Hey @Wildbill for some reason I was thinking of this Linux Journal article tonight... https://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine/pointcounterpoint-twitter
I'm curious to know which other parts of the #fediverse people are exploring besides Mastodon. Who is using #BookWyrm, #Lemmy, #pixelfed or others? I'd love to know more and get recommendations on how to approach.
I feel like I haven't fully embraced the full Fediverse yet.
My thread here yesterday about this cycle between open and closed protocols inspired me to write a longer-form piece on the subject:
After people get used to tech without lock-in, companies will need new tech that allows them to rewrite the rules. I suspect VR/AR will be the the technology that will allow companies to lock folks back in. It is the next evolution to make a computer that is even more personal than a smartphone.
This is clearly why Meta is all in on this tech and why Apple is exploring the space as well. Whoever controls this tech controls the portal into the virtual and real world. We will need to be vigilant.
Why bring this up now? Because it feels like the pendulum is swinging back toward open standards much like after the first dotcom bust. People (some for the first time) are getting a taste of the benefits of open standards. I think we will see a similar era of open standards and tech on the Internet, at least for awhile. But there will be similar attempts to find ways to embrace and extend these standards and lock people back into portals.
So why did it change? There are a few causes, and this pendulum between open and closed tech is always swinging, but to me the single most important cause was the advent of the smartphone.
Smartphones allowed tech companies to rewrite the rules around standards, software, lock-in and #privacy as Big Tech companies all sought to control the new personal computer with rules people would have rejected on their laptops. The rush to control SMS and news portals killed XMPP and RSS, respectively.
After the dotcom bust 20 years ago, there was a shift away from attempts to turn the Internet into a portal owned by a single company (AOL, Yahoo, etc) using incompatible and proprietary tech, in favor of open standards.
This spawned a heydey for things like self-hosted blogs, RSS and XMPP powered by Linux. People rejected lock-in and embraced the benefits and freedom open standards brought. Even Big Tech embraced these standards.
The new @reality2cast is out! I talked to @dsearls @shawnp0wers and @kyle about the ups, downs, and how-tos of using Mastodon amid Twitter's recent instability.
The full episode “Mastodon Lifeboats for Twitter Users” is at https://reality2cast.com/132 or you can find it in your podcast app.
#Mastodon #socialMedia #Technology #Privacy #Podcast #newEpisode
Deleted and reposting because I neglected to mention a major part of our team, @cirriustech and that needs to be set right.
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Hi all. I want to spend a moment expressing my deep appreciation for the infosec.exchange moderation team: @dnsprincess @apiratemoo @ScottMortimer @reg @jett @ClevVenger @SecureOwl @paco @cirriustech
I pulled this team together exactly a week ago, and in that week, they've made a world of difference in that short time. The respect, diligence, and professionalism they show in executing their moderation responsibilities is impressive. Not everyone is going to like every decision we make but know that it comes from a place of compassion and with the best interest of the community in mind.
I would also like to shout out to @dreadpir8robots, who has done a stellar job of organizing and transforming our wiki site.
In the coming days and weeks, we'll be adding additional people to the volunteer team for helping to reorganize the server infrastructure, provide ongoing infrastructure support, handle technical issues from the community, and so on.
I am taking some time off from work next week, and my focus will be filing paperwork to establish a non-profit to assume responsibility for the site, as I previously committed to do.
I'm very humbled by the community that's built up here so rapidly and I appreciate the patience you've shown as we scaled up fast and made mistakes along the way.
As people who have been here for a while understand, the fediverse is a much larger community than just infosec.exchange. While I have been running infosec.exchange for over 5 years, when it became clear that Twitter was likely to implode, I wanted to provide a reliable landing spot for people looking for a new site to connect with others in the industry and beyond.
While I hope to be deeply involved in infosec.exchange for at least another 5 years, it's important to understand that it's ok, and expected, that people who came in through the infosec.exchange front door to diffuse into the larger fediverse. I don't have revenue targets or account growth KPIs for infosec.exchange. There are no investors or advertisers to please. The only thing I am measuring myself against is that I created something useful for all of you.
