Here is how I define the Independent Web:

1. You are an individual, small group of individuals, maybe an ORG.
2. You have a website you built, mostly non commercial.
3. You have your own domain. (Not a 100% requirement but something to strive for.)

The Independent Web is the big tent. It tries not to be too commercial. It has a low particle count of Corporate Suits. Those old GeoCities sites were part of the Independent Web, so far back it was just called “The Web”. A personal blog on Wordpress.com is part of it too. The Independent Web is about individuals Creating and individual acts of Creation. It can be useful, silly, humorous, thoughtful and alarming all at the same time. It is the Street Fair of the Web. It stands in contrast to the cold, dead, grey hollowness of the Corporate Web.

Independent Web can be shortened to “Indie Web” or “Indieweb.”

Here is how I define the Indieweb:

Indieweb.org has their own definitions, they start at the above but then refine and narrow. Here’s my spin: Indieweb is a subset of the Independent Web. It’s trying to add standards and tools to expand and enhance the Indie Web and extend communication and interaction between independent websites with a lot of Good Stuff that has jargonish names and Code which I can’t keep straight. It’s all cool.

Websites that are part of the Independent Web (above) are part of the Indieweb too. They are just at the beginning of the journey if they ever choose to make that journey.

Indieweb can be shortened to “Indieweb”.

And it’s confusing and hard to explain in a soundbite, so just make a website, use your own domain and then scout out the rest.