Fediverse is going mainstream. To many people’s delight and to some people’s worry. Where is fedi going? For developers in general these are good times. Countless projects are announced and the ecosystem is booming. The more the merrier, and what a fun time to be part of it, right? However, for free software developers and those valuing the open standards, technology that is open and for everyone, there should be worry too. Half Silicon Valley “move fast and break things” types, and literal bi...
  • wiki_me
    4·
    2 years ago

    I think what the fediverse need is a organisation for standardization with a good governance model, something like the C++ foundation or the XMPP/Matrix.org Foundation , I don’t know if something like that exists. Maybe also make a trademark and enforce it using a test suite like in the RISC-V foundation or Java.

    • smallcirclesOPM
      3·
      2 years ago

      SocialHub has an association with the W3C Social Web Incubator Community Group (SWICG). The SWICG is a continuation of the Working Group that standardized ActivityPub as a W3C Recommendation. So technically this organization exists.

      In practice it is really hard to organize in an all-volunteer grassroots movement, and many people for various reasons don’t like to participate in such organization. “Herding cats” is a term that is used. Being grassroots has pros (resilience) and cons (stalled evolution). Personally I have come to think that decentralized development of the Fediverse probably works best when it is split into different domains (e.g. Microblogging, Podcasting, etc.) as long as there’s also a community working on the core common denominator in the protocol. That is currently the SocialHub and Fediverse Enhancement Proposal process.

      • wiki_me
        1·
        2 years ago

        I would not call that an organisation, i am talking about something that can get donations and spent it, for example the C++ foundation has a person working full time (Herb sutter), that works on a new syntax , their website is also pretty nice and has various resources.

        • smallcirclesOPM
          1·
          2 years ago

          Technically it is an organization, but I agree with you that that would be nice to have. The tricky part is getting this “good governance model” such that it still fits the grassroots culture and dynamics and won’t result is something perceived as too authoritative and where particular experts have too dominant voices (though in some cases that works, in most it eventually does not). The tricky bit is also in finding people willing to do all the prep work and chores to arrange all that.

          • wiki_me
            1·
            2 years ago

            The tricky part is getting this “good governance model” such that it still fits the grassroots culture and dynamics and won’t result is something perceived as too authoritative and where particular experts have too dominant voices (though in some cases that works, in most it eventually does not)

            I don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel here, you can copy the bylaws of a project like KDE or GNOME, there are also projects that point to various governance models like this and this

            • smallcirclesOPM
              1·
              2 years ago

              I agree. There is a lot of information out there from which we can take. But with the particular “grassroots culture and dynamics” I was referring to something that (a quick browsing through) the resources you provided do not address. It has to do with the organic nature, an archarchist and post-(hyper)capitalism streak on the Fediverse (though The Muskening brought change to the culture), and a general weakness I perceive in the FOSS movement as a whole. I am sorry, but I don’t have time to explain now… my notes on some major challenges for Fediverse hold clues for this. They are all social in nature and factors that influence this governance. FOSS Foundations as mentioned may work to an extent, esp. when having paid staff in place to do the chores, but they aren’t good solutions and most ultimately become flawed.

              • wiki_me
                1·
                2 years ago

                I agree. There is a lot of information out there from which we can take. But with the particular “grassroots culture and dynamics” I was referring to something that (a quick browsing through) the resources you provided do not address.

                I think lowering the threshold for becoming a member , and therefore gaining power that allows you to influence the organisation by voting on decisions and the people in the board of directors (elected leaders) is the best option, iirc codeberg has a “everybody can be a member as long the they contribute some money”, a more famous example is American Association for the Advancement of Science, unions and cooperatives and cooperative banks (another example is vanguard) also work in a similar way.

                an archarchist and post-(hyper)capitalism streak on the Fediverse (though The Muskening brought change to the culture), and a general weakness I perceive in the FOSS movement as a whole.

                You could come up with reasonable arguments against any system of governance i think, like Winston Churchill said: “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.”