
15
11-01
10-19
18
10-05
04
09-21
20
09-13
09-07
06
08-23
08-15
08-09
08
08-02
07-26
25
07-12
11
06-28
06-20
06-14
06-07
06
05-31
05-17
05-10
05-03
04-26
04-19
04-12
04-05
03-22
03-08
03-02
01
02-22
02-14
02-08
01-25
01-11
2016
12-28
12-21
12-14
12-07
11-30
11-23
11-16
11-09
11-02
10-26
10-19
10-05
09-21
09-14
09-07
08-24
08-17
08-10
07-27
07-13
07-06
06-29
06-15
06-08
06-01
05-25
05-18
05-11
05-04
04-27
04-20
04-12
04-06
03-23
03-09
02-24
02-10
09
02-02
01-27
01-13
2015
12-30
12-16
12-08
12-02
01
11-24
11-18
17
11-10
11-04
03
10-21
20
10-13
10-07
06
09-24
23
09-17
09-10
09
09-03
08-27
26
08-20
08-13
12
07-29
07-15
07-01
06-17
06-03
05-20
05-06
04-22
04-08
03-25
03-11
02-25
02-11
02-07-ko
01-28
01-14
2014
12-17
12-03
11-19
11-05
10-22
10-08
10-05-par
09-24
09-10
08-27
08-13
07-30
07-16
07-02
06-18
06-04
05-21
05-07
04-23
04-09
03-26
03-19
03-12
02-26
02-12
01-29
01-15
2013
12-18
12-04
11-20
Regular In-person Meetups
Just show up.
These Homebrew Website Club chapters are well established and meet regularly at least once a month (often fortnightly AKA bi-weekly). If it has been more than a month since a city has met, move them down to popups until a regular pattern is re-established.
Alphabetical by city/region, see each city for regularity.
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
, Germany
- in person, monthly
Organizer(s):
Schepp
Daniel Pietzsch
First meeting:
2025-05-22
post about the first meetup:
Upcoming:
Venue: Xafé im KAP1 Bibliothekscafé, 1 Konrad-Adenauer-Platz, Düsseldorf, Germany
Edinburgh
Edinburgh
, UK
in person, monthly
Organizer(s):
capjamesg
Restarted:
2024-03-26
Upcoming:
Past:
Original first meeting
2015-08-13
(Thursday)
Met nearly every Tuesday night during 2015 from 2015-10 onward, and every Thursday night before that since 2015-08-13!
TODO: note when meetings went on hiatus
Emeritus organizer(s):
Harry Reeder
Nuremberg
Nürnberg
, Germany
- in person, monthly
Organizer(s): Sebastian Feldmann, Tilman Zitzmann,
Björn Stierand
First Meeting
2016-05-25
Recently:
2026-04-08
Upcoming:
2026-05-13
Venue:
TH Nürnberg, Fakultät Design
, Wassertorstr. 10, 90489 Nürnberg (room WG.110)
Emeritus organizers:
Joschi Kuphal
Julie Anne Noying
(founding co-organizer)
Regular Online Meetups
Americas Pacific Online
🌎 Americas / Pacific Online, AKA Virtual HWC North American Time:
Hosted online biweekly
Organizer(s):
Chris Aldrich
David Shanske
First meeting: ???? (maybe in 2020 soon after lockdown?)
Venue: see the Zoom link on
events
Europe / London Online
🌎 Europe / London Online, AKA Virtual HWC UK Time:
Hosted online weekly
Formerly hosted in person in
London
, ENGLAND
- monthly
Current organiser(s):
Mark Sutherland
capjamesg
Former organiser(s):
Ana Rodrigues
Calum Ryan
Neil Mather
First meeting
2016-06-15
Americas Eastern Online
🌎 Americas / Eastern Online, AKA Virtual HWC North American Time:
Hosted online biweekly
Current Organizer(s):
Joe Crawford
Former organiser(s):
Dr. Matt Lee
Venue: see the Zoom link on
events
Popups
These cities have held popup Homebrew Website Club meet-ups at least a couple of times recently, and are working hard to get established!
After three consecutive months of successful regular meetings, popups get bumped to Regular meetings! Or if they do not happen for three months, bump them back down to Getting Started.
Cities getting started
Speak up and help make another meetup happen in your city!
These cities have organizers (can always use more), have (re)started with at least one meeting (hopefully with a photo posted), and would love to hear from you to help make more happen. If it's been more than six months since a meet-up or organizers have all moved to other cities, move a city to "Up-and-coming or needs restarting" in the next section.
Ordered alphabetically:
Bangalore
Bangalore
, Karnataka, India
First meeting:
2025-05-24
needs some evidence that these meetups are actually happening (like group photo like the other in-person HWCs) and not just posts on the web (on IndieWeb events, blogs etc.)
