Minimal computing isn’t an aesthetic; it’s a way of thinking about technology.

This year I had the pleasure of returning to DH@Guelph as a teacher instead of a student.

Chelsea Miya, Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph, and I taught a course titled, “Intro to Minimal Web Design with Jekyll” for this year’s students. This is in relation to my recent interest in the technology. Chelsea introduced the students to the theory of minimal computing, and I helped the students work through the technical aspects and build their own personal website using Jekyll and its family of technologies.

Unfortunately, Jekyll is not a perfect technology and there are a couple of things that made things unnecessarily hard for new students.

  • Ruby is a problem. We had a lot of problems with students being unable to get Ruby and Jekyll working on Apple computers. This is because Apple has Ruby installed as a system resource and getting the proper versions installed and working required technical skills many of the students just didn’t have.
  • GitHub is not a good hosting solution. Git is probably the most complicated technology we had to introduce, and it is also the most unnecessary technology in the stack. At the last moment, we pivoted to hosting on Neocities instead. This was well received and will be my default hosting platform for students moving forward.
  • Other minimal hosting technologies exist such as Pelican and Eleventy. I’m excited to give these technologies a try as both Python and Javascript are better languages that build on skills these students are more likely to have.

I really enjoyed helping the students build their own websites, and especially the enthusiasm some students expressed about taking control of their online presence (both creatively and practically). Both Chelsea and I are excited about returning to DH @ Guelph next year, but we also want to pitch a variant of the course to DHSI next year.