Discussion
Good morning! #FediMTL is getting started! Follow along in this thread for live posting about what's happening on stage.
I believe you may still be able to purchase a live streaming ticket, too so check that out.
If you'd rather not see this thread, you can mute me for a few hours. :)
To Mute for a few hours, in the default Mastodon UI, click my profile, and in the options menu, choose "Mute" - there is an advanced options section there, and that gives you the ability to mute me for a few hours - 6 should suffice!
Silly, but I didn't make the connection that MTL was Montreal. Duh. We're starting! Getting a dual French/English introduction to the event as it should be.
@FediHost was behind this get together. If you have some fediverse hosting needs (GoToSocial, too!) check them out.
It was also sponsored by @socialwebfdn and @qlub , the latter of which I am not familiar with! Note to self, check them out later.
@pluralistic up first, talking Canada's 💩 attempts at regulating USA's tech industry.
Literal shit heads. I love it.
If you want to see the schedule for today, check this out, about halfway down.
Cory's visuals are a real treat. Loving it.
We must start moving away from enshittified social networks now. Let's hack out emergency exits from those networks to open social alternatives.
Meaning, ways to make some interoperability (bridging) to ease the transition.
Interesting ideas. Instead of asking users to move over completely, leaving behind friends and family, we should creep into existing platform's timelines.
Create plugins that show open social content INSIDE the 💩 platforms. Attempts have hit barriers, of course, from those platforms trying to control their content. This existed at one time with an app called OG App.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/phones/the-og-app-instagram-alternative-ad-free/
Cory's not holding back. Talking about creating de-shittifying apps in Canada. Making better technology.
Even if (and most likely will) Trump and American socials get mad and ban these apps in U.S. app stores, Americans will figure out how to get them anyway.
True!
This is not the first time I've heard about the idea of tech unions popping up. It's a good idea, especially with AI creeping into every crevice.
The Actor's Guid (SAG) was fairly early in this fight against AI, perhaps we should look to them for ideas.
Just another visual treat for you from Cory's slides.
Hmm thinking about this option to alter user's experiences with Facebook and Instagram. I mean, official apps are going to be difficult if not impossible without alternate app stores.
But...with the advent of things like the Arc browser, could developers create experiences on Facebook that exclude ads, extreme reaction content, and move open social content into their timeline as well?
Next up, @cwebber discusses the @spritely and the challenges of moving the fediverse forward. And, what it's doing RIGHT today.
(From Jeff: Yes, y'all there are plenty of positive things to discuss about Fedi too, try it someday.)
She is delightful to listen to, and truly excited about her work, I love listening even tho much of it goes over my head. :)
@cwebber discusses account portability (it's possible in the fediverse, some examples in the wild) and digital surveillance (age verification).
Digital surveillance is easy to implement in centralized systems with little pushback from end users. When we own our social timeline, we have more freedom to choose what's best for us, and highlights that choice is possible. A scary thought for big social.
Check out Spritely, where they are experimenting with all kinds of new possibilities with ActivityPub and beyond.
Age verification may seem like a small deal, but it's a crack in our personal privacy shield, "just this one small thing" balloons into other demands, like verification by driver's license, having your real identity labelled on every post, etc.
(I am trying to consolidate Christine's comments into 500 chars or less...please view the session in total when you can - very worthwhile discussion)
Fifteen minute break! Up next, @julian discusses Forums in the Fediverse.
"There's too much uniformity in spaces today" - Let's bring back personal expression to profiles, MySpace, GeoCities, etc. for everyone.
Sites long ago were more specific - communities for people that like anime or a specific tv show or carrots, whatever. Forums can provide that experience again, especially federated ones.
Right now, our communities are bland and uniform - Facebook Groups, Instagram, etc. - very little room for personal expression or customization.
NodeBB distributing content into the fediverse, leveraging the existing structure that exists - microblogging.
Learning some of the secret backend sauce of NodeBB. It uses a relay - FediBuzz - to pull content from specific hashtags into its federated forums.
I knew that when I tagged #ActivityPub it ended up showing in activitypub.space, now I know how!
There are some limitations here - these hashtags aren't always the best, you must choose carefully to reduce Signal to Noise ratio. Lots of people use the Fediverse tag and much is not related to the development of ActivityPub.
Ownership and wide reach - you can have both with the Open Social web. Cross posting is the default today, repackaging your message to fit the requirements of the platform itself. It doesn't have to be.
Digital Spaces and AI
Misspellings and bad grammar are now indicators of human generated discussions (this is so true, I check exactly the same thing, and thank goodness I have naturally bad typing and grammar)
"Authenticity of human interaction is what matters".
Julian taking questions. First up, OMG Julia from Wizardzines in the house! Are they Canadian? Who ISN'T Canadian in the fediverse.
Callout to #GoToSocial from Julian about interaction controls. So true - these types of changes are faster to implement on smaller platforms. Mastodon and other large platforms can then take these ideas and incorporate them as they get fleshed out and tested.
Audience member is commenting how discussion forums can be more legible and personable. With more of a relationship being created between members than you would see in a microblogging platform.
Agreed. It's the difference between a local coffee shop and standing at the corner in Time Square and trying to talk to someone.
AI discussion going on. Julian: "No AI coding in NodeBB".
Julian lets out a big sigh, and perhaps an internal UGH with me sighing and UGHing almost in unison, lol.
It's a huge, complicated discussion, and one that the fediverse community is largely unwilling to discuss right now without a lot of screaming and finger pointing. Because, it's truly scary, especially to the tech world. Me included.
So true - mainstream socials is more about connecting to brands and being entertained by those brands. Less about making true connections with people.
Up next - @fedihost discussing Canadian Civil and how they used fediverse tools to build a funding platform - quickly! A peer tube instance.
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