What's a Garden?
"Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin."
— Voltaire, Candide
I wander the pages. I rake the margins. I reach out a hand to feel the box layout of a delicate div. I see a misaligned figure, and I put it back in its place.
— Zen of CSS
I'm stealing the term garden from Maggie Appleton, but I think of it differently. There are two roles in a garden: the gardener, and the visitor. The gardener spends their time tending to their garden spaces, maintaining it. The visitor wanders the garden paths, appreciating the beauty.
This "garden" is public, but not like Boston Public Garden is public. You can't trample my flowers. It's more like this: I allow you to peer over the fence and see what I've planted in my proverbial front yard. Anyone can look, but no one—except me—can touch.
What if digital gardens were more like public parks? Shared space, designed for leisure, free for all, managed as a community, the product of an egalitarian ethos of digital urbanism. I'd like to participate in an internet that is more like Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
Websites already have something unique going for them. While I have total despotic control over my website, you can always view the source, download it, copy it, use it to your own ends. In what other public garden can you pick a flower and take it home?