Background and context

FediForum April 2025 was canceled the day before it was supposed to start, after it emerged on the weekend before that one of the two co-organizers had made a number of posts a few years ago on social media, whose content was incompatible with the values of FediForum and its community. Due to the short remaining time, the remaining organizer canceled the event, to be rescheduled.

Instead, two 90-minute townhall/listening session hosted by the remaining organizer (Johannes Ernst). The first, on April 1, brought together approx. 45-50 FediForum attendees. It was moderated by Anuj Ahooja, who summarized the meeting at the end as “This is the FediForum we needed to have today”. The second, on April 19, had about 15 attendees and was moderated by Anca Mosoiu.

Both townhalls had broad discussion followed that mixed very specific ideas for FediForum with challenges for the entire community and the broader open social web. As there was significant overlap in the discussion in both townhalls, the notes on this page cover both. Additions to the notes from the first townhall based on the second townhall are in italics.

Issues of representation and inclusion

• Underrepresentation of marginalized communities
• The Fediverse was built by many trans and nonbinary people
• Neurodivergent community representation
• Anti-black incidents and lack of follow-up
• Under-30 age group largely absent from conversations
• Mostly “Western”: North America, Europe.
• Southern/eastern Europe is under-represented
• Predominantly white male.
• Tech-heavy community
• Similar to tech industry and the broader ecosystem in general
• Our political/power structures (in general, not just fediverse) are very dedicated right now to control and repression of youth. Intra- and inter-generational equity and collaboration needed
• Good that there are no neonazis in the room.

Funding

• Nobody is bankrolling it. No sponsors. Two people just created a space
• Marginalized communities often need financial support to participate
• Fediverse / Open Social Web itself lacks resources, has only a minimal funding model
• There’s a feedback system that we need to disrupt (in tech in general)
• FediForum needs enough money to sustain itself
• Could FediForum offer optional add-ons to ticket prices that support:
  • organizational fund
  • as scholarships / support funds rather than direct payments
• Currently, highly depressed funding for public benefit around the world
• Some instances have money, could contribute, e.g. cosocial has contributed to IFTAS
• Make sure not funding something that’s illegal
• Some cities have community development / neighborhood funds. Access for local FediForum events?
• Could crowdfund attendance. Need volunteers to run campaign.
• Idea: “Open Social Web commons fund?” Potential funders see a bewildering set of possible projects to fund, aren’t experts, may not fund. A single place where funders could go, from where it can be distributed.
• Idea: Could partner with Nivenly, which is a member cooperative, not-for-profit, already operates Fediverse Security Fund.
• Fediversity commons fund was suggested, but may not be able to fund this kind of thing.
• Lots of possible structures, need attorney, CPA input

Outreach

• Who is not here? Why?
• Western Fediverse instances tend to be managed by techies. Outside of the Western world, it is social welfare people. Reach out to admins and moderators and community leaders of these services?
• People from marginalized communities need to know why they are being invited. Need to be able to be themselves, not a quota.
• Quite hard to get diverse attendees and speakers, limited speaker pool. “Ambassador” model: who should we invite? E.g. who is working on black rights? Trans rights? Who is working on digital rights?
• A topic for a future “townhall”: how we could be better in “pushing” FediForum.
• A group held their session anyway with specific people they reached out to beforehand.
• Some already have reached out to lesser represented communities to bring them to FediForum.
• “Black Girls Code” partnership?
• Need to convince people in currently underrepresented communities it’s worthwhile for them to come.

Safety concerns

• Some community members have physical safety concerns
• Need for trauma-informed approaches
• How we can constructively improve instead of attack or cancel?

Organization

• Need to balance global coordination with local engagement: FediForum has had plans to do that, example: co-organized session with Berlin last FediForum.
• Friendica people in Berlin also run events.
• Suggestion for “federated organization” structure. Could be similar to how a national association has state chapters.
• *Board of directors or advisors? Planning committee? Johannes: first step is working on advisory board.
• Value of in-person local events highlighted
• Importance of connecting local communities globally. Network of events, globally distributed.
• Need broader-based organization
• A next-generation FediForum organization working group?
• Need diverse, representative advisory board
• A separate organization would need fiscal host, pay taxes, book keeping, significant financial and organizational overhead.
• In-person events need legal structure, insurance.
• FediForum could provide branding kit, guidelines, for people to simply set up an event.
• Create an “Event-in-a-box”? Could have resources for lots of different types of events.
• Organize side-car events at other events.
• FediForum is trying to coordinate and partner, not top-down organize.
• Partnering risks that the most likely partners are likely to reinforce existing demographic skews.

