Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Look, I’m not saying we’ll be able to keep the fediverse from going down the same path. Architecturally, it’s compatible. Mastodon and nearly every other fediverse app is built on a traditional Big Tech stack and inherits its success criteria (and scaling characteristics). But there is value is resisting for as long as we can. Because the fediverse is a stopgap and it would help those of us working on longer-term solutions to have it around for as long as possible.

https://ar.al/2022/11/09/is-the-fediverse-about-to-get-fryed-or-why-every-toot-is-also-a-potential-denial-of-service-attack/

I see a lot of discussion about the fear that corporations and VCs will take over the #fediverse.

The thing is, #Mastodon going mainstream will require a lot of capital and development of new products and innovations for this ecosystem.

And that is perfectly ok, as long as everyone connects to the protocol, and the protocol itself stays away from the hands of oligarchs.

If you prefer your local coop to host your account instead of Mozilla, Vivaldi or some other larger entity, that's great. But it's also totally fine that those bigger players are offering theirs, because it pulls in a lot of new members to this ecosystem.

The main corporate takeover attack vector to the Mastodon ecosystem will not be the servers, but the mobile app. It is possible that one VC-backed mobile app becomes the single winner with most Mastodon users accessing the ecosystem with that. The owner of such an app will wield a lot of power over all servers and service providers in the ecosystem.

Algorithmic feeds and fuzzy search are both inevitable mainstream features as the ecosystem grows. People need those to be able to use the platform effectively.

This is fine too, as long as there's no single algorithm dominating, and especially if the algorithms are built transparently with users being able to choose their own algorithm.

There are going to be many points of contention as the ecosystem grows, but for the sake of humanity, let's allow decentralization of social media to happen. Let's also allow VC-backed startups to flourish building services for all of us.

We have the momentum now, and it is a rare chance to take back the power from corporate overlords, and rebuild the social internet as an open platform for innovation!

Would you agree?

How cool is that! Just set up Uptime-kuma (a self-hosted Pingdom service - https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma) which I'll use to monitor all the web services I'm responsible for, and I've set up sending notifications to our Matrix server... only took a few minutes. This has been a niggle for ages, and looks like it's sorted, but for having to create configs for a whole lotta websites... luckily, it's quick and easy!

@markrendle @Radical_EgoCom Looks like it was an artist, but it's probably something he's gotten calls from real cities wanting to buy.

https://www.quietlunch.com/fabian-brunsing-spike-bench/

IT'S SANTIFA 2022! We're doing a livestream marathon from 9pm-1am EST this Friday, December 23rd to raise money for The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund.

Will there be special guests dropping in, including some of the people who've been helped by the Defence Fund in the past?

YES!

Will there be special prizes?

YES!

WILL ALL DONATIONS BE MATCHED BY A MYSTERIOUS BENEFACTOR, MEANING THAT ANY MONEY DONATED WILL MAGICALLY DOUBLE?
YES!

Turn off your streaming services, ignore your family, and join us Friday night! Hell, bring your family, too!

bit.ly/santifa2022

https://youtu.be/sMDGkhPkszc

I spent a good part of this year investigating Google's ad business. Today we published a story about trying to crack open its black box ad network.

Unlike its competitors, Google conceals nearly all publishers it works with and where billions of ad dollars flow. We found that Google's vast ad network contains manga piracy, porn, fraud and disinformation.

Give it a read: https://www.propublica.org/article/google-display-ads-piracy-porn-fraud

I am hiring a lead full-stack Web engineer to help build #OpenSource software to fight #ClimateChange.

If you've shipped 1-2 Web projects and been the tech lead for 1 software project: we need your help.

Please boost for reach! #fedihire

https://www.womenwhocode.com/jobs/14733

There is another option here between "live on a big instance that might get sold/shut down/whatever" and "run your own instance at your own cost and labor."

Social.coop is cooperatively funded and managed. Members of our server get a say in how it's run!

https://mastodon.social/@atomicpoet/109550897582887370

As you may recall:

• The W3C is in part hosted by MIT but MIT intends to withdraw on Dec 31.
• A new W3C nonprofit needs to take over on Jan 1.
• MIT needs to transfer assets (member dues, contracts, IP…) to the new W3C for it to operate.
• I was elected to the W3C Board and am part of the negotiations.

We're two weeks away from cutover and the negotiations are going… poorly. 🧵

This is absolutely insane. A mom was prevented from taking her daughter to a Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall because she works for a law firm litigating against the venue's parent company. They spotted her with facial recognition technology according to this report: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/face-recognition-tech-gets-girl-scout-mom-booted-from-rockettes-show-due-to-her-employer/4004677/

Digital Ocean, provider of some of the most helpful tech tutorials around, just published one for how to set up #mastodon !

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-mastodon-on-ubuntu-20-04

I wish this had existed before I stood up my own instance, but now it'll help others.

Protect developer freedom. Abolish software patents. Learn why software patents are unjust by checking out the new design of our #endsoftwarepatents initiative. https://u.fsf.org/3f-

Don Quixote is hundreds of years old, but the story of a man who becomes so immersed in media that he can no longer distiguish fantasy from reality, and is aided by people who indulge the fantasy while saving him from himself, seems so very modern.

Looking to up your systems-change game? Consider joining @synergia's upcoming online course on "Transition in a Perilous Century." These are top-notch guides to the cooperative commonwealth we need: https://synergiainstitute.org/mooc-overview/

Had this on in the background as I was upgrading systems just now: https://invidious.snoypta.org/watch?v=5mD3Iai4Adg Thought: the same way folks in the US always (reflexively) say "thank you for your service" when they find out someone served in the US military, we (globally) need to say "thank you for your ideals and service" to those who put themselves on the line as climate activists. We need all of us to be them. And yeah, we need to sack corrupt politicians. #scientistrebellion #extinctionrebellion #genuineemergency

"The June paper said cloud technologies mitigated many of the risks, but exponentially increased the number of software applications schools were using and created other problems.

'The increasing use of data-driven learning insights and adaptive learning applications is vastly increasing the amount of student data being held in such systems, and many hold data offshore, not necessarily subject to NZ jurisdictional protections'."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/481106/new-zealand-made-software-putting-schools-at-risk-of-cyber-attack

#Aotearoa #NZ #schools #SMS #security

The new ~$850 billion defense budget would direct billions of taxpayer dollars to private contractors.

Let's call this what it is: a massive redistribution of wealth to the military-industrial complex.

This is while nearly two-third of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck.