The Tiny Awards, celebrating the best personal, independent, non-commercial, and newest websites

11 July 2026

The resurgence of personal, independent, and non-commercial websites has been with us for several years, propelled in part by the IndieWeb/SmallWeb communities, and a heap of discontent — to say the least — with the present, excessively commercial, nature of the web.

And this revival couldn’t be more timely. When once we looked at scores of websites daily, today the attention of many people is dominated by perhaps a mere half dozen. But escaping the claustrophobic confines of these so called walled-gardens need not be a challenge.

Web directories — being listings of websites — once a staple of the early web, are also returning in abundance, and teem with links to personal, independent, and non-commercial websites. Ye Old Blogroll is but one example, and if you’re seeking the other web, is a great starting point.

Discovery by way of web directories is not the only path to a more personal, less commercial web, however. Web awards are another option. In the same way perhaps the long and short lists of literary awards, are a great way to source quality book reading suggestions.

The sample may be smaller than the offerings of web directories and good old fashioned blogrolls, but in web awards there might be more chance of finding something you can engage with.

Say web award aloud though, and the response may not be all that enthusiastic. Web awards are sometimes perceived as little more than online fraternities. Places where the usual suspects congregate, to take part in an annual round of mutual backslapping.

Money and influence pave the way to the winner’s podium. These are not arenas where personal, independent, and non-commercial websites, are welcome.

Since 2023 though, the Tiny Awards have been quietly reshaping the perceptions of web awards. For one, commercial websites, and apps, are barred. That means we’re only ever going to see the real deal. In addition, and just as importantly, websites entered for the Tiny Awards cannot be more than twelve months old. You’re at no risk of running into even one of the usual suspects here.

Founded by Matt Muir, Matt Klein and Kristoffer Tjalve, who is also a co-publisher of the Internet Phone Book, the Tiny Awards celebrate the independent, quirky, and utterly unique. Something even a cursory glance at the previous three winners quickly makes apparent.

Rotating Sandwiches, the 2023 winner, by Lauren Walker, might evoke a feeling of déjà vu in people who have been, yes, surfing the web since the 1990’s, an era when personal websites were not personal websites, unless they baffled and awed.

In 2024, the sadly no longer online One Minute Park (Internet Archive link), designed by Elliot Cost, who incidentally co-publishes the Internet Phone Book, triumphed. And in 2025, Fifty Thousand Names, a memorial to the then fifty-thousand people killed in the Gaza war, by Leo Scarin, won.

These are websites we do not see often anymore. And that, says Kristoffer, is part the idea of the Tiny Awards. He hopes to see a change in “the public perception of what makes a good website.”

He cites the work of French landscape architect Gilles Clément as an analogy. Clément would sometimes incorporate weeds in his garden designs. As he sees it, “weeds are no longer a symbol of abandonment, but an expression of resilience.”

Incorporating “weeds” into website design? How’s that for re-wilding the web? Kristoffer is in favour.

“I believe a similar shift would be beneficial for the web, and I’m happy that the first three winners all represent slightly different designs compared to the traditional online awards, because maybe they are foreign compared to the public perception, but they are surely more native to the web.”

In that context, it seems apt One Minute Park won the 2024 award. For those who missed it, the site featured rolling motion footage, clips of sixty seconds duration each, of public parks across the world. Rare is the public park that is completely weed-free, whether that be intentional or otherwise.

But One Minute Park was not the only website honoured by the Tiny Awards in 2024.

One Million Checkboxes, designed by Nolen Royalty, won a special category dubbed the Multiplayer award. So called as the project allowed anyone visiting One Million Checkboxes to participate in the action. The dual awards in 2024 made me wonder if the Tiny Awards might one day expand to include other categories. Or something along the lines of, say, a lifetime achievement award.

Matt Klein said that while the organisers had given the idea thought, they like the awards as they are.

“At their core, I think, the Tiny Awards reject the notion that people need awards to feel good about their work. If you’ve made something with passion and your own hands, and put it out into the world, that’s the reward in itself.”

That’s a sentiment that resonates with me. The only real reward I often seek in my web work is to be writing here, at my website. And as Matt Muir says, encouraging the creation of new websites of a personal, independent, and non-commercial nature, is the main goal of the awards.

“I think it’s also important that we focus on new sites, to act as push-back against the (sadly all-too-prevalent) idea that the web is somehow dying; it’s not, people are building new things every day, you just need some help finding them.”

“The Tiny Awards is about celebrating the fact that the web is still growing, is still full of creativity, is still full of potential rather than looking back nostalgically at some imagined ideal of When The Web Was Perfect.”

Now in their fourth year, it’s fair to say the Tiny Awards are a fixture in the personal/independent web sphere. But what of the future? How long might the awards continue? Will they still be with us in a few years time? Or next year, for that matter.

