Johannes Ernst

Technologist, founder, organizer.

Let's put people back in control of their technology. The Fediverse is a good start. Also wondering aloud where we are taking this planet.

Check out my home page for more info and links.

He/him. tfr

Home page with more info and links: https://j12t.org
FediForum, the unconference for the fediverse next Sept 12-14: https://fediforum.org
Dazzle Labs Inc.: https://dazzlelabs.net
Pronouns: He/him/any

Public Key

npub1vg8u2w2dj8k6xss8ufescfer40sjn3hntwfh33lvlhkvtzaswj3sz9rrql

NIP-05 Address

j12t_at_social.coop@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxyr7989xermdrggr7yucvyu36hcffcme4hymcclk0mmx93wc8fgc00fp6q

Author Public Key

npub1vg8u2w2dj8k6xss8ufescfer40sjn3hntwfh33lvlhkvtzaswj3sz9rrql

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-07-05 21:50:10

- reply

If it's not permissionsless, whose permission do I need? The contrast here is with having to apply to be, say, an registered Apple developer and needing approval from the app store for listing. There is no similar entity only somewhat vague, not explicit and changing "community expectations" I assume you are alluding to.

2024-07-05 21:31:46

Somebody recently used the term "permissionless" to describe the innovation that is possible in the open social network called the #Fediverse. (I forgot who, sadly.)
That term might be borrowed from the crypto crowd, but it appears applicable.
Any thoughts on adopting this term for the Fediverse, too? I'd like to, I think it's apt.

2024-05-28 18:12:10

- reply

As adoption of the Fediverse hopefully grows from the current niche of a couple of million or so technology enthusiasts into the next phase, the language will and must change. It will change again if/when the Fediverse makes it across the chasm into the mainstream.
So IMHO it's all good.

2024-05-27 02:45:58

- reply

the context of this post was that Threads is apparently used quite a bit for organizing in Taiwan. It’s not obvious to me that mastodon or other fediverse apps are any worse than Threads for that purpose, and may even be better?

2024-05-25 19:25:35

This may well turn out to be an extremely important article for adoption of the #fediverse beyond its current niches.
https://digiday.com/media/why-publishers-are-preparing-to-federate-their-sites/

2024-05-18 20:17:10

Anybody know what triggers a profile re-fetch in #mastodon ?
After an instance accessed a remote account for the first time, it fetches name, avatar, number of followers etc. When will it fetch it next to potentially update?

2024-05-17 20:19:46

- reply

I've always thought that what you get via push delivery and what you see in the outbox should be 100% consistent, because then if you don't get a pushed update -- e.g. because of a temporary failure -- you can go back and fetch what you missed. But certainly AP doesn't require or even suggest that behavior.

2024-05-17 16:34:53

Ghost has a (pretty funny) update on their #ActivityPub development.
https://activitypub.ghost.org/building-activitypub-day-1/

2024-05-11 02:50:55

- reply

Where are you having that conversation?

2024-05-11 02:05:47

- reply

Rachel: one of the challenges with the fediverse is: how do you figure out where your content went, and how can I follow that conversation that now exists on multiple different servers?
Wants all replies in the same spot. That helps feel people in control.
This is actually a really good point imho. It's not just confusing that reply trees aren't eventually consistent across the fediverse, but it creates uncertainty because I don't even know what people say in response.

2024-05-11 02:03:52

- reply

Both Rachel and Peter suggest that some moderation functionality could/should become part of the protocol stack. #AtProto does composable moderation and that is really cool. Peter hopes that #ActivityPub may learn from it and evolve in this direction.

2024-05-11 02:02:26

- reply

adds that in his view, the fediverse makes more sense for public conversations, as opposed to his example of his own Instagram profile that he has set to private.

2024-05-11 01:51:39

- reply

Shout-out to @npub17fe…w0a6: he's asking #Meta all the good questions about federation and beyond on his dot.social podcast.
Now: do you see federation more broadly as it relates to (other parts of) Meta, like Instagram and other social products you have?
Nor surprisingly, he gets a bit of a non-answer: it's early days, we have a lot to learn, how are people reacting etc.

2024-05-10 21:05:54

- reply

Mike: What are the main concerns?
Rachel: fair share of criticism. Trying to approach this as a good citizen.
Pulling the rug out of it now would also impact very negatively the overall story Meta has been trying to build about open source and how they engage with the community.

2024-05-10 21:02:44

- reply

Mike commends Rachel and Peter and other Meta people reaching out to the community and listening to concerns and feedback, such as at #fediforum:
I would agree with that. It's unusual for a large company to do this kind of thing, but absolutely the right and necessary thing to do when engaging with the Fediverse.

