Independent streaming with Owncast.
A project I discovered for the first time yesterday: during the pandemic, someone called Gabe Kangas wondered why video streaming couldn't easily be done independently, like personal web sites are.
By now, he's got a GitHub repository, a developer community around it, a main web site, some funding from a foundation dedicated to projects with the "independent web stuff" kind of spirit, and most importantly, a working product. I was able to do what the "get started in one minute" video described, and actually stream from my existing OBS setup to a local server with almost no trouble. (Note: the executable itself is a command-line application. On macOS, it's unsigned. Whether you want to try it at this stage is based on your comfort with those things, but I took the precautions of studying Owncast's history and examining the installation script before running anything.)
I have to say, though: I'm even more impressed with the web interface. Twitch is the best video streaming platform there's been so far, but the web page on which a typical Owncast stream resides reveals instantly how busy, cluttered and sluggish Twitch has always felt – something like a bustling, clanging alley in a semi-developed city. (I've written plenty of custom CSS just to clean Twitch up, mainly by hiding elements that I've never needed to see.) An Owncast stream's page feels more like a modern, calm, polished, spacious lobby. Aside from the live video, a built-in chat system is about all there is. It doesn't require an account – you can just chat – and it assigns you a random user name, which you can change. And I understand all of that, from the chat rules to the page's HTML, is customizable. To me, that's way more attractive than Twitch in most ways. For streamers, it means the possibility of doffing reliance on the city square and inviting people to your home to watch or socialize.
The main hurdle for an Owncast user is the networking knowledge and cost of providing your content to viewers, and while it that seems analogous to the task of providing your own web home rather than relying on the conveniences of social media, I've yet to thoroughly digest the documentation and comprehend precisely what's involved. It's been a while since an opportunity to learn about such things was driven by something I found this exciting.