"But the real tragedy of Reader was that it had all the signs of being something big, and Google just couldn’t see it. Desperate to play catch-up to Facebook and Twitter, the company shut down one of its most prescient projects; you can see in Reader shades of everything from Twitter to the newsletter boom to the rising social web."
Technocrats are using the language of revolution as a means of winning hearts and minds.
Lower-level fiefdoms are perhaps sincere in their attempt to make a better web. But mostly, we are witnessing a Potemkin revolution by the same folks who made their fortunes off our data and content.
Jack Dorsey is not a revolutionary. Mark Zuckerberg is not a revolutionary. Andreessen Horowitz, Sam Altman, and Steve Huffman are not revolutionaries.
The natural end state of hashtags is to eventually serve as subreddits for the #SocialWeb. but here they would overlap, allowing us to visit any space in the Venn diagram of all the tagged posts we're interested in.
We can now connect to #BlueSky accounts from here, but both sides need to enable it.
We're supposed to be opt-out folks, but too many "safety" advocates are stopping the #SocialWeb from ever becoming ubiquitous. Imagine being so scared of "bad" speech that you demand users and server admins add each other's domain to their settings before they could communicate or even browse to those sites. We'd all still be on AOL.
Today is a good day to explain the Fediverse to peoples and share this text about it!
»Web – The fediverse, explained:
The buzziest new thing in social networking is a big deal. It’s also very confusing. And it’s not actually new. Let’s talk about it.«
In the latest episode of #DotSocial I interview @snarfed.org@snarfed.org, a passionate bridge builder with a focus on connecting people across the open web and the #fediverse. His latest work, #BridgyFed, connects #ActivityPub and #ATProtocol resulting in excitement, critique and lots of discussion.
Ryan and I talk about the parallel communities on #Mastodon and #Bluesky, their shared desire to create an open social web and the pros and cons of their underlying protocols, #ActivityPub and #ATProtocol. Can or should these be bridged? If so, how? As whole new communities continue to join the fediverse, how should the user experience evolve?
Listen to this excellent discussion on our @PeerTube instance or wherever you get your #podcasts.
like you said, the #SocialWeb won't become as ubiquitous as email if our default is opt-in. because most people won't understand the settings etc.
we need an explicitly pro connection but anti intentional harassment federation policy (that I think would be very popular). instead the default is becoming having a network where nobody can stumble on anything upsetting. that's not the open web.
I've got some thoughts about how the tech world ignores the needs of users with cognitive disabilities like dementia. Hit me hard this week.
There are degrees of dementia. Some people live with mild or moderate forms for years and deserve respect, dignity and as much freedom as we can offer them. That includes access to the internet.
If every article, podcast episode and video was natively an #ActivityPub post, we'd need quote posts but want them to operate differently. They should count as a boost but with a clear indication that the person you are following also wants you to see their comment. How should that look? Maybe they wouldn't themselves be boostable... #SocialWeb
I know I'm showing my age when I recall to younger people the bygone era, when technology was created to serve mankind, rather than the other way around.
👉🏾 @EDPS announced EU voice is closing
👉🏾 @EU_Commission has 100,000 followers
👉🏾 #EuropeanCommission social #ActivityPub account will primarily be on Threads
👉🏾 EU Voice should ask citizens & local businesses in #Europe for instance funding help
Gotta say that EC's messaging is quite confusing. Hope there'll be more follow-up soon.
Yesterday I attended a @commonsnetwork organized event in The Hague about #Government and building #DigitalCommons, and among the crowds of representatives of many different institutions there, there was A TON of interest for decentralized #SocialWeb technologies.
#Hypercapitalism involves the devious practice of passing people 💩 turd sandwiches wrapped in glossy paper, and have the recipient be happy and surprised when opening them.
Because only outward packaging is all that matters, the superficial layer. Hypercapitalism aggressively teaches to look no further. To not see deeper value and meaning. For its practioners, which we all are to an extent, superficiality is thus the "Return on Lack of Investment" we get in return.
your comment about how the #SocialWeb fixes the blog response problem is key. I'd add the ability to do boosts. #ActivityPub has the potential to keep creators in total control of their work, while also putting them in the center of how their work interacts with others (social networks usually controlled by others). this is our killer app. thank you so much for doing the work.
Iemand vanuit #Mastodon benadrukt het belang van #OpenStandaarden. Hij roept op dat daar meer financiering voor moet komen om deze door te ontwikkelen. Zeker in het licht van verregaande koppelingen tussen andere sociale media zoals Instagram en Facebook die hier grote budgetten voor hebben.
Ja, dat was ik denk ik, op het #CommonsNetwork event in Den Haag. Enige verwarring daarbij is dat ik niet van Mastodon ben, maar hen indirect wel vertegenwoordig. Ik sta nl. in het algemeel de Fedi voor en haar #OpenStandaarden. O.a. mede-faciliteer en representeer ik al geruime tijd de #SocialHub dev community en het #FEP process beheer.
If you're thinking about yourself when you're using social media, focused on how you're presenting yourself to others, not how you're contributing to the public conversation, you're doing it wrong. And it's gonna make you depressed instead of happier. This might be the disconnect that leads us to think about it so differently. #SocialWeb
When new services join the #SocialWeb, it works best if there's an associated default app. Everything shares the #ActivityPub protocol but an app can be designed to best deal with a certain type of content. I use #Pocket by @mozilla right now for articles, but it's not federated. I wonder if @omnivore can't be the default app for our AP enabled #WordPress#Ghost and #Buttondown future.
#Ghost implementing #ActivityPub is huge for the concept of #AttentionDemocracy. Their articles will be native to the #SocialWeb. The boosts, likes and comments will be on a writer's work (and often their own website/domain), not on separate posts that reference the piece locked up in a variety of corporate platforms. Making it much simpler for the great stuff to go viral, unlike with RSS or email. This functionality is our killer app here. It will make so much more innovation possible too.
Could #matrix become the groups functionality for the #SocialWeb? AKA could our identities be made to be shared between that service and #ActivityPub etc? Both are FOSS and decentralized, right? Thanks.
Can we make running a #SocialWeb server for your business/org as simple and cheap as a web or email server? That's where we need to go. Standard. Expected. We just need more people here to reach to provide the incentive to make this happen. That's my only hope with #threads. Full federation would bring so many reasons to invest, if we can do it quickly and effectively "lock them open".
Part 6 of "A Guide to Implementing ActivityPub in a Static Site (or Any Website)" is now out.
Sorry about the delay, this is the part that not many people will like, I assume. I try to explain how to implement the inbox, which by nature is dynamic non-static.
Maybe #AI will overwhelm corporate platforms with so much garbage designed to be irresistible to the algos, that it drives everyone to find refuge here. We are perfectly designed to be immune in the ways they are designed to be susceptible. No desperate need to maximize attention for profit. Human-based virality and moderation. Hopefully these qualities become seen as reasons to be here and tools worth paying for amid the oncoming onslaught. #SocialWeb