Hello and welcome friends of the Wider Web!
With news of Twitter’s new owners, many members of our community started searching for a better place to be social and I was no exception. I created a “Wider Web” Mastodon node and going forward you can find me there as @trevorflowers@widerweb.org. I’m also setting up Lemmy node which is a link + conversations web app that’s kind of like Reddit but open and federated.
As always, send your tips, corrections, and offers of support to trevor@TransmutableNews.com and now @trevorflowers on the new ✨WiderWeb.org✨.
Spin up an instance, deploy your VM images, and prepare to ban or block the fascists because it’s time for another issue of the Transmutable News Weekly!
Opportunities for support
If you appreciate my work and want it to continue then I hope that you’ll head to my Ko-fi for a single contribution 🎉 or to Patreon for a subscription 🎉🎉.
Jobs
Kai XR is looking for a “Senior Full Stack Web Developer” to “use Metaverse technologies to expose students to global educational opportunities”.
News
Your Name in Lights. Quickly.
OnBoardXR, a producer of live Wider Web shows, announced their “21 Day Challenge” call for proposals which ends on May 5th. Selected applicants will work with the team to produce their proposed experiences with opening night on May 27th.
If WebKit Loses Then Does the Web Win?
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act editors added language that might force Apple to accept third party browser engines like Chromium’s and Firefox’s on iOS. Currently, all apps on iOS are forced use the same browser engine as Safari which has slowed developer acceptance of features that aren’t implemented by Apple.
Universal Resources Located from 3D Resources
Fabien Benetou from the European Parliament Innovation Lab demonstrated a workflow from Blender to glTF to A-frame that could eventually allow 3D artists to attach live information to art assets.
Face-to-face from Far Away
On 20 April many of the people who work on Wider Web standards were in San Francisco for a face-to-face meeting of the W3C Immersive Web Groups and later that day the gathered for a WebXR Meetup and live-streamed the talks.
Platforms Prove Participation Powers Places
I ran across this list of XR space hosting providers and was pleased to see that so many support WebXR. Truly, this is an exciting time to widen the Web.
Stay open, friends.