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if not now, when? Mutual aid and organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere
https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/
Mutual aid. Organizing. Sharing, contextualizing, and making meaning of news and health information to counter propaganda and information overload. The use cases for alternative social networks – not controlled by techbro white supremacist CEO's working with their cronies in authoritarian governments – practically write themselves in today's world. And with so many talented social scientists, designers, systems thinkers, and developers directly impacted by DOGE, MAGA, et al, there are a lot of people with the right skills for these new networks to make rapid progress.
The good news is there's a lot of promising work happening in the decentralized social media ecosystems known as the fediverses ("federated universes") and the ATmosphere (a fediverse built on Bluesky's AT protocol), including DAIR-tube, Blacksky, the #FreeFediverse, and more.
Still, as promising as these efforts are, there's still a long ways to go.
@ophiocephalic@kolektiva.social@thenexusofprivacy
Just to offer this up, suggestion that the fedi's failure to meet this moment with viable facilities for Groups organizing could turn out to be one of the worst in its history. In retrospect, the emphasis on building "more twitters", replicating surveillance-capitalist functionality, and dreaming of world-conquering universal networks has turned out to be badly short-sighted. The footnote in the "Notes" post that mentions the Mastodon project *receiving a grant* to implement Groups years ago, then not bothering to use it, is galling.
It's easy to be a back-seat driver; but it can't be overstated how important it is for developers to perceive the fedi as a field of opportunities for imaginative killer apps the capitalists can't or won't provide, rather than just a fallback for fleeing refugees with replicated functionality
@ophiocephalic yeah totally agree. And not just for organizing either - I was taking with somebody earlier today shot how their friends with long covid are tethered to Facebook because that’s where there support groups are.
I do think some devs get it - Bonfire for example, NodeBB, Mike with Forte. So there are still possibilities. alas that’s not where the resources are going … but maybe a chance to change that?
@thenexusofprivacy
Yup, some of the more progressive fedi developers, laboring in relative obscurity, are clued into this - the untapped potentials for *onboarding communities*