Into the Woods We Go
Into the Woods We Go
How to help your community explore the fediverse with you
By co-op member Danyl Strype.
Social media is only as useful as it is social. It doesn’t matter how good the network or the apps are if the people you want to connect with aren’t there.
So if you want to move from a DataFarming platform to a new kind of social media, like the fediverse, it’s going to be more useful to you - and potentially to others - if you bring your community with you. In other words, rather than thinking about the ‘verse as another “platform”, competing with the DataFarms for atomised “users”, we need to reframe it as as a special case of community organising.
So what does that look like in practice?
Back in 2020, a series of posts on the website of video activist network EngageMedia explored some of the problems with social media DataFarms, and the prospects of replacing FarceBook with fediverse technologies. The third piece in the series talked about some of the transition challenges involved, and one commenter asked:
"... just how does one switch from Facebook to Fediverse – anyway?"
This is a good question. Firstly, it’s important to temper expectations. The fediverse is a pioneering social network full of overlapping communities, many of which are fun and insightful to talk with. But it's also an ongoing experiment in social web technology, and none of the available software offers the full range of features that FarceBook currently does.
What I suggest is that you make joining the fediverse a collective project. Get together with a bunch of friends, or people from your community, and make a plan. What are some questions you might ask if you were going tramping for a few days in the forest?
Where are you walking to? Clarify what you want to get out of using social media together.
Have you got a checklist of what gear you all need to get through your planned tramp safely? Make a list of the minimum features you need for the way you want to use social media.
Do you have a topographic map and a compass? Have you read about the route you plan to walk? Have you checked the weather forecast for the area? Do some reading about the different fediverse software available, and the people hosting servers that use them, and which combination of these could provide the features you need.
Has everyone helped to check each others' tramping and camping gear against the checklist? Divide up the resulting shortlist of software between your group, so everyone can focus on thoroughly testing one or two of them.
Off you go into the forest, together, and well prepared! Come together to share your testing experiences and decide what software you're going to use together, and what for.
At this point, what you might discover is that the fediverse (and maybe other decentralised networks like matrix) can serve some of your needs, but not others. That's OK. Use the ethical replacements as much as you can, and use the DataFarming platforms only for things you can't find a good replacement for yet. Share detailed information about the needs that aren't being met by the ethical replacements, so that developers can try to meet them with future versions of their software, or new software projects.
Now, all of this presumes a group of people who you can get together, to talk all this over. But for many people, social media platforms have created new, more diffuse styles of community, whose only shared way of communicating is on that platform. So for someone whose community crystalised on Titter, here’s a few ideas on how you might encourage more of them to join you in the ‘verse.
Actively shoulder-tap people. Tell them how their posts help you meet your needs, and that you'd love to follow them in a network that can be owned and controlled by the people using it, not by a single corporation.
Write a brief guide to making the transition. Targeted at the specific needs and interests of people who make up the slice of Titter you want to recreate in the ‘verse. Share it widely with them, on Titter, and through other channels where they can be found.
Talk about the verse at meetups, conferences, and other in-person events where people from your community gather. Explain what makes it fundamentally different from Titter and other DataFarms, or centralised replacements like CoHost or Minds. Offer to help people make the switch.
Write articles for magazines, journals, and other media popular in your discipline, doing the above.
Give detailed feedback to developers about how the software could meet the needs of your people.
The details will vary, but the same principles apply to encouraging people you enjoy interacting with on Reddit and other DataFarming platforms to make the move.
So far, the fediverse movement has mostly relied on the idea that 'if you build it they will come'. We haven't had the resources to do much more. But growing the ‘verse from a network of experimenters into the mainstream public utility it has the potential to be, requires organising. Lots of it.
I truly believe that in the medium-to-long term, we can replace all corporate platforms with community-developed Free Code software, community-hosting of servers, and distributed ("P2P") networks. But the only way we're going to get there, is together.
Edit: Here’s a good example, a video intro to the fediverse by Michelle May (https://makertube.net/w/tGjYr2Mm56V7bU4d9ua38z), aimed at fibre crafters (people into sewing, knitting etc). In about 15 minutes, Michelle explains the general concepts, how it contrasts with the DataFarms, why a person may or may not want to join, and how to do so. All using simple language, good humour, and a non-judgemental attitude.
Image:
"Spotswood College Tramping Club, Tahurangi Hut, Taranaki, New Zealand, 1969", licensed CC BY 2.0.