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
, PA
First meeting:
2025-08-03
Photo + recap post:
🏄 San Diego
San Diego
, CA
Organizers:
gRegor Morrill
Joe Crawford
Next meeting:
2026-02-03
First meeting:
2019-12-11
Needs restarting
Step up and make a meetup happen.
These cities have one or more organizers interested in helping making a meetup happen and are up for grabs. Step up, contact the folks below, and make a meetup happen!
At your first (or first in at least six months) meet-up be sure to take and post photos, then link to them and bump up your city to
Cities getting started
above.
no other cities have organizers for an in-person meetup
🇪🇺 Virtual HWC European time
Online
- fortnightly
Organizer(s):
Martijn van der Ven
First meeting:
2017-05-31
Meetings on
Mumble
, other platforms
sometimes under consideration
Oceania time
Online
and adjacent to Australia? New Zealand?
There's interest in a meeting time that would be convenient to working people in those and some Asian timezones
Anyone with indieweb wiki access can create an event on
events.indieweb.org
Schedule a Zoom meeting (checkbox in the event creation setup) and a person with IndieWeb Zoom access can plan to start the Zoom off and handoff to the person willing to step host
Interested? Brainstorm starting this up here
(or somewhere better!!)
Morgan
is a New Zealand citizen and interested in any Oceania based meetups, currently already attends some New Zealand zoom events. If two people say they are keen I'd help organize
More cities with interest
Interested in helping start a Homebrew Website Club? Find or add your city and name below!
Sorted alphabetically by city.
Brisbane, Australia
Malcolm Blaney
is interested, has an office walking distance from train.
Cincinnati, OH
Dave Menninger
is interested in meeting up
Durham, NC
Kimberly Hirsh
is interested in meeting up in Durham, NC.
Glasgow, Scotland
Donald McIntosh
is interested in meeting up.
Melbourne, Australia
vishae
is interested in meeting up
Rochester, MN
David Williamson
is interested in organizing a meetup.
Sarasota, FL
TheDavidJohnson
is interested in organizing a meetup in Sarasota, FL
Savannah, GA
User:Lawver.net
is interested in organizing!
St. Louis, MO
Mark87
is interested in meeting up in St. Louis, MO.
Vienna, Austria
Rosemary Orchard
is interested in attending/organising something.
Athens, Greece
User:Heracl.es
is interested in co-organizing. Looking into interested homebrewers for setting up a community.
... add
your city
and your name here if you're interested in co-organizing a Homebrew Website Club in your city.
Past Meetings
These cities used to have meetings and could totally use a new space(s) and/or another/new co-organizer(s) to step and make one happen! Past co-organizers are more than happy to help connect you to the existing community, so definitely reach out!
Accra
Accra
, Ghana
Organizer(s):
Greg McVerry
, Sadik, ...?
First attempt:
2019-02-26
First meeting:
2019-03-20
Most recently:
2019-05-01
🌮 Austin
Austin
, TX
- first Wednesday of the month
Organizers: Tom Brown,
Manton Reece
First meeting: 2017-09-06
Venue: Mozart's Coffee
🦀 Baltimore
Baltimore
, MD
- monthly or sometimes biweekly!
Organizer(s):
Marty McGuire
Jonathan Prozzi
First meeting
2016-09-21
We meet at least once per month. We aim to meet fortnightly to match the usual HWC schedule, but sometimes skip or move a week to avoid conflicts with our venue.
Venue is consistently: Digital Harbor Foundation Tech Center, 1045 Light St. Baltimore, MD
Barnsley
Barnsley
, UK
Organizer(s):
Craig Burgess
Europe/London
@craigburgess
Every third Thursday per
We're just getting off the ground with our
first event, July 18 2019
Bellingham
Bellingham
, WA
- fortnightly
Organizer(s):
gRegor Morrill
First meeting
2016-06-15
Ended 2017-10
Venue was consistently: The Foundry, 1000 F St., Bellingham, WA,
Waiting for: need new local organizer(s)!
Morgan
has done a small survey of approx 20 tech interested people to find interest and found some interest, and a potential venue (Bellingham Makerspace). Particularly there is overlapping interest between
LinuxFest Northwest
participants and this event potential. Currently not able to organize but ready to be a fast follower if someone appears.