But this ain't Twitter, and many people have let me know that, so some of you will conclude this isn't the platform for you for $reason, and that's ok. It's not for everyone.
Speaking of that, I think it's obvious that infosec.exchange runs on open-source software called Mastodon. That software is always looking for help - both in the form of code contributions and also financial support (see https:.//joinmastodon.org for more info). I took some of the donations I've collected and used it to help support the Mastodon project.
I wish all of you peace and love.
Jerry
Here is the fabric off the loom. The brown portion in the center will be the bottom of the tote and the tweed-like pattern will be the background along the sides with the purple pattern forming a band around the center. It will be easier to visualize when it is sewn together. #weaving
I really like the green checkmark system in Mastodon, but when relying on them for trust it's important to keep in mind *what* you are trusting:
* The security of the remote site (hacked site could vouch for an attacker)
* The security of the Mastodon instance (same)
* The integrity of the Mastodon instance (a modified version could let the owner disable the remote check)
This is one reason why I like self-owned instances on the account owner's domain.
#security #trust #GreenCheckmark
I finished #weaving my tote! At the end I only had to weave a single color and the lack of shuttle changes let me settle into a nice steady rhythm.
I am intending to start posting my experiences and findings in first stabilizing, then scaling Infosec.exchange, along with where I see it going in the near/medium term.
I have quite a lot left to sort through and clean up. I should be at the point of circling back to the many (MANY!) people who kindly offered assistance.
Between work and home life and stamping out fires, I haven’t been able to spend the time yet to engage with those volunteers like I wanted. I did, however, manage to appoint an absolutely stellar moderation team. We have been going through a steep learning curve and appreciate your patience and grace as we get our legs under us. I expect we will need to expand that team, particularly to cover different times of day and languages other than English.
Also, I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the community. Three weeks ago, this website had 180 active users. As of this morning, there are 17,053. Very fortunately, I far overspec’d the server, but that was quickly overwhelmed as the site went through cuts cosmic inflationary period. I took some pretty aggressive but expensive steps to get things back to stable, and from a member perspective, that wasn’t the first experience I wanted people to have of mastodon or the fediverse. My intention, after I am able to sleep for a week, is to, with the help of some smart people I’ll be tapping, to consolidate and optimize (cost, performance, and scalability) the environment. In the mean time, Hetzner stock (if there is such a thing) might be a good investment.
It’s been quite interesting to watch the dynamics of the community. While we’ve grown nearly 100 fold in 2 weeks, I have been contacted by people letting me know they’re leaving because $X person is now on the instance, or that the timeline is too busy, or that there are too many 🐈 pics, and so on. For them, the small homey feel of the site was lost. I’ve been thinking about spinning up some parallel instances on the same infrastructure with moderated signups and possibly max numbers of active accounts.
The reason I started the DefSec podcast, I care about the security community deeply and that is why I set up this instance. I am not a celebrity or thought leader or a terribly important person in the scheme of things, and I am not doing this for fame, money, etc. I am fortunate enough to have a well paying job. I am doing this because I want us to be successful against the baddies. At the same time, members of the security community face many challenges like burn out, isolation, and it can be hard to find people who can relate to what we’re going through. My hope is that this place is helpful in some small way.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly for the community: my intention after I assess whether this is a flash in the pan, is to set up a non-profit foundation to oversee this instance. Assuming we don’t collapse back to 180 active accounts, I want this place to survive me. I want it to be trustworthy and transparent and reliable.
It’s been a busy two weeks. Thank you all for your patience and support. You are the best and I believe in you
I've now hit the halfway point in #weaving this fabric for a tote bag. When I get to this point I add a series of colored stripes. This does two things:
* Adds a little surprise when someone looks at the bottom of the tote
* (More importantly) Marks the center line for the fabric so I have reference points to mirror the measurements on the second half, and also assists me when sewing up the tote later.
I finished #weaving the center pattern for this side of the tote bag. It will run horizontally across the center of the tote and the brown toned pattern above and below will act like a background.
Technical author, FOSS advocate, public speaker, Linux security & infrastructure geek, author of The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course, Linux Hardening in Hostile Networks and many other books, ex-Linux Journal columnist.