Dan Hon

1/ Reposting because people seem to be asking about it:

My proposal for news media and other organizations to stand up their own Mastodon instances, allowing de facto verified accounts (e.g. [email protected]) due to trusting the parent domain:

"A Proposal for News Organization Mastodon Servers and More"

https://newsletter.danhon.com/subscribers/013b67c8-285d-4bce-9491-33e3bf844327/archive/s13e17-a-proposal-for-news-organization-mastodon

#mastodon #news #newstech #media #verification #institutions #authentication

s13e17: A Proposal for News Organization Mastodon Servers and More

s13e17: A Proposal for News Organization Mastodon Servers and More 0.0 Context Setting It’s Friday, October 28, 2022 in Portland, Oregon and it is a grey,...

Nov 2, 2022 at 2:57pmWeb
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022

2/ Further thoughts on Mastodon, following my proposal for news organizations (and others) to stand up official institutional Mastodon instances:

* Existing official government instances (and thus accounts)

* Choosing instances is like choosing a town, affinity groups and also social norms/moderation choices

* Discovery and the What Instance Should I Be On problem?

Mastodon, or What Happens When Your Software Has Opinions And Now You Have Choices

https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s13e18-mastodon-or-what-happens-when-your/

s13e18: Mastodon, or What Happens When Your Software Has Opinions And Now You Have Choices

s13e18: Mastodon, or What Happens When Your Software Has Opinions And Now You Have Choices 0.0 Context Setting I started this on 31 October, 2022 in...

Show threadAndreas StreimNov 2, 2022
@Danhon Interesting read, thank you. I just wonder: people in media would then have more then one account - one at their news organization and one private. Right? So we need more applications which can handle multiple mastodon accounts.
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@as pretty much most apps/clients support multiple accounts, just not especially well - it's modal.
Show threadAndreas StreimNov 2, 2022
@Danhon Thank you for the hint - I just found out that Tusky can add more accounts. Stupid me.
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@as Heh, the UI/UX and onboarding for Mastodon clients is still a bit raw :)
Show threadJared 🇦🇺🏳️‍🌈⚧️👽Nov 3, 2022
@Danhon thank you for the anology.. I keep calling #fediverse the #collective of #villages.
Show threadTerence EdenNov 2, 2022
@Danhon I've written a response to your proposal - https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/04/how-id-redesign-twitter-and-why-it-wont-work/
Had to travel back in time to do so, hope that's ok :-)
How I'd redesign Twitter (and why it won't work)

Terence Eden’s Blog
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@Edent Ha! You're right, none of this is new, and that's part of what's super frustrating about this whole situation!
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@Edent But absolutely yes, laziness wins. Always.
Show threadTerence EdenNov 2, 2022
@Danhon I think that I'd like to run my own Mastodon server just for me. But I also know that I'd never find the time to do so.
Similarly, no business runs their own email server any more - it's all GMail or O365.
There's a right way and an easy way - and never the twain shall meet.
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@Edent Oh, what I haven't covered yet is that what you're talking about Wordpress hosting is already happening. *I'm* not going to run/admin my own Mastodon server, but there are at least two outfits to whom I can pay from 10 EUR/USD/mo to run one for me on my domain.
Show threadAdrian McEwenNov 2, 2022

@Danhon @Edent If we're cosplaying the Yorkshiremen sketch, I'm old enough to remember when you couldn't SMS someone who wasn't on the same network as you, and it was shit. 😉

Each sub-culture can at least nudge the mainstream's culture as it's absorbed, so we can use this opportunity for a nudge towards federation.

I expect my company will use https://masto.host for its instance; the uptick in activity here of late is getting me over the line on longstanding plans https://mastodon.me.uk/@arthrowl/106471032007412087

Masto.host - Fully Managed Mastodon Hosting

Masto.host was built from the ground up to make running a Mastodon instance easy.

Masto.host
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@amcewen @Edent Hey, I am also old enough to remember having a BT Cellnet mobile phone that could only send texts to other BT Cellnet phones! And then later, paying extra for inter-network SMS!
Show threadAdrian McEwenNov 2, 2022

@Danhon @Edent I thought it might be rude to *say* that we were all old enough for that, but...

At least you and I would've been able to text each other back in the day, it seems 😆

Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022

@amcewen @Edent

My friends: *all open a NatWest student bank account for the free Railcard*

Me: *Opens a Barclays student bank account because you get a free mobile phone in 1998*

Show threadAlanNov 2, 2022
@Edent @Danhon you can outsource your hosting, and you are the customer - the gmail concept, pay 12 a month for your email domain to work and be their problem. With twitter you are not the customer, you are the product.
Show threadSuswati Basu (巴苏) Nov 2, 2022
@Danhon that would be helpful as a fellow journalist!
Show threadRuth StarkmanNov 2, 2022
@Danhon
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@RuthStarkman ... hi? :)
Show threadZach EversonNov 2, 2022

@Danhon What if organizations had a dedicated page on their websites where they listed all staffers' Mastodon accounts, enabling link verification for employees?

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/profile/

Setting up your profile - Mastodon documentation

Get started with your new account.

Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022
@z_everson link rel=me is a useful although slightly separate thing. I'd argue that having an account tied to a well-known, trusted domain name is in addition to/alongside link verification.
Show threadPeter MountNov 2, 2022

@Danhon One example of this if you've not seen it is that the European Union are on the fediverse:

https://social.network.europa.eu/about

So some governmental agencies do get the concept

EU Voice

EU Voice is the official ActivityPub platform of the EU institutions. With EU Video, it is part of an alternative social media pilot proposed and provided by the European Data Protection Supervisor.

Mastodon hosted on social.network.europa.eu
Show threadDan HonNov 2, 2022

@peter Yep, I cover that in the follow-up episode!

https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s13e18-mastodon-or-what-happens-when-your/

s13e18: Mastodon, or What Happens When Your Software Has Opinions And Now You Have Choices

s13e18: Mastodon, or What Happens When Your Software Has Opinions And Now You Have Choices 0.0 Context Setting I started this on 31 October, 2022 in...

Show threadTeleuteNov 3, 2022
@Danhon here's the first news org I've seen doing it, or at least with an instance: https://restof.social/@restofworld
Rest of World (@[email protected])

437 Posts, 25 Following, 5.75K Followers · We’re a global nonprofit publication that champions on-the-ground reporting of tech stories in places far beyond Silicon Valley.

Rest of World
Show threadJason JonesNov 4, 2022

@Danhon I've had similar thoughts on this lately. I'm wondering how long will take for some advertising/social marketing firm to setup a "safe" instance that companies could use for a fee.

They could control the connections and moderation tighter to keep clients from being embarrassed by negative comments or inappropriate behavior as happens a bit too often on some of the other big social media platforms.

The rebellious lefty in me kind of sees this as a bad thing but the business worker bee side sees it as a pretty good solution. So the rest of me thinks it would probably end up to be a pretty good compromise.

People criticizing companies can still use hashtags to call attention to issues but the companies also don't have to worry about that in "their" feeds.

Show threadKimsiaNov 4, 2022

@Danhon I like this idea, Dan

Really makes me think. I wonder if enough org will actually do this