Berlin
Berlin
, Germany
- fortnightly on thursdays (since 2017-09)
Organizer(s):
Florian Weil
Sebastian Greger
, (
Sven Knebel
– only occasionally in Berlin nowadays)
First meeting
2017-02-08
since
2017-10-05
regular location at *IN-Berlin, Lehrter Str. 53, Berlin, Germany*
no regular activity in 2018 for now :/
Birmingham
Main article:
homebrewbrum
Birmingham
, ENGLAND
, last Wednesday of the month
Organizer(s):
Dave Redfern
Marc Jenkins
Paul Tibbetts
First meeting
2016-10-05
2017-10-11
We haven't had a meetup for a few months now and none planned at the mo.
🎪 Brighton
Brighton
, ENGLAND
- weekly
Organiser:
Jeremy Keith
Every
Thursday
from 6pm to 7:30pm (unless Jeremy is out of town).
Venue is consistently: Clearleft, 68 Middle Street, Brighton BN1 1AL
Brussels
Brussels
, Belgium
Organizer(s):
RMendes
NCollig
First meeting on
2017-03-02
HWC Brussels
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HwcBrussels @hwcbrussels (appears to be
suspended
as of 2018-10-04)
Chicago
Chicago
, IL
Organizer(s) formerly:
Kartik Prabhu
, and
gRegor Morrill
First meeting
2014-04-09
Waiting for: need new local organizer(s)!
Detroit
Detroit
, MI
Organizer:
Les Orchard
First meeting (attempt)
2016-03-23
...
Edmonton
Edmonton
, AB, Canada
Organizer:
kongaloosh
First meeting
2017-06-06
and
[1]
Most recently ... ?
Fort Collins
Fort Collins, CO
Organizer(s): Isabel Forester
First meeting
2017-05-03
Waiting for: a space to be used regularly
Facebook Group (for planning and events):
Homebrew Website Club Fort Collins
Most recently ... ?
Frederick
Frederick
, MD
monthly
Organizer(s):
Eddie Hinkle
First meeting on
2017-07-26
, on a hiatus as of 2018-03-01.
Some lessons learned: having a co-organizer is helpful for days when there are low attendance.
Future plans: potential rebranding to IndieWeb Meetup vs. HWC to broaden external appeal, potentially find a co-organizer, etc. Considering restarting in the first quarter of 2019.
Gent
Gent
, Belgium
Organizer(s):
Kristof De Jaeger
HWC Gent
Twitter:
@HWCGent
🏖 Goa
Goa, India
Organizer(s):
prtksxna
First meeting:
2019-07-24
Starting with support of the
WordPress group
Gothenborg
Göteborg
, Sweden
monthly
Organizer(s):
Jeena Paradies
First Meeting
2015-07-29
Meets ~once a month (plan: every second Wednesday)
Guadalajara
Guadalajara
, Mexico
Organizer(s):
Ken Bauer
First meeting was a success (7 people)
Mar 20, 2019
Second meeting was also a success and the third was small
New site created specifically for the club
On hiatus, working on next meeting to start during the upcoming semester on campus that starts in August.
We plan to combine this club meeting with topics on use of open source software to give a broader draw and try to grow numbers.
Please help to invite others!
🇮🇳 Indian Standard Time Virtual HWC
Online
Organizer(s):
Chaitanya
First meeting:
9 September 2020
Upcoming meeting:
30 September 2020
Platform: Zoom
🔺 Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
(monthly — see
for upcoming)
Organizer:
Daniel Ehniss
Matthias Pfefferle
First meeting (attempt)
2019-01-23
Recently:
2019-07-10
2019-06-26
2019-05-15
2019-04-17
Need help with outreach, etc.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
, California (Santa Monica, Downtown, Pasadena)
Organizer(s):
Chris Aldrich
Angelo Gladding
Shane Becker
First meeting
2016-01-13
Madrid
Madrid
, Spain
Organizer(s):
Grant Richmond
First meeting:
2019-06-12
Malmo
Malmö, Sweden
monthly
Organizer(s):
Pelle Wessman
Emil Björklund
First Meeting
2015-08-26
Meets ~once a month (plan: Tuesday once a month)
Minneapolis
Minneapolis
, MN
Organizer(s): Nicole Tollefson - has moved
First meeting
2014-06-18
Waiting for: need new local organizer(s)!
Montreal
Montréal
, QC Canada
Organizer(s):
Robin Millette
First meeting
2015-02-11
Mountain View
Mountain View
, CA
Organizer(s):
Tantek Çelik
, Emma
First meeting:
2018-10-10
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
🎪 Moving Circus
Schiphol Airport Plaza: HWC will happen there when international travellers show an interest.
Nijmegen and Utrecht are discussed as well.
If LA can have just the one HWC, so can the Netherlands.
[2]
[3]
Organizers:
Sebastiaan Andeweg
Peter Molnar
First meeting
2016-11-30
Meets when 2+ people shows interest
Most recently ... ?
