Good morning!
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If you want to see the schedule for today, check this out, about halfway down.
FediMTL - Digital Sovereignty Conference
A Canadian conference on digital sovereignty and the social web - February 24, 2026
FediMTL (fedimtl.ca)
Cory's visuals are a real treat. Loving it.
We must start moving away from enshittified social networks now. Let's hack out emergency exits from those networks to open social alternatives.
Meaning, ways to make some interoperability (bridging) to ease the transition.
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Cory's visuals are a real treat. Loving it.
We must start moving away from enshittified social networks now. Let's hack out emergency exits from those networks to open social alternatives.
Meaning, ways to make some interoperability (bridging) to ease the transition.
Interesting ideas. Instead of asking users to move over completely, leaving behind friends and family, we should creep into existing platform's timelines.
Create plugins that show open social content INSIDE the
platforms. Attempts have hit barriers, of course, from those platforms trying to control their content. This existed at one time with an app called OG App.https://www.digitaltrends.com/phones/the-og-app-instagram-alternative-ad-free/
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Interesting ideas. Instead of asking users to move over completely, leaving behind friends and family, we should creep into existing platform's timelines.
Create plugins that show open social content INSIDE the
platforms. Attempts have hit barriers, of course, from those platforms trying to control their content. This existed at one time with an app called OG App.https://www.digitaltrends.com/phones/the-og-app-instagram-alternative-ad-free/
Cory's not holding back. Talking about creating de-shittifying apps in Canada. Making better technology.
Even if (and most likely will) Trump and American socials get mad and ban these apps in U.S. app stores, Americans will figure out how to get them anyway.
True!
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Cory's not holding back. Talking about creating de-shittifying apps in Canada. Making better technology.
Even if (and most likely will) Trump and American socials get mad and ban these apps in U.S. app stores, Americans will figure out how to get them anyway.
True!
This is not the first time I've heard about the idea of tech unions popping up. It's a good idea, especially with AI creeping into every crevice.
The Actor's Guid (SAG) was fairly early in this fight against AI, perhaps we should look to them for ideas.
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This is not the first time I've heard about the idea of tech unions popping up. It's a good idea, especially with AI creeping into every crevice.
The Actor's Guid (SAG) was fairly early in this fight against AI, perhaps we should look to them for ideas.
Just another visual treat for you from Cory's slides.
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Just another visual treat for you from Cory's slides.
Hmm thinking about this option to alter user's experiences with Facebook and Instagram. I mean, official apps are going to be difficult if not impossible without alternate app stores.
But...with the advent of things like the Arc browser, could developers create experiences on Facebook that exclude ads, extreme reaction content, and move open social content into their timeline as well?
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Hmm thinking about this option to alter user's experiences with Facebook and Instagram. I mean, official apps are going to be difficult if not impossible without alternate app stores.
But...with the advent of things like the Arc browser, could developers create experiences on Facebook that exclude ads, extreme reaction content, and move open social content into their timeline as well?
Next up, @cwebber discusses the @spritely and the challenges of moving the fediverse forward. And, what it's doing RIGHT today.
(From Jeff: Yes, y'all there are plenty of positive things to discuss about Fedi too, try it someday.)
She is delightful to listen to, and truly excited about her work, I love listening even tho much of it goes over my head.
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Next up, @cwebber discusses the @spritely and the challenges of moving the fediverse forward. And, what it's doing RIGHT today.
(From Jeff: Yes, y'all there are plenty of positive things to discuss about Fedi too, try it someday.)
She is delightful to listen to, and truly excited about her work, I love listening even tho much of it goes over my head.
@cwebber discusses account portability (it's possible in the fediverse, some examples in the wild) and digital surveillance (age verification).
Digital surveillance is easy to implement in centralized systems with little pushback from end users. When we own our social timeline, we have more freedom to choose what's best for us, and highlights that choice is possible. A scary thought for big social.
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@cwebber discusses account portability (it's possible in the fediverse, some examples in the wild) and digital surveillance (age verification).
Digital surveillance is easy to implement in centralized systems with little pushback from end users. When we own our social timeline, we have more freedom to choose what's best for us, and highlights that choice is possible. A scary thought for big social.
Check out Spritely, where they are experimenting with all kinds of new possibilities with ActivityPub and beyond.
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Check out Spritely, where they are experimenting with all kinds of new possibilities with ActivityPub and beyond.
Age verification may seem like a small deal, but it's a crack in our personal privacy shield, "just this one small thing" balloons into other demands, like verification by driver's license, having your real identity labelled on every post, etc.
(I am trying to consolidate Christine's comments into 500 chars or less...please view the session in total when you can - very worthwhile discussion)
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Age verification may seem like a small deal, but it's a crack in our personal privacy shield, "just this one small thing" balloons into other demands, like verification by driver's license, having your real identity labelled on every post, etc.
(I am trying to consolidate Christine's comments into 500 chars or less...please view the session in total when you can - very worthwhile discussion)
Fifteen minute break! Up next, @julian discusses Forums in the Fediverse.
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Fifteen minute break! Up next, @julian discusses Forums in the Fediverse.
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"There's too much uniformity in spaces today" - Let's bring back personal expression to profiles, MySpace, GeoCities, etc. for everyone.
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"There's too much uniformity in spaces today" - Let's bring back personal expression to profiles, MySpace, GeoCities, etc. for everyone.
Sites long ago were more specific - communities for people that like anime or a specific tv show or carrots, whatever. Forums can provide that experience again, especially federated ones.
Right now, our communities are bland and uniform - Facebook Groups, Instagram, etc. - very little room for personal expression or customization.
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Sites long ago were more specific - communities for people that like anime or a specific tv show or carrots, whatever. Forums can provide that experience again, especially federated ones.
Right now, our communities are bland and uniform - Facebook Groups, Instagram, etc. - very little room for personal expression or customization.
NodeBB distributing content into the fediverse, leveraging the existing structure that exists - microblogging.
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Sites long ago were more specific - communities for people that like anime or a specific tv show or carrots, whatever. Forums can provide that experience again, especially federated ones.
Right now, our communities are bland and uniform - Facebook Groups, Instagram, etc. - very little room for personal expression or customization.
@box464 Specialization wasnโt aesthetic. It was infrastructural. Smaller forums worked because friction selected for intent, and intent stabilized norms. Large platforms optimize for scale, not texture. Uniformity isnโt accidental, itโs how you make moderation, advertising, and behavioral prediction tractable. The question isnโt customization. Itโs who controls the rails and the data exhaust.
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NodeBB distributing content into the fediverse, leveraging the existing structure that exists - microblogging.
Learning some of the secret backend sauce of NodeBB. It uses a relay - FediBuzz - to pull content from specific hashtags into its federated forums.
I knew that when I tagged #ActivityPub it ended up showing in activitypub.space, now I know how!
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Learning some of the secret backend sauce of NodeBB. It uses a relay - FediBuzz - to pull content from specific hashtags into its federated forums.
I knew that when I tagged #ActivityPub it ended up showing in activitypub.space, now I know how!
There are some limitations here - these hashtags aren't always the best, you must choose carefully to reduce Signal to Noise ratio. Lots of people use the Fediverse tag and much is not related to the development of ActivityPub.
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There are some limitations here - these hashtags aren't always the best, you must choose carefully to reduce Signal to Noise ratio. Lots of people use the Fediverse tag and much is not related to the development of ActivityPub.
Ownership and wide reach - you can have both with the Open Social web. Cross posting is the default today, repackaging your message to fit the requirements of the platform itself. It doesn't have to be.