Community Building Priorities

• Have a clear value statement/manifesto that everybody who works on this agrees to
• Diverse leadership
• Focus on building psychological safety
• Need for better outreach to underrepresented groups

Education & Understanding

• Importance of making technical information more accessible
• Better documentation of community issues and solutions
• Clear communication about conference goals and audience

Purpose of FediForum

• Diverse reasons why people are interested in FediForum, e.g. to learn about Fediverse, get specific topics covered, interact with specific communities.
• Related to open government / e-government and other unconferences
• But: most people don’t know what any of this is

FediForum format

• Not just unconference. Unconference is best for people already involved.
• Have named tracks? So clearly have space for non-developer communities.
• Could have speaker track and invite people who know how to build black communities
• Time during work week difficult for some people
• Have a townhall like this every time / periodically; a meta-FediForum session to iterate the plan & concept for next time.
• Could have different FediForums with different focus
• E.g. “FediForum in focus” small events on specific topics, like the commons (see notes below)
• Unconference only vs. talks + unconference vs. traditional conference. Probably depends on the particular event.
• Want: Fediverse outreach events. Training.
• Fediforum PeerTube instance? Currently using community member’s spectra.video for demo videos.
• a multi-track multi-session conference like FediForum adds a lot of complexity beyond a single Zoom/Signal video call — as well as a lot of value.
• IndieWeb has routine online meetups where individuals without a lot of speaking experience can show what they are working on. Do something similar for the Fediverse? But IndieWeb has diversity issues too.
• Recorded structured talks create durable resources. Like FediForum session notes.

Practicalities

• Bulk registration option, so organizations like IFTAS can hand out tickets
• Be transparent about finances
• Should use open-source software. But also need to meet people where they are.
• Suggestions: Jitsi, NodeBB, Nextcloud, BigBlueButton
• A Mobilizon for Fediverse events? Some volunteers to help. But needs an entity to back it.
• WeDistribute trying to create an events site.
• But: let’s not start with technology. Business, tech, legal needed.
• Future FediForums could produce a “community to-do list”.
• Where do we put effort? What are the priorities?
• Two main orthogonal dimensions for priorities:
  • Dimension 1: growing the size of the Open Social Web.
  • Dimension 2: making the Open Social Web work better for the people already here, or trying to be here.
  • Which is more important/urgent? Which tradeoffs do we make?
• FediForum should focus on running FediForum again.

Some quotes (may not be exact)

• Thanks for taking anti-trans comments seriously
• Disappointed FediForum isn’t happening today
• Not sure FediForum should go forward, queer and trans people should be in the lead.
• Have enjoyed FediForum. Have met lots of people I otherwise wouldn’t have
• True community happens if you exchange the same molecules in the same room.
• Have lots of gratitude for what Johannes has built.
• We need the Fediverse now. We cannot afford to fight among ourselves.
• I dream of a world where teenagers ask parents for Fediverse account, not an Instagram account.
• When thinking about academia, don’t just think about professors and how to verify papers.
• Despite what is constantly preached about the fediverse, there is not much care for diversity for those that don’t assimilate or capitulate
• Asking under-represented voices to join and then immediately compete for time and space and audience is likely not the best. Maybe a hybrid.
• IFTAS sponsoring people was actually helpful from a diversity perspective
• I have suspected asperger’s syndrome — now when in a relatively friendly environment. I can be my real self and Fediverse has really helped me come to this point.

Culture

• Challenge of balancing criticism with supporting community builders
• Some criticism warranted, others may be demoralizing and psychologically damaging.
• Particularly important for marginalized people: why would they want to put themselves out by organizing an event if it is so dangerous?
• We all want to get up in the morning and be excited moving things forward
• Needed otherwise no chance against the large forces we are up against
• Have to have grace and allow for mistakes to happen. No one is infallible.

Summary and next steps (Johannes)

• Thank you for the constructive discussion! Was a bit apprehensive before, but worked out well, very thoughtful. Thanks Anuj and Anca for moderating!
• Great feedback, great ideas, need to think a bit, will reach out to some people individually to follow-up with specific points
• Send me your notes
• Publish notes (this page)
• Will identify common themes and come up with plan how to proceed from here
• Another roundtable/townhall. Perhaps with narrower focus on specific themes. (Done)
• Goal: a better FediForum, and effective contribution to a better Open Social Web
• Johannes: currently working on advisory board, production team. Attendees want FediForum to be rescheduled soon, hoping for before the end of May.