Will Mastodon, the platform that keeps the #Fediverse alive, miss a strategic opportunity to bring official institutions on board at scale?
-
@everton137 @liaizon so are you saying the photo being shared is what makes this better since the tech director did also post about attending the event?
-
@everton137 @liaizon Ok, fair enough. But it's only been a few days so maybe one is coming.
-
@everton137 @liaizon Ok, fair enough. But it's only been a few days so maybe one is coming.
-
@mellifluousbox I’m reminded of my early days at the Open Knowledge Foundation @okfn , first as a volunteer and later as an ambassador in Brazil.
After some time, I suggested forming a local group. Due to my involvement, I later worked as a consultant. A member of the core organization coordinated local leadership, supported ambassadors, and held open meetings periodically. That structure was important.
Out of that structure, I founded Open Knowledge Brasil , which I ran for years before moving to Europe. Being close to people with strong communication and advocacy skills was invaluable, that's where I learned the most.
Today, I see similar energy in the Fediverse, with accounts such as @FediTips and @mastodonmigration. There are also communication professionals, for example, @hpod16 runs a highly strategic account for the @EUCommission.
Resources may be limited, but there is clearly a passionate and capable community.
It might be worthwhile to find ways to involve and coordinate this existing expertise more intentionally."I wish the folks at Mastodon would invest in more professional marketing, similar to what we're seeing from its rival, Bluesky."
Bluesky is a for-profit corporation with lots of money on the promise to its VC owners that it will enshittify in the future.
Mastodon is mostly volunteers doing proper pro-user stuff, getting some money from donations and grants but nowhere near enough.
The problem is money not going to projects that serve the public interest.
-
@mellifluousbox I’m reminded of my early days at the Open Knowledge Foundation @okfn , first as a volunteer and later as an ambassador in Brazil.
After some time, I suggested forming a local group. Due to my involvement, I later worked as a consultant. A member of the core organization coordinated local leadership, supported ambassadors, and held open meetings periodically. That structure was important.
Out of that structure, I founded Open Knowledge Brasil , which I ran for years before moving to Europe. Being close to people with strong communication and advocacy skills was invaluable, that's where I learned the most.
Today, I see similar energy in the Fediverse, with accounts such as @FediTips and @mastodonmigration. There are also communication professionals, for example, @hpod16 runs a highly strategic account for the @EUCommission.
Resources may be limited, but there is clearly a passionate and capable community.
It might be worthwhile to find ways to involve and coordinate this existing expertise more intentionally.It's not business attitudes that help Bluesky, it's the sheer amount of money and the promise to get this money back in the future by screwing their own users. This is not a model to be emulated, because the resources for it come from future exploitation of ordinary people.
If we want proper long term infratructure that serves the public instead of exploiting it, we need governments to invest in non-profit FOSS projects like Mastodon etc.
-
It's not business attitudes that help Bluesky, it's the sheer amount of money and the promise to get this money back in the future by screwing their own users. This is not a model to be emulated, because the resources for it come from future exploitation of ordinary people.
If we want proper long term infratructure that serves the public instead of exploiting it, we need governments to invest in non-profit FOSS projects like Mastodon etc.
@mellifluousbox @FediTips here's a proposal
everton137 (@everton137@vivaldi.net)
If decentralization is the future of social media, where millions or even billions of people share knowledge, then we can learn a lot from how the Open Knowledge Foundation (@okfn@fosstodon.org) and the Wikimedia Foundation (@wikimediafoundation@wikimedia.social) built cross-border, international movements with clear missions. These two organizations are just two examples, but they demonstrate an important point: decentralization worked because communities were intentionally nurtured, not just because the technology was open. The Fediverse, powered by the ActivityPub protocol, already has the technical capacity to thrive (UI tweaks aside). What we still lack is the decentralization of communities, including shared ownership, coordination, and a mission that extends beyond individual instances. Cc @eloquence@social.coop @bjoernsta@eimsbuettel.social @_elena@mastodon.social #Fediverse #ActivityPub #Openknowledge #Wikimedia #Decentralization #SocialMedia
Vivaldi Social (social.vivaldi.net)
-
Will Mastodon, the platform that keeps the #Fediverse alive, miss a strategic opportunity to bring official institutions on board at scale?
By watching how #EuroSky is being marketed compared to #Mastodon, it certainly seems that way.
I wish the folks at Mastodon would invest in more professional marketing, similar to what we're seeing from its rival, Bluesky.
There was a major meeting in the EU Parliament focused on this topic, yet there was no announcement or microblog post from Mastodon. Zero engagement.
Compare these two approaches:
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ituoear7k6qx3smjfoxhufm4/post/3me7pxwrgerri
@everton137 the best thing about the Fediverse is that it's not a fascist dictator supporting platform like bluesky or threads. their imbecile users are welcome to stay away from the Fediverse.
-
@everton137 the best thing about the Fediverse is that it's not a fascist dictator supporting platform like bluesky or threads. their imbecile users are welcome to stay away from the Fediverse.
-
@julian
I think it’s both, but not in the way that people usually frame it.Mastodon now has a new CEO and resources. They're not VC-scale or profit-driven, but they still have real capacity.
Meanwhile, someone from EuroSky is in Brussels every week. The difference in behavior is clear: they are actively selling their project.
This looked like an important event, yet Mastodon didn't post anything. No note, no visibility. Honestly, that feels like a serious strategic oversight.
What makes this more frustrating is that there are plenty of passionate people in the Fediverse who would help - some already do as volunteers. However, it increasingly feels like Mastodon’s leadership lacks a business- and strategy-oriented perspective beyond building good software.
At this stage, software quality alone isn’t enough.
@everton137 Thanks for the suggestion. The @Mastodon team has in fact been in Brussels the week before and the one before that as well
I agree we can get better at communicating this. Rest assured we absolutely see the value in travelling there regularly although it will always be a question of priorities (vs. other efforts, which are arguably often equally or more important). I disagree with the implication that we don't have this on our radar at all and that we do "just" software (well). -
@everton137 Thanks for the suggestion. The @Mastodon team has in fact been in Brussels the week before and the one before that as well
I agree we can get better at communicating this. Rest assured we absolutely see the value in travelling there regularly although it will always be a question of priorities (vs. other efforts, which are arguably often equally or more important). I disagree with the implication that we don't have this on our radar at all and that we do "just" software (well).@mellifluousbox @Mastodon if you have in your radar, I trust you are going to make a great job!
