How to make progress? Here's some of the questions I have ... very interested in hearing people's thoughts! If you'd prefer to respond anonymously, here's a CryptPad form (it takes a few seconds to load, so don't panic).
What examples have you seen of successfully leveraging social networks for organizing and mutual aid? (It's fine to include examples from centralized commercial social networks as well as alternative and/or decentralized social networks)
How could social networks better support organizing and mutual aid?
What do you see as the most promising and/or urgent short-term opportunities?
And if you'd like to get involved, you can leave your contact info in the form and we'll follow up with you once there are some concrete next steps in place. (Although you're also welcome to fill out the form anonymously!)
#organizing #fedviverse #ATmosphere
Notes (and thoughts) on organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere is a deep dive on the landscape today, based on multiple discussions with US-based organizers.
There's certainly room for progress!
#organizing #fediverses #ATmosphere
Easier said then done, but the opportunity is there. As Afsaneh Rigot says in Can We Build Tech That Is Not Oppressive?
"The details of how highly marginalized communities are criminalized are the key to how we can build robust and even scalable tech that is not oppressive. This is how Design From the Margins truly works....The experience of the most criminalized in the US and globally shows how power really works. This knowledge, the workarounds, can also be translated into stealthy tech design, build, and engineering choices that help navigate systems."
#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere
How to make progress? Here's some of the questions I have ... very interested in hearing people's thoughts! If you'd prefer to respond anonymously, here's a CryptPad form (it takes a few seconds to load, so don't panic).
What examples have you seen of successfully leveraging social networks for organizing and mutual aid? (It's fine to include examples from centralized commercial social networks as well as alternative and/or decentralized social networks)
How could social networks better support organizing and mutual aid?
What do you see as the most promising and/or urgent short-term opportunities?
And if you'd like to get involved, you can leave your contact info in the form and we'll follow up with you once there are some concrete next steps in place. (Although you're also welcome to fill out the form anonymously!)
#organizing #fedviverse #ATmosphere
We need to accelerate work on a few things at once:
Find ways to leverage and improve the current prototypes for mutual aid, organizing, and counter propaganda, hate, and information overload
Help people move from corporate social networks - without losing their support networks, ties to communities, and connections with friends and family.
Build whatever comes next. Structurally, and in terms of applications, what will decentralized social networks, designed from the margins using design justice principles look like?
https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/
#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere
Easier said then done, but the opportunity is there. As Afsaneh Rigot says in Can We Build Tech That Is Not Oppressive?
"The details of how highly marginalized communities are criminalized are the key to how we can build robust and even scalable tech that is not oppressive. This is how Design From the Margins truly works....The experience of the most criminalized in the US and globally shows how power really works. This knowledge, the workarounds, can also be translated into stealthy tech design, build, and engineering choices that help navigate systems."
#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere
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.
#organizing #fediverse #atmosphere #bluesky #blacksky
We need to accelerate work on a few things at once:
Find ways to leverage and improve the current prototypes for mutual aid, organizing, and counter propaganda, hate, and information overload
Help people move from corporate social networks - without losing their support networks, ties to communities, and connections with friends and family.
Build whatever comes next. Structurally, and in terms of applications, what will decentralized social networks, designed from the margins using design justice principles look like?
https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/
#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere
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.
#organizing #fediverse #atmosphere #bluesky #blacksky
I for one welcome Bluesky, the ATmosphere, BTS Army, and millions of Brazilians to the fediverses!
And what better way to do that than with a long post about it?
https://privacy.thenexus.today/bluesky-atmosphere-fediverse/
#bluesky #fediverse #activitypub
5 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people
https://privacy.thenexus.today/start-making-the-fediverse-less-toxic/
Listen more to more Black people – and amplify their voices
Think before you post
Call in, call out, and/or report anti-Blackness when you see it
Support Black people and Black-led instances and projects
Approach it intersectionally
The article also has links to anti-racism resources and appendices with a list of common mistkes to avoid and blocklist resources for moderators.
Thanks to everybody who gave feedback on earlier drafts!
EDIT, 8/19: I updated #2 (which previously started with "Post Less"), and also made some other changes in the underlying article - including a bit more discussion about how anti-Blackness isn't just a US problem.
Read on for some excerpts (1/N)
#fediverse #mastodon #antiracism
Mastodon and today's fediverse are unsafe by design and unsafe by default – and instance blocking is a blunt but powerful safety tool
Part 1 of "Golden opportunities for the fediverse – and whatever comes next"
https://privacy.thenexus.today/unsafe-by-design-and-unsafe-by-default/
Over the course of this multi-part series, I'll discuss Mastodon and the fediverse's long-standing problems with abuse and harassment; the strengths and weaknesses of current tools like instance blocking and blocklists; the approaches emerging tools like #TheBadSpace and #Fediseer take, along with potential problems; paths to improving the situation; and how the fediverse as a whole can seize the moment and build on the progress that's being made; . At the end I'll collect it all into a single post, with a revised introduction.
This first installment has three sections:
- Today's fediverse is unsafe by design and unsafe by default
- Instance-level federation choices are a blunt but powerful safety tool
- Instance-level federation decisions reflect norms, policies, and interpretations
#fediverse #mastodon
Hi!
The Nexus Of Privacy looks at the connections between technology, policy, strategy, and justice. As well as privacy, that also includes AI ... and the fediverse!
https://thenexusofprivacy.net/
Some recent threads, many including multiple posts
Golden opportunities for the fediverse, including "Mastodon and today's fediverse are unsafe by design and unsafe by default", "Blocklists in the fediverse",
"It's possible to talk about The Bad Space without being racist or anti-trans – but it's not as easy as it sounds", "Compare and contrast: Fediseer, FIRES, and The Bad Space", and "Steps to a safer fediverse"
5 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people
Strategies for the free fediverses, including "Focus on consent (including consent-based federation", "Support concentric federations of instances and communities", and "Consider "transitive defederation" from instances that federate with Meta"
And a few artciles as well:
Mastodon: a partial history
Black Twitter, quoting, and white views of toxicity on Mastodon
Social threat modeling and quote boosts on Mastodon
Don't tell people "it's easy", and seven more things Kbin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon
Should the Fediverse welcome its new surveillance-capitalism overlords? Opinions differ!
Embrace, Extend, and Exploit: Meta's plan for ActivityPub, Mastodon and the fediverse
My personal account at @jdp23@blahaj.zone has more of an intro about me personally.
From an infosec pespective, back in the day I used to work on static analysis tools and other approaches to defect detection, spoke at RSA, and wrote an IEEE Security and Privacy article. I still sometimes write about and consult on security-related stuff; for example, here's a look at "social threat modeling" at 2018
https://medium.com/a-change-is-coming/social-threat-modeling-the-winds-of-change-are-in-the-air-8dc330479a50 i
#introduction
The Nexus of Privacy