Mastodawn

Venykrid Jul 12, 2023

Connected Places

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

Connected Places Aug 9, 2023

More Dutch government institutes have joined Mastodon today:

⛅The National Meteoreological Institute @knmi
🌊The National agency for Infrastructure and Watermanagement @rijkswaterstaat
🚗Traffic updates for the highways, also via Rijkswaterstaat @RWSverkeersinfo

Brendan Jones Jul 12, 2023

@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.

marcorobotics Jul 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"

Brendan Jones Jul 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.

marcorobotics Jul 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.

TARDISinaTEACUP Jul 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.

marcorobotics Jul 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 :(

TARDISinaTEACUP Jul 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.

Yora Jul 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.

Brendan Jones Jul 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.

Yora Jul 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.

Dee Toher Jul 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.

Tim Chambers Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen

Every taxpayer funded org should HAVE to - as a requirement in the funding - to use open social media in addition to what they do on closed platforms…

Phil Rees Jul 12, 2023

@tchambers @fediversereport @avhuffelen I'd go beyond that and require that content is first posted to open systems under the direct control of the taxpayer funded org. Courtesy of technical and policy failures at Twitter the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is now in the ridiculous position of having a broken social media widget as the most prominent element on its homepage. We need to disintermediate our discourse.

https://www.leg.bc.ca

WELCOME to the LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY of BRITISH COLUMBIA

Gabriele Pollara Jul 12, 2023

@tchambers @fediversereport @avhuffelen Right exactly, also so that each governing authority is in control of its own social media outputs and longevity (i.e. not outsourced to the whim of another company). https://med-mastodon.com/@gpollara/110702013943556218

Gabriele Pollara (@[email protected])

Interesting move this, and maybe more organisations will begin to think that they want to be in charge of their social media offerings by hosting their own output.Success of this approach may ultimately rely on #ActivityPub integration with #Threads (so that its Dutch users can read the Dutch government material on #Mastodon). @[email protected] https://social.overheid.nl/@avhuffelen/110700825255524685

Med-Mastodon

Thomas Schäfer Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen
👍

Toni Aittoniemi Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport This is great news! Open architecture for social media networks is de facto better for growth and #economies in general than closed systems can even dream of.

It may take a little more investment up-front to get started, but the pay-off will come and it will be huge.

Mark Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport It’s funny how nobody even thinks to complain about state data gathering, just Threads.

dfroidmont Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen
I hope we'll do the same with our governments in Belgium

tyil Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen

'value-driven alternative social networks', such as MastodonSuch as the Fediverse*.

Even the government's own post about it didn't make this mistake.

fbievan Jul 12, 2023

@tyil @fediversereport @avhuffelen

Really interesting... I didn't expect when I joined the fediverse to start having governments on here. Hmm

tyil Jul 12, 2023

@[email protected] @fediversereport @avhuffelen The Dutch government has had a long-running campaign to promote the use of open source software and open platforms. Most of the initiatives don't lead anywhere, though, so it's nice to see something positive has been introduced for once.

fbievan Jul 12, 2023

@tyil @fediversereport @avhuffelen

really cool! Nice to see them doing things

Astrid Sawatzky Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen
Goed gedaan!

Vriendelijke groetjes uit Duitsland.
Ik wens zoiets ook van mijn overheid.

Joel Pomales Jul 12, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen ¿se imaginan un gobierno de #PuertoRico progre, iluminado, que no bote el dinero en huelebicherias y que hiciera esto? Todas las agencias gubernamentales proveyendo información de una forma centralizada y organizada.

Si. Yo sé. Soñar es precioso y no cuesta nada.

jdm2 🇵🇷Jul 12, 2023

@joelpomales @fediversereport @avhuffelen con lo que cobran los delegados de la estadidad se puede pagar medio fediverso 😂

Alice Dubiel 🔬💉🦠😷🌬☮️Jul 13, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen Yes, it would be advantageous for #nationalweatherservice to create a presence in #Mastadon. I’d also like to see #KingCounty and #Washingtonstate have a presence here. #PublicHealth and #Disasters are monitored by these jurisdictions and social media links are another form of broadcasting information among a population. #Fediverse

Barry C Jul 13, 2023

@fediversereport @avhuffelen 👍👍👏