Convener: Johannes Ernst (@j12t@j12t.social)

Participants who chose to record their names here:

• Bob Wyman (@bobwyman@mastodon.social)
• Mike Weston (@mweston@mindly.social)
• @dangillmor@mastodon.social
• Valen (@valen1@mstdn.social)
• Lisa Dusseault (@lisarue@mastodon.geekery.org)
• Babette Knauer (@Bibliothecaris@social.edu.nl)
• Freddie Johnson (@freddiej@newsmast.social)
• Joan Pla (@joanpla@mastodon.social)
• charles blass (@lovevolv@mastodon.social)
• @nigini@social.coop
• kirsten lambertsen (@mizkirsten@mastodon.social)
• Eric Fassbender (@fassbender@sciences.social)

Notes

• Won’t get overrun (ie someone like Elon can’t do what he did to Twitter).
• You always have direct access to your audience (your audience is not controlled or beholden to a third party)
• You get to design your own algorithm.
• You are in control of what you see in your feed.
• You can set your own moderation policies.
• Moderation (or censorship) it doesn’t need to be one size fits all.
• Your user experience could be free from distractions and corporate interests (ie no ads).
• It’s a community-driven environment, which means users shape the space in a way that reflects their shared values and interests.
• You control your data and who sees it (so big tech cant “sell your data”).
• Own your social graph v. persuasive with influencers.
• No algorithms (no need to play the ever changing algo game).
• Algorithms are not imposed by others. Algorithms, if used, are chosen by the users, not by others. (Note: there is nothing wrong with algorithms, per se. The problem lies in who chooses which algorithm is to be used.) See: ACLU “What Is Censorship?: “Censorship, the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are “offensive,” happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others.” Whenever anyone chooses the algorithm used by someone else, censorship has occurred. https://www.aclu.org/documents/what-censorship
• Also a wide diversity of algorithms are less vulnerable than a monolithic algorithm to concerted attack by spammers, fraudsters, etc. (see https://danluu.com/diseconomies-scale/)
• Also (paraphrasing a point from the chat): a lack of single but ever-changing monolithic algorithms, can allow good actors to get off the treadmill of constantly adapting to the algorithm to get heard.
• Rules that are made to help people instead of a corporation.
• Democratic: Communication patterns and structures are chosen by those who choose to communicate.
• Yes -> democratic: it’s the public (collectively owned) digital space where the citizens confront ideas: the real public digital square.
• If I don’t like a community I can leave and don’t loose my social network.
• CHOICE seems to be a big word here!
• Outside authorities can’t block the Fediverse!
• For an academic community: open science principles, data autonomy, control over content.
• Many servers can participate, so that innovation can happen in different corners and have a chance of propagating.
• The Fediverse provides the protocols for world-wide interpersonal communication and interaction (i.e. the Fediverse is social).
• Compared to big platforms, you don’t need to be there as a resource to be monetized by attention-farming platforms.
• The fediverse doesn’t have “one size fits all” moderation platforms that may have too much or too little moderation for your group. So, bring your civil knitting group or less civil take-back-the-streets pro-bike group, and you can have a platform in the fediverse with the moderation and rules you want.
• For creators the value proposition is that they can actually connect with their communities and engage with them, their voice doesn’t disappear into the social media black hole. Furthermore they can take their communities elsewhere (the “own your social graph” point in chat)
• Entrepreneurs can get distribution quickly through the largest social network on the planet.
• Media organizations can own their (i) content, (ii) identity, and (iii) audience relationship.
• Essentially the discussion points to literacy of interacting/ living online, social media literacy, understanding more deeply what is going on, peeling back the layers of data flow, ownership, manipulation.

Great spreadsheet of personas and other marketing concepts for the Fedi by Georgia here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TIGhG6xkjgRtpOkXClb8hPreaT3uXauyDKz9mtUbswg/edit?usp=sharing :)

But: seaching for tags is only local :(