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All my toots gone Link Exactly one year after publishing "Am I on the right Mastodon instance?", I discover that I wasn’t: "I’ve lost everything — posts, follows, followers, the lot.... the admin confirmed that he’d shut it down because donations were insufficient and he could no longer afford to pay the server costs from his own pocket". No great loss: "months ago I’d concluded that Mastodon wasn’t fit for purpose. I only returned this week to find that the Israel-Hamas issue had turned Mastodon into Twix... Social infrastructure needs to deliver content as a basic minimum... [which] takes time, money and professionalism. A better business model is required".
Social knowledge graphs for collective intelligence Link The second in my 1/1/2023 bundle of 5 posts exploring collective intelligence looks at the role of decentralised social networks: "A personalised, decentralised Social Knowledge Graph for each user multiplies the knowledge available to them via a trusted network of Followers and Friends, and creating collaborative possibilities more akin to wikis than blogging".
Am I on the right Mastodon instance? Link My second post following my personal #twittermigration: "the other users on your instance create its collective intelligence — the nearest thing you have to a content discovery algorithm". Not that I like algorithms, but "Apart from hashtags, ,,, your server’s Local and Federated timelines [are your] primary discovery channels when you’re getting started". So can instances become echo chambers, and how can ew avoid simply projecting the Brussels Bubble into the Fediverse? Read on...
How to Leave Dying Social Media Platforms | by Cory Doctorow | Oct, 2022 | Medium Link Those who've read Doctorow's books and blogs on the collective action problem stopping people leave the established social media walled gardens may not find anything new, except for the quite brilliant link he makes with "the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof ... the Anatevkans can’t just pack up and leave: they are being held hostage…by each other... They love each other. They need each other. And despite that, when it’s finally time to go, they can’t all agree on where to go next". Hence the advantage of the Fediverse: "You don’t have to convince your friends to join the same server as you... so long as your friends choose servers that your server connects to... . And if the people who run your server make life intolerable ... you can switch to another server and your messages and links to your friends will follow you there". (although I think only the friends, not the messages, follow - tbc).
Welcome to the Fediverse, starry-eyed noob (#TwitterMigration, day 3) Link I discovered the Fediverse as I kicked MyHub.ai’s shiny new tyres in early 2020, and I’m kicking myself now for not diving in then.
Building collective intelligence from social knowledge graphs Link Writing a chapter for a book on Personal Knowledge Graphs made me rethink MyHub.ai, and led to a new collective intelligence pilot project with the founders of massive.wiki.
From Personal to Social Knowledge Graphs: a vision statement Link I've been invited to write a chapter for an upcoming book on Personal Knowledge Graphs (PKG). My chapter will encompass each user’s PKG, the Social Knowledge Graph created by networking them together via the Fediverse, Solid hosting, AI writing tools and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations.
The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral | Hapgood Link Mike Caulfield in 2015, when my first hub was only about 2 years old, had also "been experimenting with another form of social media called federated wiki... instead of blogging and tweeting your experience you wiki’d it. And over time the wiki became a representation of things you knew, connected to other people’s wikis about things they knew." This experience "has radically changed me... It’s like trying to explain literature to someone who has never read a book... the predominant form of the social web — that amalgam of blogging, Twitter, Facebook, forums, Reddit, Instagram — is an impoverished model for learning and research".
Facebook Is Dead (It Just Doesn’t Know It Yet) Link Interesting piece on the reverse side of the network effect: the more people leave, the faster the remainder leave. So what will make people leave? Gen Z want privacy, hate bullying/speech, don’t like ads and think "Facebook is for moms and grandparents". "Millennials Are Ready to Ditch... too old to bicker with strangers... [and] still remember those wonderful days of analog friendship". The far right and left are already leaving for dedicated echo chambers.
Evan Henshaw-Plath, Planetary.Social | The Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure Link One of a great series of Reimagining the Internet podcasts. Guest: the Planetary.Social founder, discussing decentralized social media and the early days of Twitter, the shift to advertising models, the governance of commons, and the structure of Planetary, running Scuttlebutt, which allows for a more controlled and personalized social media experience.
Decentralized Social Networks vs. The Trolls - ConfTube Link This talk addresses the challenges of moderation on decentralized platforms like Mastodon and PeerTube, especially in the context of Gab's move into the fediverse. It explores codes of conduct, human moderation, and the use of effective tools for community management and the prevention of abuse.
Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech | Knight First Amendment Institute Link The article proposes a shift from platform-centric to protocol-centric internet, focusing on the benefits of open protocols for free speech, privacy, and new business models. It discusses the potential for more decentralized and user-controlled digital public spaces.
Adversarial Interoperability | Electronic Frontier Foundation Link Discusses the concept of adversarial interoperability as a means to challenge the dominance of Big Tech by creating new products or services that integrate with existing ones without permission, a key driver in tech's dynamic marketplace that has been stifled by legal means.
Post-Alpha Feature: Simplifying Zettelkasten by working out loud Link The author shares insights on learning and knowledge management using the Zettelkasten method and discusses the process of writing newsletters about disinformation in the 2020 US elections.
How Some Conservatives Have Switched to Parler, Rumble and Newsmax (FN) Link Examines the migration of US conservative leaders and their followers to alternative social media platforms like Parler, Rumble, and Newsmax, highlighting the polarization and potential evolution of the social web into politically segregated communities.
To Mend a Broken Internet, Create Online Parks | WIRED Link The article argues for the creation of digital public spaces akin to physical public parks to foster a healthier digital public sphere. It discusses the limitations of current social media platforms and the need for spaces that promote collective identity, diverse interactions, and responsible stewardship.
What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet? Link An exploration of ActivityPub, a protocol that separates content from platform, allowing for cross-platform communication and content sharing. It highlights the potential of ActivityPub to change the dynamics of social networking by flipping network effects from platforms to the protocol level.