"Meta's fediverses", federating with Meta to allow communications, potentially using services from Meta such as automated moderation or ad targeting, and potentially harvesting data on Meta's behalf.
"free fediverses" that reject Meta – and surveillance capitalism more generally
The free fediverses have a lot of advantages over Meta and Meta's fediverses, some of which will be very hard to counter, and clearly have enough critical mass that they'll be just fine.
Here's a set of strategies for the free fediverses to provide a viable alternative to surveillance capitalism. They build on the strengths of today's fediverse at its best – including natural advantages the free fediverses have that Threads and Meta's fediverses will having a very hard time countering – but also are hopefully candid about weaknesses that need to be addressed. It's a long list, so I'll be spreading out over multiple posts; this post currently goes into detail on the first two.
Opposition to Meta and surveillance capitalism is an appealing position. Highlight it!
Focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety
Emphasize "networked communities"
Support concentric federations of instances and communities
Consider "transitively defederating" Meta's fediverses (as well as defederating Threads)
Consider working with people and instances in Meta's fediverses (and Bluesky, Dreamwidth, and other social networks) whose goals and values align with the free fediverses'
Build a sustainable ecosystem
Prepare for Meta's (and their allies') attempts to paint the free fediverses in a bad light
Reduce the dependency on Mastodon
Prioritize accessibility, which is a huge opportunity
Commit to anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and pro-LGBTQIA2S+ principles, policies, practices, and norms for the free fediverses
Thank you for the optimistic PoV on the entrance of others to the #DeSoc of the Fediverse. It is an optimism that I share - especially with Matthias' announcement just an hour ago that his team behind the development of the #WordPress ActivityPub plugin has just released version 2.0.0 - considering the enormous footprint of WordPress installations across the entire Internet belonging to both common, everyday individuals and companies alike, of every shape and size, this is HUGE news.
It instantly, overnight, positions common folks and businesses to leap into the freedoms afforded them by the existing, privacy respecting, #FOSS based Fediverse that hitherto was... well, a bit of a leap for them psychologically. But now they have a familiar platform with which to begin a journey through the minefields of the deprecated, privacy mining, monolithic silos; its proprietors programming their masses of #subjugated_chattel into livestock holding pens, where they are weighed, measured, packaged, placed into inventory, and sold.
That does raise the issue of an error in your assertions however. You mentioned, "instances in Meta's fediverses and on Bluesky".
The truth however, the reality, is that each are merely a single instance - One big monolithic silo, as described above, with the same incentives of monetization through privacy mining techniques that have made them the dreadnoughts that they are; at least in the case of #Meta (Threads).
Bluesky is of that vertically scaling market as well, but much smaller than the #Faceplant and #InstaSPAM engines operated by Meta, and now their new spearhead into the DeSoc space occupied by ActivityPub and other decentralized or federated protocol based, horizontally scaling instances.
#Bluesky hasn't actually shown their hand yet to the general public, but already, they've disenfranchised (fired) much of their talent; some, actually principal architects of their monolith who were frustrated and disillusioned with the direction Jay has been taking the company - moving further and further away from the disowned public community they spawned, organized, and abandoned following the initial trials and tests of the open source preview version of what became #ATP protocol (ATX).
Even Jack has moved on and embraced yet another horizontally scaling protocol in the DeSoc space, #nostr, and it's already bridged and interoperating flawlessly with the ActivityPub powered portion of the Fediverse, which in turn interoperates with instances running other protocols such as #Nomad, #OStatus, #Streams, #Diaspora, and #ZOT... all of them part of the Fediverse.
Many of the extant #ActivityPub powered instances in the Fediverse merely need to install these capabilities with a couple of clicks to enable this interoperability, while others bridge the divide through infrastructure developed and deployed over the past year or so.
What will be Meta's use case here for their business product?
That's the main question I think folks need to address - not punish the good people on the so-called evil side of the divide, the hitherto subjugated chattel that populate Marks so-called Metaverse or whatever he thinks he can compel people to adopt and endure. The point is, childish, domain level blocking by juvenile minds operating ActivityPub powered #Fediverse server instances only serves to paint themselves (and the users who have to date trusted those admins with being told what they can and cannot see and do) into a corner where they effectively cancel themselves, and find that their users have migrated to other spaces... maybe WordPress, where they truly control their own destiny in the DeSoc space and can now fully participate and engage with others - but on their own terms, not someone else's.
And that, I believe, is what the whole thing has always been about, going back as far as #AngelFire and #GeoCities :)
I do agree with you that we should indeed embrace these common, everyday individuals who, through their programmed ignorance, are mostly clueless as to exactly what the Fediverse is, and more importantly, has always promised for them. This is an opportunity, like Steve Austin, (the Six Million Dollar Man): "We can rebuild them, we have the technology, we can make them better, stronger, faster..."
One more thing I should correct you on, the Fediverse is an internetwork of networks, on the Internet - there are no fediverses, Fediverse is itself a plurality, but your intent wasn't lost on me.
Great article, I enjoyed the read and most of all, your optimistically tempered intent. Thanks for sharing and I hope to see much more from you in the future!
I am on a family trip and in the downtimes I would love to #gamedev and experiment.
I didnt bring my laptop because is cumbersome, specially when you travel in buses, trains and by foot.