Matt Klein’s response to the question is succinct, “It’s always been and will likely be: one year at a time.” Matt Muir doesn’t look too far ahead either, but thinks reaching five years would constitute a pleasing milestone.

Kristoffer sees no reason why the awards couldn’t continue indefinitely, as they’re relatively straightforward to organise, although this would be contingent on the ongoing support of both the Matts. Kristoffer would also like to see the awards carry on until they have a Wikipedia page.

I’m not sure exactly how serious that aspiration is, but after four years of the Tiny Awards, it seems like a page on Wikipedia can’t be too far away. That would surely be achievement unlocked. But someone tell me quickly: I’m not tempting fate in saying that, right?

Thanks to Matt Muir, Matt Klein, and Kristoffer Tjalve, for their assistance with this article.

Use the AI compass to chart your AI archetype

7 July 2026

Find out where you sit on the AI compass, which is a little similar to the vote compass.

There are thirty AI classifications including sceptic, Luddite, conscientious objector, doomsday prepper, founder, and prophet. Each has a patron saint. Mine is Amanda Askell, though I’m not entirely sure I agree with my archetype, “The True Believer”, but who knows.

Simon Willison — should we dub him Mr AI? — is, according to the compass, “The Garage Tinkerer”, whose patron saint is none other than… Simon Willison. What are the chances?

Australian authors, songwriters, musicians demand payment from AI companies

7 July 2026

Individuals, educational institutions, and other organisations have to make payment in some form or other to access the work of writers, musicians, artists, and other creatives.

It seems like a naive question, but why should it be any different for the tech companies who are presently helping themselves to whatever material they can get their hands on, so as to train their AI agents? Particularly if the same tech companies expect users to pay to access their AI products.

Of course all writers, artists, musicians, etc, wherever they are, should be receiving compensation if any of their work is being used to train AI agents.

Chloe VS History: time travel that delivers a glimpse of the future

2 July 2026

Perhaps we see something of the future when we look to the past.

Chloe VS History, a YouTube channel, presents significant chapters of our history, hosted by a buoyant young woman named Chloe, a would-be time traveller, and seen through the lens of what is presumably a smartphone.

While it’s moot point, the smartphone, or whatever recording device Chloe uses, seems to go unnoticed by the multitudes of people she encounters. Be that Ancient Rome, on board the Titanic, or in Tudor age London, capital of the United Kingdom, among other places. Could it be the locals — where there are people present — think she is holding a hand mirror of some sort?

Regardless, Chloe’s enthusiasm for her subject matter is infectious. I studied history in my final year of high-school, and have the feeling the class would have been at least ten times more engaged, if we’d had the option to learn about historical events in this fashion.

The concept, the brainchild of British content creator Jonathan Laramy, may not be entirely unique, there’s a lot to say about the execution. To date, only five “full-length” features have been produced, though there are nearly forty “short” videos.

Of course, just about all of what we see in the Chloe VS History series, including Chloe herself, is created using AI powered applications. And while a substantial amount of research also goes into each production, I’ll take a punt that AI is only doing some of this work.

The educational merits of resources like this are obvious. And not just for history either, but other — sometimes not so exciting — subjects on a school’s curriculum also.

So far, there are only five in-depth Chloe VS History features, but doubtless the number will grow, given there’s a lot of history to explore from across the globe.

I don’t know a whole lot about reality headsets, such as, for instance, Apple’s Vision Pro, but I wonder what the experience of viewing these sorts of videos on reality headset devices would be like. Immersive, to say the least, if device support is available.

AI does not so much take work away as it changes the way we work

30 June 2026

CJ Chilvers:

Before influencers, there were bloggers. Before bloggers, there were TV stars, rock stars, and movie stars. Call them whatever you want, but individuals have always been the drivers of engagement and trust.

This is a point Alex Cowen reiterated in a recent talk given in the UK. It seems to me you don’t so much need a great of knowledge of AI — hard to gain when the technology is ever evolving — than you do a distinct personal brand. In whatever your field of endeavour is.

What happened after the Roman Empire ceased to be in 476?

29 June 2026

Fred Kozlowski:

My favorite figure in the post-Roman period is Theoderic — ruling 493 to 526, twenty years after the “fall” of Rome. He took over the structure of the Roman Empire and ruled it as a functionally emperor-like figure. He was a Goth and an Arian Christian, or in other words, a barbarian and a heretic.

I never gave much thought to day-to-day life in Rome, previously the seat of the (western) Roman Empire, after the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 by Odoacer, a Germanic general. Odoacer became the ruler of Italy, but was killed by Theodoric the Great, in 493, who assumed the role of the king of Italy, until 526.

Despite the bloodshed surrounding these events, life went on as usual, for the most part, as far as inhabitants of Rome and Italy were concerned, during this period.

It seemed a little like a change in the governing party following an election, particularly in a parliamentary democracy. There were new senior government figures in place, but that was about it.

