And someone might write the article: "Of course the Fediverse is threatened by the attention of the attention economy". Don't overly focus on whether Mastodon has attention-grabbing engagement features or not. It is an app, folks, just one app on the Fediverse. If you look around you already see how corporate interests are encroaching our space, testing the waters. And they won't always be single endpoints that you simple defederate with a single block action. Think of cloudflare for instance. Some corporate takeover and EEE scenario's were recently discussed on HN.
humanetech
joined 3 years ago
The Hacker News thread to this article is more interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33543379
The issue is handled and the project licensed MIT.
I read your post "The future is disruptive, and I can't wait!". And while I share your enthusiasm for the opportunities and potential of the Fediverse - I have been advocating them for years - I do not share the optimism expressed by the people on this thread as to the role of current Fedi culture and Free Software movement, if corporate interest comes. But I fully expected these kinds of answers.
Some time ago I had written notes on the related major fedi challenge of Complacency and intertia. Where the mere fact that we have decentralized technology gives people somehow the idea "We have arrived. We have won". There's the enthusiasm of the Early Web on the Fediverse now. The web that nowadays we call the "Corporate Web". A hyperlinked, decentralized web of information. Thwarted by hypercapitalism. There's nothing at all that protects fedi from going the same direction. All the years up to now FOSS movement have been in control. But we haven't managed to organize a strong "technology substrate" that gives much hope of holding our position with corporate interest coming.
It is early days, I understand. But I always find it odd when such projects ask for contributions and there isn't clarity on the license. I created an issue for that.
Indeed. I recently started using the term "personal social networking" where fediverse allows people to tailor their own social graph such that it delivers the most value to them. It is more human-scale. A huge public square like Twitter where people are all shouting for attention from their soapbox and trying to influence groups visiting the square is nice and all, if that's your thing. In real life most people don't do that kind of thing. They aren't hanging around with 2,000 'friends' visiting bars in the weekend.
Give me a personal social network with human relationships that are below Dunbar's Number, and then give me access to a separate knowledge network to find information I am interested in. Hey, that last bit is the web we already have. I personally do not need advanced search in all the things that 9 million fedizens have said the past couple of years, same as I do not audio record and transcribe my daily life, interviewing my friends at a birthday party.
I do not know the exact nature of the changes in 4.x but imho it's all about preferences. If someone wants this shield, they should use it. And there's a whole lot of fedizens who do not benefit if someone scrapes the fedi and makes it deeply searchable.
As I see it there's two extremes in microblogging: Public-square microblogging a la Birdsite, and personal social networking microblogging in your friends network. A Hometown server where people only use local-only toots is an example of the latter. Both are perfectly valid use cases.
Idk, maybe someone can shed more light on these changes..
I don't know if AndStatus fully supports C2S as the issue about it is still open. This issue is likely also the most detailed info you'll find on implementing C2S: https://github.com/andstatus/andstatus/issues/499
I agree. And the hegemony is getting stronger by the day. The announcement in The Guardian about Mozilla for instance has this headline: "Firefox and Tumblr join rush to support Mastodon social network". Not Fediverse, but "The Mastodon Social Network". And I continue to see new fedizens tooting elightened thoughs that there's more than Mastodon, yet still getting it wrong (e.g. "There are more social networks than Mastodon on the Fediverse, like Pleroma").
Potential of Fediverse is for the creation of a single interoperable "social fabric". I wrote about this in Let's Reimagine Social. How the Fediverse can enable a Peopleverse, which also entails de-emphasizing the role of individual apps, which are like siloes. App-free Computing is possible.
I have been moderator of SocialHub for a couple of years. Mastodon contributors only sporadically interact in that dev community. I cannot blame them for that. They naturally care most about their own FOSS project, and furthermore that is a Microblogging app, so why care about different app types? The major challenges of maintaining open standards in a grassroots movement are all social in nature (though they may have partially social-technical solutions) and tackling how FOSS projects can be incentivized to collaborate beyond their own direct project boundary.
Btw, for anyone interested in a good overview of fedi projects, I co-maintain the 3 fedi-related delightful lists.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/364580
The EU via their Horizons Europe program, the Next Generation Internet (where e.g. NLnet are associated) (NGI Initiative) are the biggest funders of the free software projects that comprise the fedi. Without their support fedi wouldn't be what it is now.
The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently launched a pilot to have both a Peertube and Mastodon instance on the Fediverse, hashtagged #EUVideo and #EUVoice respectively. On these servers official European Commission related institutions as well as individuals working at the EC can have their accounts.
This recognition of the Fediverse and the interest that exists in entering our decentralized social networking environment is an important development. With success of the pilot there will undoubtedly be a follow-up and more initiatives to come. First results until now is that the parties that 'test the waters' are very happy on the kinds of interactions and quality of discussions they encounter on the Fediverse.
That is no wonder, of course. Fediverse offers social networking that is more personal and friendly, than corporate social media which is about 'broadcasting' and influencing.
Current pilot can be a ramp up to something much bigger:
Fediverse: United in Diversity
A social networking technology where everyone can find their place and participate, that is not controlled by Big Tech and commercial corporate interests. For the European Commission there is the opportunity to passionately put their support behind fostering "The European Take On Social Networking". Fediverse aligns to the NGI Initiative who envision an Internet for Humans.
How you can help
To progress towards this vision it is important for the EU/EC pilot to be a success. As fedizen you can help with this. Here are a couple of ways to offer your support:
→ Follow, boost, favourite the EUVoice accounts on Mastodon and EUVideo Peertube videos.
