if not now, when? Mutual aid and organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere

https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/

Mutual aid. Organizing. Sharing, contextualizing, and making meaning of news and health information to counter propaganda and information overload. The use cases for alternative social networks – not controlled by techbro white supremacist CEO's working with their cronies in authoritarian governments – practically write themselves in today's world. And with so many talented social scientists, designers, systems thinkers, and developers directly impacted by DOGE, MAGA, et al, there are a lot of people with the right skills for these new networks to make rapid progress.

The good news is there's a lot of promising work happening in the decentralized social media ecosystems known as the fediverses ("federated universes") and the ATmosphere (a fediverse built on Bluesky's AT protocol), including DAIR-tube, Blacksky, the #FreeFediverse, and more.

Still, as promising as these efforts are, there's still a long ways to go.

#organizing #fediverse #atmosphere #bluesky #blacksky

We need to accelerate work on a few things at once:

• Find ways to leverage and improve the current prototypes for mutual aid, organizing, and counter propaganda, hate, and information overload

• Help people move from corporate social networks - without losing their support networks, ties to communities, and connections with friends and family.

• Build whatever comes next. Structurally, and in terms of applications, what will decentralized social networks, designed from the margins using design justice principles look like?

https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/

#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere

Easier said then done, but the opportunity is there. As Afsaneh Rigot says in Can We Build Tech That Is Not Oppressive?

"The details of how highly marginalized communities are criminalized are the key to how we can build robust and even scalable tech that is not oppressive. This is how Design From the Margins truly works....

The experience of the most criminalized in the US and globally shows how power really works. This knowledge, the workarounds, can also be translated into stealthy tech design, build, and engineering choices that help navigate systems."

#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere

How to make progress? Here's some of the questions I have ... very interested in hearing people's thoughts! If you'd prefer to respond anonymously, here's a CryptPad form (it takes a few seconds to load, so don't panic).

• What examples have you seen of successfully leveraging social networks for organizing and mutual aid? (It's fine to include examples from centralized commercial social networks as well as alternative and/or decentralized social networks)

• How could social networks better support organizing and mutual aid?

• What do you see as the most promising and/or urgent short-term opportunities?

And if you'd like to get involved, you can leave your contact info in the form and we'll follow up with you once there are some concrete next steps in place. (Although you're also welcome to fill out the form anonymously!)

#organizing #fedviverse #ATmosphere

Notes (and thoughts) on organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere is a deep dive on the landscape today, based on multiple discussions with US-based organizers.

There's certainly room for progress!

#organizing #fediverses #ATmosphere

@thenexusofprivacy how does one get involved.

@kastope it's a great question and I don't have a great answer yet. For now, there's place in the CryptPad form to leave contact info, and I'll follow up once there are concrete next steps - https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/d9Ag8SlOHFrBLdVG9+M00bAilHuQLjqQL27OdmuVD-s/

@thenexusofprivacy

stopped reading at "Us-based", sry

@sl007 fair enough, if there are people working on similar projects elsewhere I'm certainly interested in connecting with them!

@thenexusofprivacy
Just to offer this up, suggestion that the fedi's failure to meet this moment with viable facilities for Groups organizing could turn out to be one of the worst in its history. In retrospect, the emphasis on building "more twitters", replicating surveillance-capitalist functionality, and dreaming of world-conquering universal networks has turned out to be badly short-sighted. The footnote in the "Notes" post that mentions the Mastodon project *receiving a grant* to implement Groups years ago, then not bothering to use it, is galling.

It's easy to be a back-seat driver; but it can't be overstated how important it is for developers to perceive the fedi as a field of opportunities for imaginative killer apps the capitalists can't or won't provide, rather than just a fallback for fleeing refugees with replicated functionality

@thenexusofprivacy thank you

@kastope thanks for asking - if you were wondering I’m sure others were as well! I updated one of the posters to mention it.

@ophiocephalic yeah totally agree. And not just for organizing either - I was taking with somebody earlier today shot how their friends with long covid are tethered to Facebook because that’s where there support groups are.

I do think some devs get it - Bonfire for example, NodeBB, Mike with Forte. So there are still possibilities. alas that’s not where the resources are going … but maybe a chance to change that?

More notes on Organizing, Mutual Aid, and Activism on decentralized social networks

https://privacy.thenexus.today/more-notes-on-organizing/

This was originally going to be a #FediForum session ... oh well. But why let the FediForum organizers' screwups sabotage a worthwhile conversation? We decided to go ahead with the discussion anyhow. Here's the notes.

Feedback welcome! There are some specific questions in the reply, or here's a CryptPad form if you'd rather give feedback anonymously, but I'm also interested in reactions to topics we discussed in the meeting -- and thoughts in general!

#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere

Here's a few specific questions I have ... very interested in hearing people's thoughts! If you'd prefer to respond anonymously, here's a CryptPad form (it takes a few seconds to load, so don't panic; and it's kind of long, but all the questions are optional).

• What examples have you seen of successfully leveraging social networks for organizing and mutual aid? (It's fine to include examples from centralized commercial social networks as well as alternative and/or decentralized social networks)

• How could social networks better support organizing and mutual aid?

• What do you see as the most promising and/or urgent short-term opportunities?

• Are there relevant studies, articles, papers, books, videos, and/or podcasts?

And if you'd like to get involved, you can leave your contact info in the form and we'll follow up with you once there are some concrete next steps in place. (Although you're also welcome to fill out the form anonymously!)

#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere

@thenexusofprivacy "examples of anti-trans biases"

uh, you got a source for that?

@risottobias https://wedistribute.org/2025/03/fediforum-canceled/

@thenexusofprivacy can you, well, /include that in your articles/ instead of having one post link to another post that doesn't mention it?

@risottobias Thanks for the feedback, but this article's not about the FediForum meltdown. Once I do an article on that, I'll link to it.