I wonder, is there a good IDE that runs on Android? are there shells to transform my android phone into a small laptop? recomendations for good portable bluetooth keyboards?
There’s quite a big community of #nomad devs out here
Is there no platform for companies or people to offer temporary workspaces, or even a desk with internet connection, preferably with accurate rating on the quality of the coffee?
(4/4) Abel Tasman NP, Torrent Bay/ Rākauroa to Onetahuti. A stunning introduction to Onetahuti beach (📷1). Off the beach’s south end, Tonga Island contributes to the Tonga Roadstead/ sheltered anchorage (📷3). Views north (📷3) before our taxi pick-up (📷4). A 46km journey over 6h 20m, of which 14km/ 4.5h hiking—but felt under time pressure, meeting taxi with only 3min left!
I have a #devops (or what we used to call #sysadmin) question...
I like Docker Swarm for its simplicity and apparent "lightweight" nature. From a user standpoint, you can simply define a set of services and it's not that much of a leap to go from a docker-compose file to a full blown distributed system for a small number f nodes.
The problems are that Docker Swarm only appears to be offered by Docker (tm) and requires the real Docker (tm) stack, as opposed to the solution most distros use today, which is to use podman as a Docker replacement (for many good reasons).
And the fact that Docker is owned by Mirantis, Mirantis's future seems uncertain is good reason not to stay.
Is anyone still using Docker Swarm? If not, do you have a lightweight alternative (not Kubernetes)? I've heard not-great things about Nomad.
I feel like this is a huge missing area in the orchestration landscape.
If #kubernetes is too big for you or you just don't like it for any reason I can wholeheartedly really recommend #nomad it is actually quite smooth and (comparatively) easy AND even has more flexibility in certain places.
Near Ouarzazate, me and @cobic have just met Czech cyclist Mirek and Slovenian cyclist Katya, who travel all around the world on their bicycles and live on the road and work as artists. I have introduced them to Mastodon and they are now @Cyclingnomads on our #fcz instance...
So if you want Cycling Nomads in Fediverse instead of just on Facebook, don't hesitate and follow @Cyclingnomads !
"When you're offgrid, you want to conserve power in every way possible. Running your 12v battery into your 120vac inverter to convert back to 12v and 48v is very wasteful. Here I show you how to run your Starlink setup off of 12v DC only! Fairly simple job, Come on in and let's get to it!"
Hello #homelab and #selfhosted community! I want some basic orchestration for my homelab and in another toot some users told me they`re using #nomad.
How are you using nomad? My idea was using a single VM for server + client agent, but there's minimum resources about this deployment, I don't enterprise high availibity as I'm running a homelab, but maybe I can run a VM for host and another for agent? So I have better allocated resources?
On my search for the best E-Ink device for me, I've now opened the Supernote A6X2 Nomad. Smaller form factor, more focused environment than the Boox Note Air 3. Check out my first impressions: https://youtu.be/T9RUenIR09Y#SuperNote#nomad#eink
Pokłosie weekendu: samochody na miejscówce. Było ich sporo. Zamierzam do piątku przenieść się w bardziej odludne miejsce. Auta, imprezy, głośna muzyka, nawet fajerwerki … nie tego teraz potrzebuję :)
@mike 's contributions to #FOSS and #DeSoc go back much further than just the #ActivityPub portions of the Fediverse, well over a decade in fact, as the creator of #Mistpark, now #Friendica, and also #Zot6 and #Nomad, which promises to be a show changer for identity in the world of Social communications.
Back on the road after 🎄 with family/ T-out for life admin & a bout of 🦠 Covid.
Whangārei Heads owes much of its distinctiveness to the extinct volcanoes that shape its skyline. Mt Aubrey at 216m, seen from McLeod Bay (📷1). Mt Manaia at 420m, seen from Urquharts Bay (📷2). WWII gun emplacement at Home Pt on Busby Head (📷3), w/ mural inside battery observation post (📷4).
(2/2) Peach Cove & Te Whara Tck. Once below the summit enveloped in ☁️ we had hazy views from Bream Head | Te Whara towards Hen & Chickens Is (📷1). After a rough & slippery descent the remains of a wartime radar station can be seen before continuing on towards Ocean Beach (📷2). Lifeguards are on duty here during the summer months (📷3). The 9.3km loop took us 4.5h (📷4).
🌳🌲🌳 B last entered the Whirinaki Forest in the early 1980s, on a high school field trip, counting seedlings and making observations with pencil and paper as a junior member of the school’s ecology club. With the aid of digital technology, we can share the 👁️ sights and 🔊 sounds of this ancient forest with you.
Dites les gens qui prennent le #TER ou le train #nomad, saviez-vous qu'il existe une carte de réduction spécifique pour les trajets Paris-Normandie ? Moi non, je paie plein pot mes Paris-Caen depuis 2 ans lol.
Et bah elle est à 1€ cette semaine.
Et en fait y'en a pour plein d'autres régions, c'est par ici :
I'm especially interested in the potential conflict between concepts of #land#landback and #property and rights concerning #geography between cultures who associate themselves with belonging to the land vs. so-called true nomadic or semi-nomadic cultures (not so much pastoral nomads who still have a sense of belonging to a specific geography).
Added bonus if there is an intersection with #leftist, especially #communist critique.