- These early adopter accounts are still learning how the Fediverse works, what the culture is and e.g. how we value accessibility and image captions. You can help them discover.
- Many accounts are still Twitter bridges and broadcast only. Some others respond and interact with fedizens, notably @EC_OSPO, @EDPS and @EC_NGI. The operators of the Twitter bridges don't know what the value of Fediverse is to them, and if they should spend time with us. All reactions by us are monitored, so we can help them here.
- There are people giving highly toxic reactions to almost any EC-related toot. There are many things to be critical about. Politics is about the discussion of these issues, and good arguments help more than toxicity. Here we have opportunity to show we are different than the cesspit that Twitter is.
- Do not expect too much, too soon. There is a complex organization structure at the EC, and given the politically sensitive nature all communications are weighed carefully and undergo multiple levels of approval. Plans move slowly, but they are in motion.
→ Let's give the fedi accounts more followers than they have on Twitter, if possible.
- For instance the Director General of Informatics at DG DIGIT, Veronica Gaffey, has 191 fedi followers in short time, while on Twitter she has 279 followers.
→ If you are on Twitter, then help encourage EC institutions to also have an account on EUVoice.
- A notable example is the European Parliament. Respond to their tweets and name-drop the fedi as THE place to be.
→ We are gathering a group of volunteers on SocialHub that can help train EC representatives in how to use the Fediverse effectively and understand its culture.
- The activities we do here, starting later this year, stand to benefit any administration or institution interested to join the Fediverse, not just EU representatives.
This post is also cross-posted to the Social Coding Movement that is dedicated among others to establish a Peopleverse on top of the fedi. Social Coding is not yet officially launched.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/364580
The EU via their Horizons Europe program, the Next Generation Internet (where e.g. NLnet are associated) (NGI Initiative) are the biggest funders of the free software projects that comprise the fedi. Without their support fedi wouldn't be what it is now.
The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently launched a pilot to have both a Peertube and Mastodon instance on the Fediverse, hashtagged #EUVideo and #EUVoice respectively. On these servers official European Commission related institutions as well as individuals working at the EC can have their accounts.
This recognition of the Fediverse and the interest that exists in entering our decentralized social networking environment is an important development. With success of the pilot there will undoubtedly be a follow-up and more initiatives to come. First results until now is that the parties that 'test the waters' are very happy on the kinds of interactions and quality of discussions they encounter on the Fediverse.
That is no wonder, of course. Fediverse offers social networking that is more personal and friendly, than corporate social media which is about 'broadcasting' and influencing.
Current pilot can be a ramp up to something much bigger:
Fediverse: United in Diversity
A social networking technology where everyone can find their place and participate, that is not controlled by Big Tech and commercial corporate interests. For the European Commission there is the opportunity to passionately put their support behind fostering "The European Take On Social Networking". Fediverse aligns to the NGI Initiative who envision an Internet for Humans.
How you can help
To progress towards this vision it is important for the EU/EC pilot to be a success. As fedizen you can help with this. Here are a couple of ways to offer your support:
→ Follow, boost, favourite the EUVoice accounts on Mastodon and EUVideo Peertube videos.
- These early adopter accounts are still learning how the Fediverse works, what the culture is and e.g. how we value accessibility and image captions. You can help them discover.
- Many accounts are still Twitter bridges and broadcast only. Some others respond and interact with fedizens, notably @EC_OSPO, @EDPS and @EC_NGI. The operators of the Twitter bridges don't know what the value of Fediverse is to them, and if they should spend time with us. All reactions by us are monitored, so we can help them here.
- There are people giving highly toxic reactions to almost any EC-related toot. There are many things to be critical about. Politics is about the discussion of these issues, and good arguments help more than toxicity. Here we have opportunity to show we are different than the cesspit that Twitter is.
- Do not expect too much, too soon. There is a complex organization structure at the EC, and given the politically sensitive nature all communications are weighed carefully and undergo multiple levels of approval. Plans move slowly, but they are in motion.
→ Let's give the fedi accounts more followers than they have on Twitter, if possible.
- For instance the Director General of Informatics at DG DIGIT, Veronica Gaffey, has 191 fedi followers in short time, while on Twitter she has 279 followers.
→ If you are on Twitter, then help encourage EC institutions to also have an account on EUVoice.
- A notable example is the European Parliament. Respond to their tweets and name-drop the fedi as THE place to be.
→ We are gathering a group of volunteers on SocialHub that can help train EC representatives in how to use the Fediverse effectively and understand its culture.
- The activities we do here, starting later this year, stand to benefit any administration or institution interested to join the Fediverse, not just EU representatives.
This post is also cross-posted to the Social Coding Movement that is dedicated among others to establish a Peopleverse on top of the fedi. Social Coding is not yet officially launched.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/353642
A logo for Free Software
Designed by @mray@https://social.tchncs.de with CC0 license.
Logo package is available on Codeberg.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/353642
A logo for Free Software
Designed by @mray@https://social.tchncs.de with CC0 license.
Logo package is available on Codeberg.
A logo for Free Software
Designed by @mray@https://social.tchncs.de with CC0 license.
Logo package is available on Codeberg.
@N01@fediverse.ro if you are interested you might maintain a delightful curated list about these resources and be part of Delightful Club. This is an alternative to Github-based Awesome project, that is exclusively for FOSS, Open Data and Open Science related resources. See also: https://codeberg.org/teaserbot-labs/delightful