But back to Romulus Augustulus. He was only fourteen when he became emperor in 475, and reigned for about ten months. He was more of a figurehead though, having been placed in the role by his father, Orestes, a Roman general.

Orestes deposed Julius Nepos, who became emperor in 474. Nepos went into exile, but continued to regard himself as emperor until his death in 480.

On account of his age, Romulus Augustulus was exiled to Naples by Odoacer. It is believed he lived for at least another twenty years, but little is known of him after 506.

There’s a whole lot more to unpack here of course, but the story is far from a simple end to one state of affairs, and the beginning of another.

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Is coincidence not coincidence but something else?

27 June 2026

George Musser, writing for Nautilus, ponders the nature of coincidence, particularly the more “out there” instances. Read about his repeated encounters with another backpacker, as he travelled — solo — in Africa some years ago.

I could probably write at length on this topic. For instance…

A few years ago, someone whom I will refer to as Mick, was residing in the apartment building where I stay when we are in Sydney.

We would often stop for a chat if we bumped into each other at the door of the building, or in the hallway. Mick had arrived in Australia a few months earlier, and was looking for both work, he’s a chef, and a larger apartment, as his wife and daughter were joining him later.

He eventually found a job and somewhere to live, and moved out. I saw him just before he left. He asked if I could message him, should any mail arrive for him, and left me his phone number.

We exchanged a few text messages in the months following, but after a time ceased communicating. About five years later, some mail arrived for him. The building manager, who assumed the role after Mick’s time, had left it on the console in the foyer.

It was from a car dealership. Mick had also mentioned before moving out, he was buying a car. I decided not to bother Mick with the news of this letter. I wrote “return to sender” on the envelope, and when I went out later that day, dropped it in the post box along the road.

I came home a few hours later, and decided to log into Facebook. It was something I only did every few days at that stage. It’s hardly ever now. On opening Facebook though I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a friend request from Mick.

The request was only a few hours old, and he must’ve sent it at almost the same instant I was putting the letter that had arrived for him in the post box. I didn’t share that news with Mick, but was astonished, to say the least, at the timing of his friend request.

In my view, as intriguing as coincidence can be, coincidence is coincidence. It’s random, there’s no force of some sort in the universe lining up curious happenings to bemuse and baffle us. Things just happen. This of course doesn’t make any given coincidence, particularly the seemingly weirder ones, any less magic. Provided that is, they’re a pleasant sort of concurrence.

Incidentally, Mick had studied in Australia about twenty-years earlier, and on the flight here back then, had met the woman whom he later married. So I suppose there is that.

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A trailer for Klara and the Sun, a film by Taika Waititi, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro

25 June 2026

The first trailer for the Taika Waititi directed adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel, Klara and the Sun has landed. I’m not one to complain about differences between the book and its movie counterpart — mainly because adapting a novel for the big screen is far from straightforward — but this two minute glimpse of the film version shows up some obvious differences with the book.

The tone of the film, at least the little we see of it in the trailer, is somewhat lighter (no pun intended) than that of the novel. Bordering on the comedic at times. It is not without dark moments though, which the novel is replete with.

Klara, portrayed by Jenna Ortega, as an AF (Artificial Friend), looks startlingly human in appearance. AF’s, being humanoid robots, were meant to look like people to a degree, but it was obvious they were not human. Ishiguro’s novel, for instance, created the impression AF’s were usually shorter than the teenage humans they accompanied.

Here, Klara looks as human as Josie (Mia Tharia), the fourteen-year-old girl she was bought to be friends with. A two-minute long trailer isn’t much to go on of course, but if Taika Waititi is directing, we’re going to get Taika Waitit. That includes lines such as “you’re not the droid we’re looking for”, delivered by Amy Adams, as Chris, Josie’s domineering mother.

Entirely Waititi’s idea that one, I’d say.

Nominations for Tiny Awards, for personal web projects, open now

22 June 2026

Nominations for the 2026 Tiny Awards, are being accpted until the end of the month, June.

Entry is open to websites of a non-commercial and/or personal nature, launched between July 2025 and July 2026. Submissions from brands and agencies are not accepted. The same goes for apps.

Given only relatively new websites are eligible, I’m thinking recent events across the world will form the focus or subject matter of a number of nominations.

Above average Antarctic winter temperatures concern scientists

22 June 2026

Winter temperatures have been well above average, in recent times, on what is supposed to be the world’s coldest landmass.

The unusually high temperatures being experienced in parts of Antarctica seems like it accounts for the so-far mild start to winter in our part of Australia. Here we are two-thirds the way through June, the first month of winter, and I think I’ve needed to wear a jacket maybe two times when going out. Still very much tee-shirt weather at the moment.

Slightly cooler, and wetter weather, however, is forecast — at least locally — for coming days.

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