Firstly, I think it’s important to distinguish between the indie web and the IndieWeb.

The IndieWeb is, as far as I can tell, a community of people who advocate certain digital principles and support each other in working towards those. The most famous principle is Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. There are a variety of initiatives such as the monthly blog carnival (which I have hosted in the past) and online/in-person meetups.

The indie web, on the other hand, is a (very) much larger universe of websites run by individuals who wish to express their independent creativity.

I have a sprawling personal site uncountable.uk with lots of unconnected sub domains I run for my own amusement. But I also have run some community websites such as The Artocalypse and Dursley Green Drinks . I view all these sites as being indie web, rather than part of the IndieWeb.

The IndieWeb was enormously influential on my journey towards independent content creation. It provided a mental model, primarily POSSE and RSS, through which I could unify content creation and consumption so they became two sides of the same digital coin in my online life.

But it also provided practical models which enabled me to participate in the indie web community through my content. On this blog, I have reply posts, guestbook and interviews with people. Each of these create a continuous flow of human connection, which help to make you feel you’re not in a digital void.

Over the next five years to 2030, we are going to see an explosion of indie web creators. The technical hurdles that exist today in setting up a website will be blown aside by AI. Soon, anyone will be able to establish their own website simply by writing down what they want it to do.

The IndieWeb itself will be an important, but largely invisible resource. We all depend on wifi, but very few of us are visiting the IEEE 802.11 website to see how it works. The messaging of the principles and methods of IndieWeb will instead just be woven into the fabric of millions of new indie web sites.

I’m 98% confident that the IndieWeb website will still be powered by mediawiki software in 2030. It will also still be hosting meetups and blog carnivals. But there won’t be any “new ways” to be indie, so there’s nothing for it to evolve or pivot into.

I’m excited for my own journey to 2030 as an indie web creator. It gives a purpose and structure to digital time that you just don’t get from big tech platforms. I’ll be doing all I can to advocate and apply the principles established by the IndieWeb community.

This post is my submission for the December 2025 IndieWeb Blog Carnival, hosted this month by VH Belvadi. If you have a blog, why not make a post on this topic and join in?

I look forward to reading your thoughts on this topic.

Read more on this topic . . .