Local First

I’ve become pretty excited about Local First as a way to think about and approach development recently. There’s a pretty central manifesto written by the team at Ink & Switch which has the sub-title “you own your data, in spite of the cloud” - it’s a really interesting article.

The article gives some pretty compelling ideals that, when put together, create software that works for more people. I work on a fast computer with reliable internet but that doesn’t describe everyone. If we want the internet and web-based software to help impact more of the world, then making sure that we’re building for unreliable connections is key. There are a ton of parallel benefits - this is one of those times where doing the “right” thing also has business value.

• Not having a server be central to development can make things cheaper
• It can also make the mental model simplier
• It can help deliver value more quickly too

As you think about and explore Local First, it’s hard not to notice how technical it all seems. There are a load of very clever and talented people in the space but that can often mean that it’s hard to break in. It’s also not always clear why this is important to my work or business.

In her keynote at the first Local First conference last year, Maggie Appleton spoke about barefoot developers. I’ll summarise the argument badly:

• Software could benefit farmers - helping them be more productive, solve problems quicker and more effectively
• Not every farmer wants to be a programmer
• But a farmer is better placed to understand the needs of farmers
• So, if some number of farmers could build software then
• They could build tools that are going to help farmers

As for farmers so for lawyers, doctors, taxi drivers, chefs and so on.

But building modern web applications is complicated and hard - there are servers and CI/CD and front-end frameworks and UX/UI and on and on.

Why does a tool I (or my farmer friend) want to build for me and my friends need all the same infrastructure as Facebook or Netflix? Why does building web applications have to be so complicated?

My friend Ben Patton and I have been thinking about this a lot and started to build the Local First Academy.

Our aim is to create a jumping off point for folks to recognise the need for Local First, be connected with the libraries and tools that are available in the space and start building as quickly and easily as possible.

It’s early days for us. We are in the middle of our first content push, “The 12 Days of Local First”, which you can sign up for here. Through that we are diving into three themes - sync, offline and collaboration - and exploring how they work in a Local First world.

Our aim is to build out a library of courses - allowing web developers to make the transistion to Local First as quickly and seamlessly as possible. To help those new side projects, current business initiatives or challenging upgrades to be possible with a Local First approach.

Even if data soveriegnty or global justice isn’t your primary focus - simplier, faster and more user-centric software is surely a win-win!