New Haven
New Haven
Organizer(s):
Greg McVerry
First:
2018-11-28
Restarted:
2019-01-23
announcing tweet
Most recently:
2019-05-01
🗽 New York City
New York City
, NY/Metropolitan Area
(roughly monthly)
Organizer(s):
Marty McGuire
(anyone else actively helping with date & venue planning, wikifying, photgraphing?)
Emeritus organizers:
David Shanske
Zachary Donovan
First meeting
2015-04-22
Recently:
2019-07-13
2019-06-12
2019-05-29
2019-05-01
2019-04-17
I am interested in participating -
Larry Kooper
Norman, OK
Organizer(s): Sarah Clayton Pugachev
@sclayton29
Meets the first Wednesday of each month
[4]
First meeting:
2018-08-01
🏹 Nottingham
Nottingham
, England
- fortnightly
Organizer(s):
Jamie Tanna
First Meeting [
2019-03-20
Venue is consistently: Ludorati Cafe 72 Maid Marian Way Nottingham United Kingdom NG1 6BJ
Portland
Portland
, OR
Organizers:
Aaron Parecki
Emeritus organizers:
Bret Comnes
Crystal
Dietrich Ayala
First meeting
2013-12-04
Was first Wednesday of the month (
current schedule
Venue was consistently: DreamHost, 621 Southwest Morrison St, 14th floor, Portland
Recently:
2019-06-26
2018-09-05
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Organizers:
User:Marinintim.com
First meeting:
[5]
🌁 San Francisco
San Francisco
, CA
- was fortnightly until early 2020 (pre-lockdown)
Previously:
Organizers:
Tantek Çelik
First meeting
2013-11-20
Emeritus organizers:
Stacey De Polo
Ben Werdmüller
Ryan Barrett
Kevin Marks
Kara Mahan
Regular venue was: Mozilla San Francisco, 2 Harrison St. (at Embarcadero), 1st floor open area, San Francisco, CA
Seattle
Seattle
, WA
Organizer:
dougbeal
Next meeting (attempt)
2018-07-25
Organizer:
funwhilelost
First meeting (attempt)
2017-04-19
Need help with venue, outreach, etc.
🏗Teesside
Teesside
, UK
Organizer(s):
Kevin Marks
@kevinmarks
Every other Wednesday if I'm not in London
Just getting off the ground with our
first event, August 7 2019
Vancouver BC
Organizers: Boris Mann
@bmann
Pat Dryburgh
micro.blog @pat
First meeting:
2018-10-09 IndieWeb Meetup!
Second meeting:
2018-10-24 IndieWeb Meetup!
Washington DC
Washington, DC
Organizer(s):
Jason Garber
First meeting
2016-02-10
Waiting for: need new space!
Wellington
Wellington
, New Zealand
Organizer(s):
Timo Reitnauer
First meeting on Jul 5, 2017
[6]
Homebrew Website Club Wellington
Twitter:
@treitnauer
Most recently ... ?
New Cities
The following
cities
/ venues have had at least one local person express interest in organizing a Homebrew Website Club, so are parked here until an event happens.
If you would like to co-organize a Homebrew Website Club in one of the following cities / venues, speak up in
our #indieweb-meta chat channel
and see if you can find a co-organizer! After your first event, we’ll help with
wikifying
and move your city/venue to the appropriate section above.
Add a city
Organizers:
Add yourself here…
(see this for more details)
Who is interested in participating?
Add yourself here…
(see this for more details)
Possible dates:
...
How to Organize Virtual Events
If you're looking to organize an in-person event, see
How to Organize
Organizers, use the following to keep your Virtual Homebrew Website Club meetups on time and on track.
Remember to take and post a photo to the event page!
Beforehand
Post an
event
on
You can reference or even clone a
recent virtual HWC event
as a starting point
If this is the first time you are hosting your meetup, you will need to write your own description for the event. Feel free to use existing pages on the events page as inspiration and to understand the format event pages typically use.
Include a link to a unique
etherpad
for the event using YYYY-MM-DD format and a short description, e.g.
Use one of the
HWC Logos and Graphics
for the event image. The retro image has been a popular one the last several years.
Invite everyone who attended previous Homebrew Website Club meetups in the event's timezone, those you've invited before, and any friends you know who may be interested in having their own website, upgrading their blog, etc.
Use
invitation
posts
Directly message people 1:1
(Optional)
Announce your meetup on social media and/or your personal website to get the word out about the event.
On the day of the meeting
Setting up the meeting room
If you are using the IndieWeb Zoom account, familiarize yourself with
Zoom - Tips for Hosts
Access to the IndieWeb Zoom account can be requested in the #indieweb-cafe channel
Screen sharing should be set to "Only Host". The host can share their screen to show people's sites during introductions. You may also be able to designate a co-host to handle screen sharing.
