micahNov 20, 2022
Boris Mann

What is #cosocialca? Federated social communications for #Canada, structured as a #coop

In the word’s of original catalyst @evan —

I think my hope is that we have a legal entity, the co-op, that runs one or more servers for its members.

One server is pan-Canadian http://cosocial.ca with more specific geographic ones available as we launch them (kitsilano.example, winnipeg.example, newfoundland.example).

We want local communities, but membership is in the whole org

#nomoa

Welcome to CoSocial.ca

This is the future home of CoSocial.ca, an all-Canadian Mastodon cooperative. We will be online by late November 2022 so that you can have your own Canadian home on Mastodon—and help build this community together. We are inclusive and committed to building a diverse founding coalition that will jointly create the community vision, guidelines and moderation policies. If you want to be part of that process—or get notified when the instance is online, and ready for signups—please fill in this form. For more about this effort (including the experienced team of Mastodon admins & coop members who are helping it get off the ground) please follow the #CoSocialCa tag on Mastodon.

Google Docs
Nov 20, 2022 at 1:22amWeb
Show threadBoris MannNov 20, 2022

To me, this means support for members, admins & moderators across technical, legal, and financial realms.

Right now the call is for a diverse set of people to get involved with co-creating & leading #CoSocialCa, so you’ll see me and others boosting the hashtag.

Fill out the form http://cosocial.ca or DM me for more info.

#nomoa

Welcome to CoSocial.ca

This is the future home of CoSocial.ca, an all-Canadian Mastodon cooperative. We will be online by late November 2022 so that you can have your own Canadian home on Mastodon—and help build this community together. We are inclusive and committed to building a diverse founding coalition that will jointly create the community vision, guidelines and moderation policies. If you want to be part of that process—or get notified when the instance is online, and ready for signups—please fill in this form. For more about this effort (including the experienced team of Mastodon admins & coop members who are helping it get off the ground) please follow the #CoSocialCa tag on Mastodon.

Google Docs
Show threadStephen HuiNov 20, 2022
@bmann Love that y’all putting this together.
Show threadStephen HuiNov 20, 2022
@bmann I think I’m too stretched (not that you all aren’t too) to do more than join, support, and help spread the word.
Show threadsmithisgenericNov 20, 2022
@bmann it might be worth reaching out to the multiple Civic Tech communities in Canada. E.g., http://civictech.ca/ and https://ottawacivictech.ca/ and more
Civic Tech Toronto

Show threadStephen HuiNov 20, 2022
@bmann @evan 👍 on the one co-op, many local communities.
Show threadBoris MannNov 20, 2022
@stephenhui @evan would you want to get involved Stephen?
Show threadSteve has ☕️ for brainsNov 20, 2022

@bmann @evan I think the coop idea is so interesting, and puts a legal wrapper around a social good, and that's going to be so important esp. in the light of DMCA/CEI/etc issues

https://twitter.com/rahaeli/status/1593819064161665024?s=20&t=JvaRjCY_fTvmuO4v8mRz2A

rahaeli on Twitter

“Hey, US folks newly running Mastodon instances: do Future You a *huge* favor, mitigate your potential liability, and register with the copyright office and designate an agent to receive DMCA reports *right now*. https://t.co/HTPtaCYGBh”

Twitter
Show threadEvan ProdromouNov 20, 2022

@sivy @bmann

I agree! My experience is that having one person physically, financially, legally and emotionally responsible for the service is really hard. Burnout is high.

I hold in my heart every Mastodon admin doing the hard work right now.

And having a sort of mushy idea of community participation without any formal structure is also frustrating for both the admin and people on the service.

Coop structure is way clearer. Members have votes. Ownership is by an incorporated legal entity.