Jeff JarvisFeb 21, 2023
Nature letter by @brembs et al:
"There is now a golden opportunity for every scholarly society to implement a Mastodon instance for anyone interested in their field. If the academic community can create a public resource protected from private interests, it could become a model for bringing the remaining scholarly record — encompassing text, data and code — into the Fediverse."
Paper:
https://zenodo.org/record/7652771#.Y_S6OOzMKhc
Article:
https://www-nature-com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/articles/d41586-023-00486-3
h/t @fediversereport
Mastodon over Mammon - Towards publicly owned scholarly knowledge

Twitter is in turmoil and the scholarly community on the platform is once again starting to migrate. As with the early internet, scholarly organizations are at the forefront of developing and implementing a decentralized alternative to Twitter, Mastodon. Both historically and conceptually, this is not a new situation for the scholarly community. Historically, scholars were forced to leave social media platform FriendFeed after it was bought by Facebook in 2006. Conceptually, the problems associated with public scholarly discourse subjected to the whims of corporate owners are not unlike those of scholarly journals owned by monopolistic corporations: in both cases the perils associated with a public good in private hands are palpable. For both short form (Twitter/Mastodon) and longer form (journals) scholarly discourse, decentralized solutions exist, some of which are already enjoying some institutional support. Here we argue that scholarly organizations, in particular learned societies, are now facing a golden opportunity to rethink their hesitations towards such alternatives and support the migration of the scholarly community from Twitter to Mastodon by hosting Mastodon instances. Demonstrating that the scholarly community is capable of creating a truly public square for scholarly discourse, impervious to private takeover, might renew confidence and inspire the community to focus on analogous solutions for the remaining scholarly record – encompassing text, data and code – to safeguard all publicly owned scholarly knowledge.

Zenodo
Show threadShoqFeb 21, 2023
@jeffjarvis @fediversereport Each article like this moves the ball a bit more downfield. I just wish they would stop saying "Mastodon instance" when they should be saying "Fediverse instance." It has a real consequence, because it makes it harder for alternate platforms to gain traction and grow, which puts downward pressure on the healthy competition between them. And that always slows the pace of innovation. And we still need a lot of that.
Show threadDave Winer ☕️Feb 21, 2023

@shoq @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

We’ve been here before with RSS where Google Reader came to dominate.

Needless to say it was in the end a very bad result for RSS as a basis for interop.

Show threadShoqFeb 21, 2023

@davew @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

Excellent example, Dave. It must still sting. How can we make fedizens understand just how likely that outcome is if we don't pay more attention this time?

Show threadDave Winer ☕️Feb 21, 2023

@shoq @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

we're still trying to get over the mess that google left behind, and mastodon is actually helping, but having title-less feeds (something that google reader abhor'd even though it's legal in RSS).

i don't know what to say about activitypub. i don't think you can change anything about the way "fedizens" view things. i think that it's Mastodon they're using is already baked-in.

Show threadShoqFeb 21, 2023

@davew @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

Well, you're probably right, but I really hate thinking anything this new is locked into a given path. Especially since the commercial sharks are still swimming around looking for a nice red place to feed, but haven't yet gotten their teeth into it yet. (But not for lack of interest).

Show threadDave Winer ☕️Feb 21, 2023

@shoq @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

you're right about the sharks, and get ready for more frustration -- because when a shark comes along with a more reliable or in some measurable way better version of mastodon, a lot of users are going to jump. even just because they like the comfort of a big trusted brand name, no matter how unwise it is to trust that company.

what to do about it? i'll start another message in reply...

Show threadDave Winer ☕️Feb 21, 2023

@shoq @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

here's my prescription. off on the side, come up with a very simple format/protocol that accomplishes what AP does. not the whole thing, just a nice subset.

then create a simple open source product, easy to deploy, and easy to use, and attractive in some way and hope it gets traction with some users. enough to attract independent developers to try to create their own stake in that fediverse.

in other words start fresh and fix the core problem with AP.

Show threadAswath RaoFeb 21, 2023

@davew where can I read on your thoughts on the core prob w AP. TIA

@shoq @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

Show threadDave Winer ☕️Feb 21, 2023

@aswath @shoq @jeffjarvis @fediversereport

not sure what you mean. i've always found the docs for it to be impenetrable, scattered all over creation, with apparently big pieces missing that the masto people have had to invent.

so that's what i see in activitypub. a long way to go before i can implement. and the clock is ticking. every day mastodon becomes more famous and maybe activitypub becomes like "dolby" something good but 99.999% of the people have no clue what it is.

hope that helps.

Show threadShoq

@davew @aswath @jeffjarvis @fediversereport
You're validating many of my fears. That any venture with a regressive idea, but the cash to sell it, can keep buying off network influencers in order to make it the network du jour and a Wall Street product.

Look how easily Spoutible got a few hundred thousand sign-ups for an $89 PHP template "it looks like Twitter!" just from a few influencers. The next well-capitalized app or protocol team knows where and how to start. This way be dragons.

Feb 21, 2023 at 6:47pmWeb