Philip Theus (prev. Mueller)
IEEE SpectrumHi Mastodon!
IEEE Spectrum is an award-winning technology magazine, dedicated to bringing you the best technology news and analysis.
Johannes Ernst@ieeespectrum Welcome to the Open Social Web!
@j12t Thanks! Excited to be here.
Ben Werdmuller
Jérôme@ieeespectrum welcome!
Mastodon Migration☝️ This is, as they say, HUGE!
Folks, please welcome IEEE Spectrum to Mastodon!
IEEE Spectrum (https://spectrum.ieee.org/), since 1964 the flagship publication of the IEEE (https://www.ieee.org), is one of the world’s most trusted and authoritative sources of news and information about new and emerging high-impact technologies.
And now they are here on Mastodon!
Jeroen Baert
Shenaneggans@ieeespectrum omg hi IEEE spectrum!
bignoseWelcome @ieeespectrum to the Fediverse!
After feeling your way on a big centralised instance, hopefully you can soon set up an instance for your organisation (‘social.ieee.org’?) that your staff can use for their own accounts.
John Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️@ieeespectrum RSS so you don't miss anything - https://spectrum.ieee.org/customfeeds/feed/all-topics/rss
A.B.Mastodon handles that too. Put an .rss onto any Mastodon URL...
Scott Francis@ieeespectrum love to see you here! IEEE Spectrum has some of the most consistently interesting, well-written pieces on emerging tech anywhere on the web.
Furbland's Very Cool Mastodon™@ieeespectrum welcome! though I think someone’s bridged your RSS feed already… @spectrum.ieee.org
oh well, the more IEEE Spectrums the merrier!
flewkey@ieeespectrum I love the work you guys do on the layout and design of your physical magazines. They're gorgeous, and I always look forward to receiving them in the mail.
Allan Engelhardt@ieeespectrum I get stupidly excited when I rediscover a publication I used to enjoy and admire, AND there is an easy-to-find RSS feed on the website.
Welcome to Mastodon!
Lutin Discret
Just a Unicorn@ieeespectrum that's funny. If you were an award winning technology mag you would know you are on the fediverse, not just mastodon.
@theUnicorn We already were on the Fediverse. You can find our other accounts on federated platforms like Bluesky and Flipboard. Just saying hi specifically on Mastodon now.
Dave in 🏴@ieeespectrum FYI that Bluesky is not part of the fediverse, as it runs on a different protocol and is not compatible without bridging software.
This is an important point. There has been a muddying of the definition of Fediverse lately.
Fediverse should be reserved for the ActivityPub connected ecosystem. The Bluesky/ATProto network is similarly referred to as the ATmosphere. All open systems social media falls under the Open Social Web rubric.
This may seem pedantic, but certainly you can appreciate the importance of the correct use of clearly defined terminology to an emerging technology space.
Feel like a little more explanation is called for here...
We are still in the formative stages of the Open Social Web. The taxonomy that emerges will have a big impact on its success. The ability to communicate clearly with the general public and with real meaning will greatly improve the ability to foster understanding, and spell out the value proposition. Alternatively, inconsistent and conflicting terminology will muddy this messaging to negative effect.
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Right now we have two conflicting taxonomies. 1) Open Social Web for the umbrella, Fediverse for ActivityPub, and ATmosphere for ATProto. 2) Open Social Web and Fediverse for the umbrella, Fediverse for ActivityPub, and ATmosphere for ATProto. Would argue the the latter is problematic and bad for the whole initiative.
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We have an opportunity right now to coalesce around a specific taxonomy that will foster good communications. A statement like, 'The Open Social Web includes two decentralized social media networks, the ActivityPub based Fediverse and Bluesky's AT Protocol ATmosphere.' is clear, comprehensible and instructive.
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The alternative, using Fediverse to mean Open Social Web, robs ActivityPub of a moniker. This is a problem, 1) because a great deal of literature and common usage already assumes the ActivityPub ecosystem definition and 2) it requires adoption of a new term (ActivityWeb?) to refer to just the ActivityPub ecosystem--something that is not going to happen.
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So, in summary, we have a golden opportunity to add structure and definition to our emerging technology initiative by nailing down a lexicon that will improve our communications and not inject confusion. Open Social Web is a better term for the umbrella and using Fediverse synonymously is actually contrary to the above stated purpose.
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And finally, from a marketing perspective, Fediverse is an awkward term. We may have become familiar with it, but for newcomers it is not inviting. We should take this opportunity to promote something more effective and attractive like Open Social Web (OSW), and not burden the initiative with the comparatively clunky Fediverse branding.
If you were to adopt this nomenclature it would be more precise to say above:
"We already were on the Fediverse. You can find our other account on the Flipboard Mastodon instance (@IEEESpectrum @ flipboard.com). Our Bluesky account (@spectrum.ieee.org) is also bridged to the Fediverse. Just saying hi specifically on our new mastodon.social account (@ieeespectrum @ mastodon.social) now."
Jeff@ieeespectrum Welcome! Happy to have you here.