Standardizing on a common Community domain as AP extension?
socialhub.activitypub.rocks
ActivityStreams has defined and standardized a set of Social concepts, that has given rise to the Microblogging-oriented Fediverse we have today. It worked great to integrate diverse microblogging apps, model lightweight discussion threads, give Likes and Boosts, etc. It does not work so great when squeezing all kinds of entirely different apps into this business domain to facilitate interoperability. Threat: Stretching the applicability of currently available Social concepts too much results ...

Starting with the posted link and in more recent discussions of Standardising on ActivityPub Groups I have been advocating for some time to make “Community” a native concept of the Fediverse. Something that better represents communities in the real world: groups and individuals with intricate social relationships between them.

Why?

The following toot by @cicatriz_jdr provides one reason:

Nerdy man in shirt with beer in hand on a party explains the Fediverse to a woman.

“”… and these ‘instances’ are all on separate servers, so it’s totally decentralized. but posts on one instance ‘federate’ with other instances, except when they don’t, which basically half the time. now here’s where it gets tricky…“”

And the follow-up by @throwawaygiraffoid is more hilarious even:

“THERAPIST: And those ““instances”” are they ““federating”” with us right now?”

With a community-native fedi you can avoid talking on the INFRASTRUCTURE level…

Fediverse: Peopleverse!

“Yes, the Fediverse is an online world-wide social space where there are numerous communities where you can meet people. They all have different themes and activities and you just join where lies your interest. Or create your own community for your friends and family on whatever has your passion.”
  • bashrc
    3·
    3 years ago

    I think we should still talk about infrastructure and the physical instantiation of the internet. People are usually encouraged not to think about the internet as a physical thing run by people at particular locations. Especially they’re encouraged not to think about the costs or time involved in running the physical infrastructure. The idea that it’s just some immaterial meta magic is one that needs to be dispelled.

    • smallcirclesOPM
      1·
      3 years ago

      Yes, I agree with that. And after a good intro the conversation can be steered to that, if its to an audience that understands. For tech noobs you can always say “This thing is much better than your social media ad platforms, but it is fragile still and needs your support. Here’s how you can help [… donate, spread the word, etc]”.