Fedivangelism

Today, we are taking the first step in building out an initiative to create opportunities for people to help build the Fediverse and create an organizational structure which can allow developers to coordinate their efforts where most needed.

We call upon anyone with both the skills and motivation to join us and the Guild we are starting, Guild Alpha. Read the announcement linked to learn more and find out how you can participate!

If anything discussed here has your interest or you want to help grow free-software and the Fediverse, fill out this form to let us know!

The EU via their Horizons Europe program, the Next Generation Internet (where e.g. NLnet are associated) (NGI Initiative) are the biggest funders of the free software projects that comprise the fedi. Without their support fedi wouldn't be what it is now.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently launched a pilot to have both a Peertube and Mastodon instance on the Fediverse, hashtagged #EUVideo and #EUVoice respectively. On these servers official European Commission related institutions as well as individuals working at the EC can have their accounts.

This recognition of the Fediverse and the interest that exists in entering our decentralized social networking environment is an important development. With success of the pilot there will undoubtedly be a follow-up and more initiatives to come. First results until now is that the parties that 'test the waters' are very happy on the kinds of interactions and quality of discussions they encounter on the Fediverse.

That is no wonder, of course. Fediverse offers social networking that is more personal and friendly, than corporate social media which is about 'broadcasting' and influencing.

Current pilot can be a ramp up to something much bigger:

Fediverse: United in Diversity

A social networking technology where everyone can find their place and participate, that is not controlled by Big Tech and commercial corporate interests. For the European Commission there is the opportunity to passionately put their support behind fostering "The European Take On Social Networking". Fediverse aligns to the NGI Initiative who envision an Internet for Humans.

How you can help

To progress towards this vision it is important for the EU/EC pilot to be a success. As fedizen you can help with this. Here are a couple of ways to offer your support:

→ Follow, boost, favourite the EUVoice accounts on Mastodon and EUVideo Peertube videos.

• These early adopter accounts are still learning how the Fediverse works, what the culture is and e.g. how we value accessibility and image captions. You can help them discover.
• Many accounts are still Twitter bridges and broadcast only. Some others respond and interact with fedizens, notably @EC_OSPO, @EDPS and @EC_NGI. The operators of the Twitter bridges don't know what the value of Fediverse is to them, and if they should spend time with us. All reactions by us are monitored, so we can help them here.
• There are people giving highly toxic reactions to almost any EC-related toot. There are many things to be critical about. Politics is about the discussion of these issues, and good arguments help more than toxicity. Here we have opportunity to show we are different than the cesspit that Twitter is.
• Do not expect too much, too soon. There is a complex organization structure at the EC, and given the politically sensitive nature all communications are weighed carefully and undergo multiple levels of approval. Plans move slowly, but they are in motion.

→ Let's give the fedi accounts more followers than they have on Twitter, if possible.

• For instance the Director General of Informatics at DG DIGIT, Veronica Gaffey, has 191 fedi followers in short time, while on Twitter she has 279 followers.

→ If you are on Twitter, then help encourage EC institutions to also have an account on EUVoice.

• A notable example is the European Parliament. Respond to their tweets and name-drop the fedi as THE place to be.

→ We are gathering a group of volunteers on SocialHub that can help train EC representatives in how to use the Fediverse effectively and understand its culture.

• The activities we do here, starting later this year, stand to benefit any administration or institution interested to join the Fediverse, not just EU representatives.

This post is also cross-posted to the Social Coding Movement that is dedicated among others to establish a Peopleverse on top of the fedi. Social Coding is not yet officially launched.

Questions have been raised about how exactly we can get a community of people to go from just subscribing to actually helping out. Various proposals have come and gone, and I figured I'd throw in my two cents and also use this thread as an opportunity.

The most common type of proposal I've seen has relied on some sort of paid marketing or financial incentives for contributors. In my view, this is a poor foundation to start with, as it gets people in this mindset that without money they can't do anything, and even if we had money, we'd just be encouraging people to only do things for money. As we've seen with all these other alternative social media sites, throwing money at the problem doesn't create organic communities.

We have to incentivize by creating a sense of community and mutual accountability. Working on this should feel rewarding and fun, as if you're a part of something. In that sense, this initiative isn't just for the purpose of marketing but also a way of prefiguring the vision of the Open Web.

The first step has been taken in that we have a Discord/Matrix server which allows for closer and more real-time communication, but I do think it's time to take another step in ensuring people participate: tasking people.

In this thread, put down your skills and any ideas you have (if any). I (and hopefully other people in this thread) will try to come up with suggestions of what you can do. By tasking people and having them report on their progress here, that'll create a sense of accountability.

If you're convinced you have no skills of use, doesn't matter, post anyways. What we need is engagement and commitment, and one of the biggest obstacles to that so far is people being convinced they're useless.

One of the biggest strengths of the fediverse (and free software) movements is how it brings people to collaborate and to spur that, we need spaces to organize. I see here and across the fediverse that people want to help out but don't know how.

I've just started a set of Matrix rooms (with a bridged Discord server so that the chat platform doesn't get in the way of people wanting to participate) where people can do the following:

• strategize on how to best promote the fediverse
• collaborate on their free-culture/federated projects and find people to help
• promote their own fediverse content, find fediverse creators to follow, and offer feedback to others'

The video has been uploaded and the server is up. If you have any ideas, any ways you'd like to help, or just want to chat, join!

I really do believe this is gonna be crucial to pulling off our task. Real-time chat is more personal and live so it's easier to collaborate and build a community.

If you're interested, join here:

• Discord
• Matrix

So I spend little more than half an hour and just tooted an image I created with some of the hashtags we brainstormed at Fediverse Town. This version is higher-res, licensed CC0.

(Created in Inkscape using this CC0 vector image. #FediVolution hashtag credit @PaulaToThePeople, #FediverseRising by me.)