Good morning dear Fediverse from Cologne 🌞 where @Free Software Foundation Europe the @LpB NRW and the Volkshochschule Cologne have organized a symposium about "The world after Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. A new generation of the internet?"
Und auf eine (hoffentlich) letzte Iteration die Folien für den Vortrag über das Fediverse beim Fediverse Fachtag in Köln am Freitag überarbeiten 😆. Ich freue mich schon auch da zu treffen 🤩
Derzeit findet in Berlin im Invalidenpark (Nahe Hauptbahnhof) das Verkehrswendecamp statt, die Berliner Bits und Bäume haben da Morgen Nachmittag ab 16 Uhr bis in den Abend hinrin das Digital Village organisiert.
16;30 werde ich da einen Kurzvortrag zum Fediverse halten.
@fu I don't know much about #Gitcoin, but I'm sure the anti #cryptocurrency crusaders throughout the #Fediverse and in other #FOSS contexts are going to try to roast #Tor over the hottest flames of hell.
If this gets revised, I hope developers consider what exactly "block", "mute", "silence", and so on mean in current implementations (and consider that some have different terminology for similar functionality) and only then decide what curation & protection functionality is needed and sensible in a federated and / or peer-to-peer network.
Dann mal aufstehen, frühstücken [...] und das Fediverse defragmentieren (11h Bits & Bäume Workshopzelt). Vorher Dont Look Up!!! Bridging Climate Justice and Digital Rights hört sich aber auch sehr gut an...
die @Free Software Foundation Europe veranstaltet mit der @LpB NRW und der VHS Köln einen Fachtag zum Thema „Die Welt nach Facebook, Twitter und YouTube. Eine neue Generation des Internets?” https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230712-01.de.html der sich an Multiplikatorinnen der politischen Bildung, an Lehrkräfte, Vertreterinnen öffentlicher Institutionen und Bildungseinrichtungen sowie an alle Interessierten. Falls ihr da jemanden kennt, reicht doch gerne den Link weiter. Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos, aber es muss sich online angemeldet werden https://registration.fsfe.org/FediverseFachtag.
Vorkenntnisse und Erfahrungen rund um dezentrale soziale Netzwerke sind nicht notwendig, denn ein Überblick über verschiedene dezentrale Dienste, die oft als „Fediverse“ bezeichnet werden, gehört zum Programm. Weitere Themen sind Potenziale und Probleme dezentraler Dienste und ihre Bedeutung für die demokratische Gesellschaft. In drei Workshops geht es ganz praktisch um die Nutzung von Fediverse-Diensten, um den Betrieb eigener Instanzen und um Wissensvermittlung zu dezentralen sozialen Netzwerken im Bildungskontext.
Termin des Fachtags ist der 22.09.2023 von 10 bis 16 Uhr, in der FORUM Volkshochschule im Museum am Neumarkt, Cäcilienstraße 29-33, 50667 Köln.
It's my impression that the diagnosis of "feudalism" is a new fad, attached to everything that formerly was capable of attaining the label "class". Feudalism, that is, is far more a poltical concept than it is an economic one. (There is a reason why this term turned up lately in the description of the authoritarian rule of Putin in Russia.)
But be it as it may, I think you're right in pointing to "exploitative-capitalism" although that sounds a bit like a pleonasm to me. I think, "extractivist and externalist capitalism" is more to your line of thought and I think this indeed is something that can serve as distintion between Capitalism and whatever defines the Fediverse. To me, although the Fediverse shows capitalist traits, it doesn not show or tries to reduce being extractivist and externalist, i.e., it doesn't want to put the burden on someboy who is not benefitting from the gains.
That doesn't mean that the Fediverse is free of exploitation and/or authoritarian behaviour, but at least it doesn't want to move into the extractivis and externalist direction. So perhaps "communality" is still the therm that distinguishes the #Fediverse from #Capitalism proper.
Reading your post I come to ask: Why do you think the #Fediverse (and/or its instances) is (are) an anti-capitalist endeavour?
Obviously the Dear Leader of Mastodon is in for some deals with Meta, but that is only the visible tip of iceberg. To me, the Fediverse is a capitalist endeavour through and through, only that most instances and their admins never figured out a way to monetize their projects. And so, as they see much effort put into it with little returns, they start to think they're the landlords of their houses, with tenants to boss around or to evict when they deem some rowdy behaviour to be enough. Not to mention all the blockwars and defederations thus effectively creating sub-diverses of mutually exclusive instances.
It's is exactly because the Fediverse is a capitalist endeavour in search of a way of monetizing that the rude and at times brutal behaviour of many is the substitute for the money. "If I can't get money, then at least I want ego. More ego. More..."
At best the Fediverse is a sparetime project of many who like to tinker. But to think the Fediverse is in any sense a countercultural or even anti-capitalist project ignores how much the addiction of many to play with their screens is the result as the continuation of the capitalist project called "the web".