Experimental: Consider
enabling in-meeting chat
for hosts and co-hosts only. This will allow hosts and co-hosts to send links to the chat and etherpad, making it easier for attendees to join in the discussion and collaborative notes.
Start the Zoom meeting 10 minutes before the scheduled start time. The event listing on
will automatically update to include a "Live Now" link that attendees can click to join.
If you are using a different video service, you will need to update the event listing on
with the link to join.
Post a message in the #indieweb channel that the meeting is starting
Some notes on Zoom
The IndieWeb Zoom account has all of the "AI" features turned off (As of 22:24, 20 August 2025 (PDT))
Sometimes meetings will have a transcription. This is only for the meeting (it's an accessibility feature) and isn't (and should not be) shared outside of the meeting.
(I think I'm turning it on by joining. I have various accessibility features including subtitles/captioning on my computers that might be triggering this.
Mat.tl
talk
) 22:24, 20 August 2025 (PDT))
Running the event
Welcome
Direct attendees to
for chat options; encourage notes and questions in the
#indieweb-events
channel instead of in Zoom chat
Point out the
code of conduct
at
Direct attendees to the event's
Etherpad
for notes
Introductions
Introduce yourself and your site following
HWC Broadcast
, then offer each attendee to introduce themselves. Note: attendee videos don't appear in the same order on everyone's screen, so a host should select the order to avoid confusion.
Group photo: Explain you're taking a group photo (screenshot) that will appear in the event page,
This Week in the IndieWeb newsletter
, and may appear in social media posts. Allow people to turn off their video if they prefer to not be in the photo.
In Zoom, choose the option "Hide Non-video Participants" before taking the screenshot.
Main meetup: This is where the format can vary. Some approaches so far:
Ask what topics people are interested in discussing, noting them in chat. Then attendees can vote on their preferred priority in chat. Set a timebox for each topic then proceed through each topic.
Looser, general discussion without timeboxes
A quiet writing period followed by discussion
Group photo: if more people joined since the first photo, consider taking another photo
If you are meeting regularly, announce when the next event will be
After the event
Upload the photo to the event permalink on
Set the
alt
text to something describing the photo, including attendee's names as displayed in the screenshot. Example: "Zoom grid of attendees. Top left to bottom right: name1, name2, name3, and name4"
Archive the etherpad notes on the wiki, see
Cali
for bot commands you can use in chat to do this
Once you have verified the wiki archive of the notes, edit the event description and change the link to the Etherpad to link to the wiki archive of the notes instead.
Update the
Homebrew Website Club template
that display a list of meetups by year
Add a link to the events site date archive, e.g.
[https://events.indieweb.org/2022/09/14 09-14]
Add an emoji link to the wiki page that was created when archiving the etherpad, e.g.
[[events/2022-09-14-hwc-pacific|🌎]]
Refer to
cities
for emojis we've used for your city/region
Combine notes from the broadcast portion of the meetup into a post
(Optionally) Syndicate the post to
IndieNews
Sign out of the organiser's Zoom account (if used)
If you are meeting regularly, set up the next event on
You can clone the current event by selecting the "Edit" menu at the top right and selecting "Clone Event". Don't forget to update dates and links in the new event's description.
How to Organize
If you're looking to organize a virtual event, see
How to Organize Virtual Events
Organizers, use the following to keep your in-person Homebrew Website Club meetups on time and on track.
Remember to take and post a photo to the event page!
Beforehand
Get a venue!
Post an indie
event
for your specific meeting city (at your specific venue - if you have one, otherwise post anyway, and add venue when you get it)
Link to the IndieWeb wiki page for the event, e.g. like:
More information:
Use an event image like:
Retro Homebrew Website Club JPG
Invite everyone who attended previous Homebrew Website Club meetups in your city, and those you've invited before, and any friends you know who may be interested in having their own website, or upgrading their blog etc.
Use
invitation
posts
Directly message people 1:1
Optional Domain Name
Some cities choose to set up a website to use as well post events to the wiki
London
Optional POSSE Events
Optionally post a
POSSE
event on:
Upcoming.org
or any other event sites that might help promote the event
Duplicate a previous
Facebook HWC event
for your city
Find the previous FB event for your city
Choose "
Duplicate Event...
