The D web what?

A couple of years ago, I was searching the web to find a tech community that I would be happy to be part of. I am a professional geek and also a (recovering) academic. Decades of experiencing the world through these two lenses gave me a good critical sense of the current brokenness of the (digital) tech world, both its importance and negative impact on our social fabric. Hence, I was not having an easy time finding a community that genuinely cared about its contribution.

In 2023, at the last minute, I found a strange event around the future of the Web, where geeks and organizers meet camping in the Redwoods of California. I needed to be there! But I wanted the whole experience; I wanted to volunteer and meet the people making the event happen. After a couple of emails and calls, I was in. How lucky! That was the DWeb Camp of 2023, and after also participating in the 2024 one, I decided the DWeb movement is my tech home. When I try to explain the DWeb (short for Distributed Wed), I struggle to put it down, but let me try: it's a value-based community of builders, activists, and user communities that get together to dream and build more humane digital infrastructure, hoping to create a healthier interconnected social fabric. Profound, uhu!?

Fast forward to 2025, I decided to create the DWeb Observer (TDWO) as a way to organize my understanding of the vast range of technology involved in this space. But more importantly, I don't want this to be a tech blog only, I want this to be a tech-stories blog, a people behind the tech blog. I want this to be a place where I talk not only about the DWeb tech but also its community, its dreams, and its efforts.

If you decide to join me, you'll NOT be bombarded by daily posts covering all that is happening on the ground. My intention is to slowly write about my journey as a learner, builder, and DWeb community member, drawing overarching perspectives and pointing to where the real action is happening. I hope this works for some of you, as sometimes studying and writing can be lonely. :)

-nigini

In case you're curious, I am Nigini Oliveira, a Brazilian geek who immigrated to the beautiful Cascadia bioregion of the PNW (USA) almost a decade ago. I have a PhD in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and I deeply love the open social web. You can learn more about me on my website.