Connected PlacesJul 12, 2023

The Dutch government has officially launched their own Mastodon server, State Secretary of Digitalisation @avhuffelen announced today! The server lives on the official domain of the Dutch government, at social.overheid.nl.

The Secretary mentions in her announcement a letter to the government explaining her support for 'value-driven alternative social networks', such as Mastodon. For more information on that, check out
https://fediversereport.com/dutch-government-officially-launches-mastodon-server/

Dutch government officially launches Mastodon server

The Dutch government has officially launched their own Mastodon server. In an accompanying letter, the State Secretary explains how this relates to the government strategy of supporting digital common goods.

fediversereport.com
Show threadBrendan Jones
@fediversereport @avhuffelen
Love it:
“[…] the fire department send out an emergency text warning to people, urging them to check Twitter for the latest updates. However, this coincided with Twitter preventing people who do not have accounts from viewing tweets, resulting in people not being able to see emergency service updates. The House filed a motion in response, stating that emergency situations, the government should make sure that information is publicly accessible.
Jul 12, 2023 at 2:30pmWeb
Show threadmarcoroboticsJul 12, 2023
@Brendanjones @fediversereport @avhuffelen that's just the plain lack of understanding on how the internet works. "see my updates on twitter" really means "twitter decides what to show you, it might play nice and show you my update, but it doesn't have to"
Show threadBrendan JonesJul 12, 2023
@marcorobotics @fediversereport @avhuffelen I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. They decided that information needed to be publicly accessible for exactly the reason you say - government messages shouldn’t be reliant on private companies playing nice.
Show threadmarcoroboticsJul 12, 2023
@Brendanjones @fediversereport @avhuffelen I think people are only now realizing that twitter may or may not publish your messages, but fundamentally they should have known that's the way it's always been. It's the same for most services these days, and it's so sad to see how centralized the internet has become over the years.
Show threadTARDISinaTEACUPJul 13, 2023
@marcorobotics @Brendanjones @fediversereport @avhuffelen I would argue that it’s a lack of understanding of how Twitter currently works. Twitter used to be a great way of disseminating information to a large audience. That’s why so many people adopted it in the first place.
Show threadmarcoroboticsJul 13, 2023
@TARDISinaTEACUP @Brendanjones @fediversereport @avhuffelen I get it that it was convenient, but I really feel that adoption was done in a naive way, I remember seeing websites saying "click here for our news" with a twitter.com link. It should have always been done via API "whatever is on my site gets mirrored on twitter" but the state of the web is such that it was easier and more convenient to only use one service provider :(
Show threadTARDISinaTEACUPJul 13, 2023
@marcorobotics @Brendanjones @fediversereport @avhuffelen Oh yeah, absolutely. No arguing using Twitter of FB only IS NOT what they should have done. I used to work for a state Department of Transportation and it’s in their mandate that they MUST maintain a website to make information available easily available to the public. A stand alone website, not a social media presence. Although they did use social media to announce links to the website.
Show threadYoraJul 12, 2023
@Brendanjones @fediversereport @avhuffelen This was one of the first things I've been thinking when people said twitter outages could interfere with existing emergency notification systems.
Federated mastodon servers are exactly the solution to this problem.
Show threadBrendan JonesJul 12, 2023
@Yora @fediversereport @avhuffelen even unfederated servers are the answer! As long as I, as a citizen, am able to always access that server’s posts if I need to, because the government hosts the server itself. If I understand correctly I could still grab the RSS feed of an unfederated server.
Show threadYoraJul 12, 2023
@Brendanjones @fediversereport @avhuffelen But I don't think a lot of people would make a second account specifically for public notifications.
It's much more appealing if you access them with software and accounts you're already using anyway.
Show threadDee ToherJul 12, 2023

@Brendanjones @Yora @fediversereport @avhuffelen

Plus they can embed the RSS feed onto their websites - making it easier to update information that can be seen on the website.