" from the [...] button/menu next to the top right "Edit" button
Update references to previous date / wiki page / indie event to post to current one
Optionally update or rotate event header photo
Or create a new FB event (e.g. if duplicating just makes
FB say Something went wrong
) and:
Set the event header photo to a PNG like:
Retro Homebrew Website Club JPG
I'm attending
[7]
(Note: should be updated to current logo and "Homebrew Website Club")
or another clever variant (see previous HWC event wiki pages)
Add a brief description from a recent
next-hwc
Link to the IndieWeb wiki page for the event, e.g. in the description like:
More information:
Link to your indie event and auth Bridgy with FB to get RSVPs! e.g. in the description
Originally posted at: URL-OF-INDIE-EVENT
Keywords: Technology, Digital art
Setup
17:00 arrive at the venue and:
make sure there is suitable seating for those that have RSVPd
make or bring a sign that clearly indicates the presence of an IndieWebCamp Homebrew Website Club meeting. If you come up with a nice sign design, please upload it to the wiki!
17:20 put the sign out (or put up the IndieWebCamp logo on monitors in the space if any)
save seats for at least a few of the folks who RSVPd
consider setting aside a separate room or space for "Conversation Corner" for those that can't help but want to carry on a conversation during Quiet Writing Hour!
17:25 test your projector setup to make sure people can show demos of their sites during the "Broadcast" half-hour from 18:30-19:30.
Quiet Writing Hour
17:30-18:30 optional Quiet Writing Hour
: some locations have started hosting a quiet writing hour from 17:30-18:30 immediately before the meetup itself.
HWC Broadcast
18:30-19:00: Broadcast
- take turns with the microphone 1-2 minutes on:
if this is your first time, introduce yourself, name, URL, what you'd like to do next with your personal site.
something
new you created on or for your site
since the last time you attended
questions
about anything you're stuck on
about your personal site
notable
indieweb / ownyourdata related
press
/ events
HWC Group Photo
~19:00: Group photo
- organizers should call time on the "broadcast" phase and then organize and take a group photo to upload to the wiki and embed in the "Photos" section on the page for the specific event. This also helps break-up existing sitting patterns and gives people a chance to move around.
Please be sure to:
Give folks a heads-up before you take a photo, especially in virtual meetups, to give folks an opportunity to opt-out
Make sure there are 2+ people who want to be in the photo, otherwise it looks like a meetup by one person with only one person which isn't really a meetup.
You may omit a photo if there is only one person who wants to be in the photo.
HWC Peer to Peer
~19:00-19:30: Peer-to-peer
- encourage everyone to find others they heard in the previous half hour that were interested in similar topics. Help newcomers with
getting started
with their personal sites, and hopefully even logging into the wiki and adding themselves to the RSVP section for the meeting!
HWC Group Photo 2
~19:30: Group photo
- If you forgot to take a group photo, or anyone new showed up, use the end of the peer-to-peer session as an opportunity to take another group photo.
HWC Clean-up and close
~19:45-20:00: Clean-up and meeting closure
- get everyone to help clean-up and leave the meeting space cleaner than they found it (BarCamp style). Encourage folks to continue discussions at a nearby pub or cafe and get food/drink too!
HWC Immediately after
Combine notes from the broadcast portion of the meetup into a post.
(Optionally) Syndicate the post to
IndieNews
Add to the event page on the wiki:
At least one group photo from your meeting.
Any other wrap-up posts with notes from the meeting.
Planning Questions
In rough order of when a co-organizer might encounter these:
Finding a venue
How do I find a venue?
Check out cafes that have an environment where people are sparse and the cafe is ok with hanging out with laptops for an hour or two.
What kind of food venue is works well?
Cafe style is best, where you order at the counter separately, and can come and go independently.
Wifi is a nice to have (or get someone to bring a mifi hotspot and share)
Power outlets are also a nice to have
Adding to the wiki
How should a co-organizer add a HWC-event to the wiki?
We are now using
for HWC-events!
The easiest is to clone an existing event, e.g.:
Find the most recent HWC in your city in
Click the drop-down next to "Edit" on the right and choose "Clone Event"
Edit the event details to fix the date, confirm the time & venue, update the description
Save!
If there isn't a previous HWC event in your city, feel free to clone from another HWC event, e.g.:
Promoting an HWC event
How do I promote an HWC event?
Invite participants from previous HWC events in the same city.
Invite participants from
IndieWebCamps
from that city
There are several
logos and graphics
you can use in your promotions.
Promoting Regular HWC Meetups
Some organizers have found it useful to create a separate web and social media presence for their group. This allows potential attendees to stay up-to-date on upcoming events without needing to follow the organizers' feeds, and (potentially) allows multiple organizers to manage announcements and marketing.
Examples of HWC sites and social media accounts
HWC London
has a
standalone website
and
Twitter account
HWC Baltimore
has a
Twitter account
What to bring
What should I bring to the meetup?
A sign saying Homebrew Website Club might be helpful
How to wrap up
Make sure to take a photo
and upload it to the event on events.indieweb.org!
There's a convenient "Add Photo" option in the drop-down menu next to "Edit" in the top right of the event page.