But Musk is not alone in that or even the first. In 2019 Zuckerberg planned the same for Facebook with the introduction of the crypto-currency Libra.²
At that time Libra seemed to have gone nowhere as Visa, Mastercard, ebay, and PayPal pulled out of Libra project in 2019.³
Still, the fintech Libra Networks was registered in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2019 for Facebook (2,5 billion users in 2019) and its subsidaries Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger (each about 1 billion users).⁴
So the difference seems to be that whereas Zuckerberg in 2019 tried to establish financial services based on crypto-currency throughout his platforms, it is not clear whether Musk wants to rely on crypto as well (as crypto was one major reason the aforementioned Visa, Masertcard, PayPal pulled out of Libra).
But both projects planned to become an "online bank" of sorts. With the difference that as a fintech, by siphoning off user data, data of purchases, and behavioural statistics no bank is allowed to do, they can create financial products much faster and distribute them via their platofrms far more widespread than any bank could.⁵
In fact, back in 2019 Zuckerberg didn't seem to realise but Musk now does seem to understand that both platforms are not or are no longer in the ad-business but in the online banking business. That is: Hitherto both platforms thought of their business as creating profits by selling ads to users who in exchange for their eyballs are permitted the free use of these platforms. But should the transition from ad-business to fintech prove successful, this will have major impact on the global financial markets and banking sector -- up to the default of major banks.
Obviously, the syphoining-off of behavioural user data is not only relevant in the financial and banking sector but in all areas where "prediction products" can contribute to manufactoring, product development, AI training, purchasing optimzation, etc. These "prediction products" can even themselves be traded in what Shoshana Zuboff has called the "behavioural futures markets".
Combine state surveillance with capitalist surveillance, and the separation of people in two groups (the more or less hapless customer-citizens on the one hand and the unaccountable producer-citizens on the other) has significant consequences on democracy as "asymmetries of knowledge translates into asymmetries of power".⁶
But even without the societal and political ramifications, the economic and financial look most impactful. No wonder that Musk expects Twitter/X to "be ultimately extremely valuable"¹ And it may explain why Zuckerberg shows interest in the #fediverse. He who creates the first global "banking app" will rule the field. A pretty dire development from the days when m-pesa was created to link African agricultal communities an dcustomers in 2007.⁷
The Iris #Nostr client on #Android now has a "block and mute" function, so I've started using that against the #spambots.
Nostr has some great ideas that are way beyond what either #OStatus or #ActivityPub branches of the #Fediverse are doing, but the spam and the fact that there's a really big #Bitcoin "Maxi" faction there are chasing regular people away.
Búsqueda de cuentas en gnusocial.net (válido para cualquier cuenta del #Fediverso): 1) Usa esta cadena en la barra de direcciones, y añade el nombre a buscar directamente después del signo = "https://gnusocial.net/search/people?q=" 2) Otra opción, si usas Firefox, es añadir el buscador en el cuadro de búsqueda (la lupa con el signo "+")
Accounts search in gnusocial.net (valid for any #Fediverse account): 1) Use this chain in the address bar, and add the name of the account just after the = "https://gnusocial.net/search/people?q=" 2) Another option, if you use Firefox, is adding the "people search" in the firefox search bar (the magnifying glass with a + sign)
am Montag, den 3.7. ist wieder Zeit für den FRe;AK Stammtisch in der c-base. Ab 19 Uhr ergibt sich so die perfekte Gelegenheit mal Menschen hinter den Profilbildern zu treffen und über Friendica, Hubzilla und den Rest des Fediverse zu schnacken.
Die c-base findet ihr in der Rungestraße 20 fußläufig vom Bahnhof Jannowitzbrücke direkt am Spree-Ufer; von der Straße im zweiten Hinterhof.
Eben kam im Radio (Deutschlandfunk Nova) ein Beitrag zum #Fediverse. Es wurde die mögliche Problematik beschrieben, was passieren könnte, wenn Meta #ActivityPub unterstützt und weiterentwickelt. Der Beitrag war richtig gut recherchiert und ausgewogen.
@TerrorBite @trysdyn@electric.marf.space We've been using ActivityPub for years now, so, yes, there's federation with Mastodon and the rest of the #Fediverse. Development is slow, though. And yes, we are using a fork of the original: https://notabug.org/diogo/gnu-social/src/master
#Meta / #Facebook is building a #Twitter clone under their #Instagram brand. Apparently, there's discussion of various #ActivityPub #Fediverse projects' lead developers signing an NDA and having discussions with them.
The participants appear to be deleting evidence.
I'm not spinning a conspiracy theory. I just don't think Gargron or Dansup have any idea what kinds of restrictions an NDA can contain. They risk long-term damage to their projects and some impact on their careers.