User:Charlie/HTML New punk folk explosion - Notes

Text: Basic HTML is the new punk folk explosion[1]by Zach Mandeville

Protocol for Annotation

Based on Methods

• Short summary of the text
• Agreement - why?
• Disagreement - why?
• Key insight(s)
• Lingering doubts/thoughts
• Connection to Special Issue 26
• Glossary Words

Summary

In this text, the author argues that the skill of basic HTML-coding could be viewed as a form of emerging folk craft and as having an innate punk-attitude. Using rudimentary HTML to create personal websites, he says, reflects the D.I.Y. nature and community-shaping potential of folk traditions and punk culture. As main examples, he draws parallels between early web design and older counter-cultural movements. More specifically, he names zine-making culture of the 80's Punk movement, as well as the folk revival of the 60's and 70's Hippie culture, in the United States. Both movements were based in the believe that:

"Learning about older skills gave you tools for your modern passion.";

Learning from past movements, acquiring new skills and passing-down knowledge as a means to shape communities and alternative modes of societal structuring.

The longing for handmade, authentic and human

[..] homemade websites are a type of Punk.

Word Stew Entries ✎

• Punk (80's Movement)
• Web Brutalism
• Tilde
• Folk Tradition
• Web-Ring