An Internet Canvas

I started mmm.page two years ago. This is an early draft of my long-term vision for mmm.page.

Also, so I’m walking the walk, this page is fully editable. Read once normal, then try editing it.

Websites are the most expressive medium I know, but they’re used today in such a tiny narrow way.

The thing is, they could be like digital paper: back-of-napkin notes, moodboards, journaling, letters, toy apps, lists, sprawling canvases.

Something with the ease of paper, but the expressiveness and capabilities of software.

Here are a few ideals…

1

Intuitive as paper. It shouldn’t require a manual or tutorial. Poke around. No coding knowledge required.

2

Genuinely mixed media. Add anything you want: images, text, videos. Embed services too: maps, music, IDEs, iFrames of other websites. Even draw directly on it.

🥹

3

Easy to reference. The URL is the pointer. Short and memorable. Let people name pages within their namespace so it becomes a portable handle.

“Why are you spending so much time making a website builder?”

“Uh… well, I put some thoughts down at notes.mmm.page/paper”

4

Flexible for any use. It should feel natural for a wide variety of uses. The medium itself shouldn’t imply any use. E.g., the same 8.5”×11” can be a handwritten note, or a flyer, or scratch paper.

5

Preservable and lasting. Serious art requires serious labor, but why spend years on something if it’s not guaranteed to last? Link rot, dead embeds, broken dependencies, etc.

Ideal: ability to export the entire file as a single .html. Inline styles, scripts, images, assets, even localized copies of tweets, YouTube videos, etc. And it needs to be easy to do so, not just possible.

Also, don’t invent a new set of protocols. Rely on web technologies: imperfect, but inertial.

"PICO-8 cartridges can be saved in a special .png format and sent directly to other users."

6

Interactive and dynamic. Every block has properties. A small library that handles reactive state. Script using Javascript with live reloading.

Something like a Flash/HyperCard/Visual Basic lite. Easier said than done, of course.

+

Let people pop the hood. Peek underneath. Shouldn’t you be able to “view source” and see how websites are made? Like this page itself?

Like this spur-of-the-moment moodboard?

Anyway.

Right now I’m translating these loosey-goosey ideals into real tools that are fun to use, feel good, & create the conditions for people to make internet canvases. As it turns out, it’s a lot of work…

Feel free to reach out if you have ideas.

mmm.page

P.S. Sorry if this page downloads too many files. I haven’t gotten around to the performance/bundle optimization part of the project yet…

Made on mmm