Let folks know you have to wrap up, and either
If the venue is public like a cafe, encourage them to stay as long as they like
If you’re the venue host like in an office, provide suggestions of nearby eating and drinking places where folks can continue discussions and perhaps grab a snack
Ask Organizers
Got more questions?
Ask active community members who (help) organize (or have organized) Homebrew Website Club meetups, e.g. in IRC, or in-person at a meetup!
Organizers (alphabetically by name, summary from the above lists, who has been active etc.)
Aaron Parecki
(PDX)
Calum Ryan
(London)
Chris Aldrich
(LA)
dougbeal
(Seattle)
gRegor Morrill
(San Diego, formerly Bellingham and Chicago)
Jamie Tanna
(Nottingham)
Jeremy Keith
(Brighton)
Joschi Kuphal
(Nuremberg)
Marty McGuire
(New York City, formerly Baltimore)
Tantek Çelik
(SF)
...
Emeritus:
Bret Comnes
(PDX)
Ben Werdmüller
(SF)
Crystal Beasley
(PDX)
David Shanske
(NYC)
Jeena Paradies
(Göteborg)
Jason Garber
(DC)
Julie Anne Noying
(Nuremberg)
Kartik Prabhu
(Chicago)
Kevin Marks
(SF)
Kara Mahan
(SF)
Amy Guy
(formerly MIT, and previously Edinburgh)
Ryan Barrett
(SF)
Harry Reeder
(Edinburgh)
Emil Björklund
(Malmö)
Pelle Wessman
(Malmö)
History
Tantek
was inspired after attending the Homebrew Computer Club 38th Reunion and set up the
first meeting 2013-11-20 in San Francisco
Homebrew Website Club meetups were founded with the same structure as the
classic Homebrew Computer Club
meetings, for anyone passionate about or interested in creating, improving, building, designing their own website!
Logos and Graphics
SVG logo 1
- based on IWC logo pre-2016
SVG logo 1 standalone
SVG logo 2
- based on IWC logo pre-2016
SVG 2 standalone
SVG logo 3
by
Malcolm Blaney
Images you can use for the featured / banner image on event pages:
Mosaic of attendees from 2014
Retro
Cropped version
that works well for
Twitter Cards
as of 2019-11-08
I'm attending
(Note: should be updated to current logo and "Homebrew Website Club")
HWC Flyer
Brainstorming
Online Format
With the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWeb meetups have moved to online formats.
Organizers
have been rotating organizing duties and are experimenting with different formats. Here are some of my notes from the last few weeks:
gRegor Morrill
14:35, 8 April 2020 (PDT)
Familiarize yourself with
Zoom - Tips for Hosts
Screen sharing should be set to "Only Host". The host can share their screen to show people's sites during introductions. You may also be able to designate a co-host to handle screen sharing.
Welcome
Direct attendees to
for chat options; encourage notes and questions in the main channel instead of in Zoom chat
Point out the
code of conduct
Introductions
Introduce yourself and your site following
HWC Broadcast
, then offer each attendee to introduce themselves. Note: attendee videos don't appear in the same order on everyone's screen, so a host should select the order to avoid confusion.
Group photo: Explain you're taking a screenshot for the event page and the weekly newsletter, allowing people to turn their video on or off as they prefer.
Main meetup: This is where the format can vary. Some approaches so far:
Ask what topics people are interested in discussing, noting them in chat. Then attendees can vote on their preferred priority in chat. Set a timebox for each topic then proceed through each topic.
