@johannab Absolutely, here they are:

1. Content:
“In 2035, will Fediverse content still be peak indie creativity—or will it just be AI-generated Garfield memes, reposted TikToks, and 19 threads about oat milk?”

2. Moderation:
“If the Fediverse hits 500 million users, does moderation scale—or do we just accept every server will operate like a medieval kingdom with blocklists as border walls?”

3. Monetization:
“How do we keep devs, admins, and creators financially sustainable? Do we invent a revenue model, or is the plan still ‘one guy in Germany with a Patreon that hasn’t been updated since 2019’?”

4. Growth:
“Will the Fediverse remain niche forever—or will we have the inevitable ‘My Mom Just Joined’ moment that turns everything upside down?”

5. Governance:
“When the Fediverse scales, do we get democracy, benevolent dictatorships, or the classic open-source governance model: ragequit, fork, repeat?”

6. Culture:
“The Fediverse has a vibe right now—quirky, anti-corporate, allergic to NFTs. Does that survive at scale, or are we heading toward BuzzFeed quiz season?”

7. Technical Direction:
“Will the Social Web converge toward one dominant protocol—or are we looking at a future powered by bridges, adapters, and duct tape?”

8. Identity & Privacy:
“Will the Fediverse lead in privacy innovation—or just remake Facebook’s mistakes, only with a cuter mascot?”

9. Corporate Involvement:
“When brands inevitably show up, will they integrate smoothly—or will McDonald’s spin up mcflurry.social instance and get defederated before the fries are warm?”

10. One Last Question:
“Looking to 2040, which is more likely—
a) The Fediverse is a boring background utility like email.
b) The Fediverse collapses under its own drama.
c) The Fediverse thrives, and the web becomes weird again.”
@atomicpoet @johannab

There is some extent of ethical attention and awareness on the fediverse, but it is limited to discussing single app features or concerns a low-level wire protocol mechanism.

There's no real "Where are we actually going with this whole fediverse thing?" responsible technology introduction talk. In practice if you ask me the fedi is introduced as haphazardly and irresponsibly as AI. Because we simply do not know how to do it better. We just do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86k8N4YsA7c

@atomicpoet @johannab

You name question 1) "Content" and that implies too much imho that fediverse is some form of traditional corporate social media done better (decentralized, etc).

But the AI being forced upon us is an AI of Services that everyone bolted on top of the actual things they provide. Where big tech is salivating to provide us with autonomous AI agents that do stuff for us, supposedly useful.

Will we get a fedi of crawling AI bots all over our skin? Having built perfect AI home?

@atomicpoet @johannab

For 9) Corporate Involvement the main issue is not that people are unfriendly to business by blocking them outright. If we look at FediCon with ambitions to reach billions, and bridge the last network effect where fedi is essentially "open for business", and the issue becomes more that the old original fedi blocks itself to the same forgotten fringes of the internet where we find BBS'es, News groups and IRC. There will be a lot of grumbling about 'missed opportunity'.

@atomicpoet @johannab

The future of the social web is imho where the commons who is involved in cocreating it, is also able to self-sustain themselves from doing that work. And where that in turn means the fediverse remains 'commons based' i.e. the commons is able to set direction and course, with responsible custodianship and sustainable social web evolution.