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Autonomous Ecologies: Urbit Onboarding Guide

By ~dapryc-tilryn & Black Sky​

Parallel to the physical happenings during Autonomous Ecologies #1, we are experimenting with using Tlon's Landscape portal for digital assembly with participants. Tlon is kindly offering Autonomous Ecologies a series of invites with free Urbit IDs, which are needed to access the network, in addition to free hosting for one year. If you're already on Urbit, find us at ~rovsen-malnec/autonomous-ecologies. But if you are new to Urbit and confused what we are talking about, read on below for background information and also a step-by-step onboarding guide to claim your Urbit ID and join the Autonomous Ecologies group.

Background​

Urbit is a new chapter in networked computing. Built from the ground up, it affords a truly peer-to-peer internet—where individuals are in complete control of their data and tools.

Tlon Corporation (original home to Urbit’s core development) is now working on Urbit’s primary OS (Landscape) and hosting services, each making Urbit easier to navigate.

Landscape is an Urbit-native collection of apps for communicating and collaborating on the network. Unlike any centralized software, you own it entirely. Landscape includes the Groups app, which is where community gathering areas with channels, notebooks, and galleries can be created. Autonomous Ecologies will be leveraging this (more details below).

Tlon’s hosting services make claiming and maintaining your home on the Urbit network much easier, if you're not ready for self-hosting. They keep your Urbit running 24/7 so you can access it from both your phone or computer, and deploy software updates to keep it running smoothly. Tlon only hosts your data. It doesn’t own it.

Check out this tour of Landscape for a preview of what to expect.

How to join the Autonomous Ecologies group on Urbit in a few quick steps.​

  • Follow this link and go through the sign up flow.
  • First, you’ll be prompted to create an account to host with Tlon.
  • Next you’ll claim your Urbit ID: This ID and its corresponding data is yours forever, whether or not you continue hosting with Tlon.
    • Note: Usually you have to purchase Urbit IDs, but Tlon is offering both Urbit IDs and one year of hosting for free to Autonomous Ecologies #1 participants.
  • Finally, you’ll land in Tlon’s hosting dashboard. From there, launch Landscape. If on mobile, you must first copy the access key.
  • In Groups, you’ll see a pending invite to the Autonomous Ecologies group. That’s where you’ll find us.
  • Tlon’s mobile iOS app, Small Talk, is available in beta. Download and install it here. You’ll need to copy your unique Landscape URL (i.e. rosmut-hodpub.tlon.network) and access key (located in your dashboard) to sign in.

One last thing: we’re told this might get bumpy. There are bugs. There is room for improvement. If you’re running into problems, reach out to mariah@tlon.io for support.