Looser, general discussion without timeboxes
A quiet writing period followed by discussion
Group photo: if more people joined since the first photo, consider taking another photo
Suggested Agenda
(via
一 Salt ♨️🚲🧂🧙♂️🐧🎓⚔️☠️
talk
) 18:00, 20 April 2020 (PDT)
For ease, markdown can be cloned from
this event
Pre-Meeting (~ 15 minutes)
Host creates virtual space that can support a video chat for a small / medium group of people
Host creates / clones and fills in details about event on
Host familiarizes themself with whatever virtual space was selected
Everyone is welcome to invite anyone who has attended previous HWC in the area or who might be interested in attending
Arrive / Mingle / Unstructured Conversation (~ 5 minutes)
Introductions (~ 15 minutes)
Each attendee, beginning with Host, is given time to cover some / all of the following:
Name, URL, what you'd like to do next with your personal site
Something new you created on / for your site since the last time you attended
Questions about anything you're stuck on about your personal site
Notable indieweb / ownyourdata related press / events
Once current speaker is done, they select who will go next until everyone has spoken
Group Photo #1 (~ 2 minutes)
Host announces that a screenshot is going to be taken for the event page and weekly newsletter
Everyone is given some time to turn their video on / off as they prefer
Lean Coffee Kanban Voting (~ 10 minutes)
Everyone writes down the topic(s) that they would like to discuss as a group in #indieweb-cafe
Each topic is assigned a number by Host who decides when to close the call for topic submissions
Everyone posts their preference via a list of numbers, ordered with highest interest first
Lean Coffee Discussion (~ 1 hour)
Topics are dicussed in order of group consensus
Host starts a timer when discussion begins
At ~10 minutes, a Roman vote (up/sideways/down) is taken to determine whether to keep on the same topic
If the topic is voted up, Host adds ~5 minutes to the timer before calling for another vote
If the topic is voted down, the group moves onto the next topic, this pattern repeats until time runs out
Co-working Space (~ 45 minutes)
Find others that might be interested in similar topics
Help newcomers getting started with their personal sites
Make sure everyone has RSVPed to the event
Group Photo #2 (~ 2 minutes)
Host announces that a screenshot is going to be taken for the event page and weekly newsletter
Everyone is given some time to turn their video on / off as they prefer
Closing Round (~ 10 minutes)
Each attendee, beginning with Host, is given time to cover some / all of the following:
Meeting evaluation / feedback / suggestions
Appreciations / Goodbyes
Post-Meeting (~ 10 minutes)
Host uploads group photo(s)
Everyone combines and uploads notes from the meetup
Appearance refresh or new site
Would it be helpful to do a refresh of this page as a reference, or perhaps a separate site entirely like:
Which has a similar list of active cities, how to start your own, but presented much more simply.
Archived
Past Description
Are you building your own website? Indie reader? Personal publishing web app? Or some other digital magic-cloud proxy?
Come on by and join a gathering of people with likeminded interests. Bring your friends who want to start a personal web site. Exchange information, swap ideas, talk shop, help work on a project...
Finish that blog post you’ve been writing!
Discuss difficult and/or open ended questions that you ran into!
Demos of recent IndieWeb breakthroughs, share what you've gotten working!
Whatever you want!
See the
Homebrew Website Club Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 1
for a description of the first meeting.
HWC 2016
This is an archive of the HWC 2016 planning,
originally found here
2016
Homebrew Website Club
start date! Should we start the 2016 HWC meetups on:
2016-01-06 only one week after 2015-12-30,
but avoids having a meetup land the day before US Thanksgiving
Tantek Çelik
ok with this. no longer any preference.
gRegor Morrill
OK with this. Not attending an HWC currently so does not impact me.
2016-01-13 two weeks after 2015-12-30
but collides with Wednesday before US Thanksgiving thus unlikely to have much (any) participation at US venues.
Tantek Çelik
ok with this.
Based on lack of strong input on this, we are going with the default continuing every two weeks from 2015-12-30 and
starting 2016 HWC with 2016-01-13.
Tantek
14:56, 23 December 2015 (PST) (updated, no objections, going with this plan.
Tantek
07:51, 31 December 2015 (PST))
Getting some feedback that pages on organizing HWC hard to find, I think it maybe best to make a new page that is an HWC toolkit and port most of this content over.
At top of this page put two buttons one "Attend an HWC" and another "Organize an HWC"
Organizing Links
General Tools
web chat
online chat clients
Events Calendar
Etherpad
remote participation
Zoom
IndieWebCamp
Planning
Organizing
Ticketing
Pop-up Organizing
Volunteer
What to expect at camp
Sponsor
IndieWebCamp kit
session facilitating
hallway track
photography policy
Categories
Organizing
Events
Camp Schedules
Camp Sessions
Organizer Meetups
Demos
Homebrew Website Club
Regular Meetings
How to Organize
Suggested Agenda
Online Format
Virtual HWC
Upcoming HWCs
Contributing to the wiki
MediaWiki
how to edit this wiki
wikifying
relevant
definition
start a page
expand a page
features we use
Selected Posts
A few curated posts about Homebrew Website Club in general:
2019-04-14 In the spirit:
"anyone want to attend my hackathon where we hang out in my living room and finally update our embarrassing old personal websites?"
@exkuchme
April 14, 2019
2019-08-02 Use-case well described by:
Amy Hupe:
Lately I've heard lots of people say they want to blog more about their work but are struggling with:
- ideas
- momentum
- confidence
- writing skills
I'm thinking of setting up a network with regular remote meet ups to help people who'd like support with blogging.
Who's in?
2024-04-03 A poem about Homebrew Website Club, written by
capjamesg
homebrew website club
See Also
IndieWebCamps
events
tip for facilitators to explicitly reach out to and encourage quieter voices:
Make Space for Every Voice
Retrieved from "
Category
Organizing
US