science

Webmention

Webmention is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Webmention rather than just read about it. In short: Webmention is a W3C recommendation that describes a simple protocol to notify any URL when a website links to it, and for web pages to request notifications when somebody links to them. Webmention was originally developed in the IndieWebCamp community and published as a W3C working draft on January 12, 2016.

Key takeaways

Webmention belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Webmention to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Webmention from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Webmention is a W3C recommendation that describes a simple protocol to notify any URL when a website links to it, and for web pages to request notifications when somebody links to them. Webmention was originally developed in the IndieWebCamp community and published as a W3C working draft on January 12, 2016. As of January 12, 2017 it is a W3C recommendation. Webmention enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, referring to, or commenting on their articles. By incorporating such comments from other sites, sites themselves provide federated commenting functionality. To send a Webmention, the sender discovers the receiver's endpoint from an HTTP Link header or an HTML <link>...</link> or <a>...</a> element whose rel value is webmention. It then sends the source and target URLs to that endpoint as form-encoded parameters. Similar to pingback, Webmention is one of four types of linkbacks, but was designed to be simpler than the XML-RPC protocol that pingback relies upon, by instead only using HTTP and x-www-urlencoded content. Beyond previous linkback protocols, Webmention also specifies protocol details for when a page that is the source of a link is deleted, or updated with new links or removal of existing links.

See also Pingback, the XML-RPC based protocol that Webmention was modeled after. Refback, a similar protocol but easier than Pingbacks since the site originating the link doesn't have to be capable of sending a Pingback request. Trackback, a similar protocol but more prone to Sping (Trackback spam) since there is no authentication or verification possible with Trackbacks.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Webmention

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Webmention claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Webmention before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Webmention ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Webmention

In research: Webmention appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Webmention in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Webmention is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Blogs, Internet stubs, World Wide Web Consortium standards, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Webmention outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Webmention in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Webmention means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Webmention out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Webmention in simple terms?

Why does Webmention matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Webmention?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Webmention.