The purpose of a system is what it does. The machine is never broken. https://www.anildash.com/2024/05/29/systems-the-purpose-of-a-system/

I think it's a measure of how skewed is our attention economy that I'm an avid news consumer and I'm only just learning that 2.5 million Sudanese could be dead of starvation by the end of the summer

https://www.wsj.com/world/africa/genocide-survivors-in-darfur-are-caught-in-another-brutal-battle-d729b143?mod=hp_listb_pos2

I wrote about how Patreon needs to join the social web before Fediverse Threads takes its place:

"Why would a creator send their audience to a third-party platform when Instagram and Threads can be a one-stop-shop with their existing followers while having access to new paid subscribers across the social web?

Patreon can no longer just be the place where creators are paid, it needs to be a place where creators can be discovered. And it cannot do that as a social silo."

Your move, Patreon 🚨

https://www.augment.ink/patreon-fediverse/

In this issue of "Human-Generated Content" I wrote about how some publishers are turning to AI while others are turning to the Fediverse:

- @ben.werdmuller talks about the media apocalypse
- @vanessa_lea_otero and Bryan Walsh talk AI news summaries
- @verge and @404mediaco double down on the social web
- @crumbler endorses the Fediverse on @pjvogt's "Search Engine" podcast

Oh, and I try using ChatGPT for news. Spoiler: it's bad.

All here 👉🏼 http://www.augment.ink/human-generated-content-2

Two years ago, I joined Fastly with the acquisition of Glitch. Next week, our whole team is going to show you why, and what we've been up to, with an amazing lineup of announcements. I'm incredibly excited about the event we're hosting in NYC next week, and hope you'll watch the live stream — I promise you have *never* seen a tech keynote like this one. Check out https://fastly.com/instant and go to https://youtube.com/live/pgNjS1_kOW8 to add a reminder to watch on YouTube.

Seeing a lot of misinfo that Twitter is somehow rising in popularity. So, here are three charts with data I'd generally trust:

1) Google Trends: comparing searches for brand+login has long been a good way to measure usage.
2) SensorTower: they monitor app stores for installs
3) SimilarWeb: they measure web traffic via clickstream panels

All of these are slumping down, which is nearly impossible if Twitter's traffic is somehow rising.

OK this is one of my new Fediverse apps in a while.

It opens almost every major podcast into the Fediverse, making federated podcasts at scale a usable thing. Incredible to see it in the wild even in beta.

When Threads fully federates all these can be followed here.

Huge credit the team at PodcastIndex for the app and the fediverse bridge that undergirds it. Early days but hugely impressive.

@imdavidpierce consider this for your next Installer.

podcastap.com/

http://podcastap.com/

I wrote about my journey that started as an experiment to see how my Threads feed would look like on Mastodon and ended with me finding experiences that went above and beyond my expectations. A post in which I try my hardest not to rant about lists.

Later this year when Fediverse Threads completely federates, the social web ecosystem is going to get a lot more exciting and I'm so ready for that future.

www.augment.ink/threads-on-mastodon/

http://www.augment.ink/threads-on-mastodon/

There will never be a social media experience that makes sense for everyone. Federation means being able to try a diversity of options while keeping the same network.

When Threads federates, I hope you can find what works best for your needs. Maybe that'll still be Threads - and that's dope! But luckily, you won't have to choose the option that the majority have agreed is "good enough".

To me, Fediverse Threads isn't about Threads or Mastodon - it's about the wave that comes after it 🌐🌊

RE: https://www.threads.net/@quillmatiq/post/C5l6QZGvuAn

As somebody who’s been in the community alongside Ben and many others for 20+ years, this is true — an entire cohort has been working since the turn of the century to return agency on the Internet to individual users & organizations instead of a cabal of centralized, abusive tech titans. We’re in the midst of a major milestone. The goal isn’t “federation”, that’s a technique. The goal is _empowerment_ and architectures that enable more accountability and less abuse over time. We’re on our way.

RE: https://www.threads.net/@ben.werdmuller/post/C426RyIronNL_NXnedGsQc_lhsbtXlXtC834sM0