2024-05-10 20:59:21

- reply

Mike: what are the next steps?
Rachel: first milestone was the publish out from Threads.
2nd and next: get engagement from the fediverse back into threads ie comments and likes etc
3rd: follow people from the fediverse in Threads.

2024-05-10 20:55:24

- reply

Peter: people have been asking creators on Threads to turn on Fediverse sharing (it's opt-in): it's so much easier to turn on fediverse sharing than to post to an entirely different social network.

2024-05-10 20:54:03

- reply

Mike asks: how has the reaction been?
Rachel: people are excited to see that we are actually doing this! So far we are not actively promoting the Fediverse, but the adoption numbers have been good. We also still have some things to work through, like communicating tradeoffs.

2024-05-10 20:51:53

- reply

Rachel: people have more choice [when their apps integrate with the #fediverse]. They get to go where the rules are that align most with their values, and they get to vote with their feet.
Also exciting from the product development perspective: if you don't have to build your own [social] graph, you get to spend more time on cool functionality.

2024-05-10 20:47:45

- reply

asks: what about other federation protocols like #AtProto?
A: #ActivityPub is a W3C standard, that's important. It's also been battle-tested over the years.
[@pcottle](https://threads.net/@pcottle/ ) muses it would be interesting to "port over" some AtProto features to ActivityPub, like account portability.

2024-05-10 20:44:35

- reply

asks: How foundational in the Fediverse to Threads? Or is it just a feature?
A: Fediverse was part of the planning from the very beginning. There are lot of new things to introduce users to, and also a lot of new things to understand when federating beyond what a typical app does. Like how can users control what happens, and understand what happens?

2024-05-10 20:33:52

- reply

Rachel provides two key reasons (my phrasing):
1. #Threads wants to be the best place where people have relevant, public, real-time conversations, and the #fediverse is the means by which people can find the audiences that are best for those conversations, because not all of them will be on Threads.
2. The fediverse is a compelling way for creators to own their audiences in a way they aren't able to own on other apps today.

2024-05-10 20:33:03

Finally I'm getting around to listen to @npub17fe…w0a6 's Dot.Social episode with [@rklambo](https://threads.net/@rklambo/ ) and [@pcottle](https://threads.net/@pcottle/ ) from #meta, talking about #threads.
Mike asks the most important question first: "why are you [Meta] doing this [Fediverse integration]?"
[cont]

2024-05-10 03:32:16

Jack Dorsey interview post-#Bluesky. Whatever you think of him, his views on why he helped getting Bluesky started in the first place are interesting. I wonder which of those might apply to the Fediverse (which he doesn't mention at all).
https://www.piratewires.com/p/interview-with-jack-dorsey-mike-solana

2024-05-09 18:16:23

"Navigating User Privacy in the Decentralized Social Web".
Online webinar, sponsored by Meta.
Just fluttered into my inbox.
https://www.privacylaws.com/events-gateway/events/fediverse2024/
#privacy #meta #fediverse

2024-05-08 17:59:08

So #Bluesky is implementing an (unspecified) new protocol for direct messages. Because AtProto is really not suitable for anything that isn't 100% public.
I wonder whether they can do this now that Jack is off the board. But maintaining two separate protocols in the same app? Who knows, maybe #ActivityPub is next?
https://bsky.social/about/blog/05-07-2024-product-roadmap

2024-04-26 15:30:19

11 people on the data portability task force meeting for the #fediverse today.

2024-04-15 00:46:52

People don’t understand the fediverse.
Today’s exhibit: people on #Threads complain that it’s not good for news, example yesterday. We know that, because Meta has said over and over they de-emphasize news.
But that’s what the #fediverse is for! Somebody will build the worlds best news feed and you can subscribe right there from Threads (once they are done with their ActivityPub implementation) and any other fediverse application.

2024-04-14 18:54:59

- reply

which point have you proven? Following your line of reasoning, the proven point would be that you are powerless even if you throw the largest armada at it ever?

2024-04-14 18:27:34

- reply

The western press says it was supposed to de-escalate. Evidence: telegraphed up front, “concluded” statement before the missions even hit.
But: largest simultaneous drone/missile attack I have ever heard of. Not even the Russians do things like that in Ukraine I think.
So which one is it?

2024-04-14 18:25:40

I’m genuinely puzzled by Iran’s attack yesterday. In the mind of the Iranians, was this retaliation, with respect to the perceived wrong, supposed to be:

2024-03-26 05:00:24

On the question of “What’s the plan to make money?”, #bluesky CEO Jay Graeber says:
“We’ve been building marketplaces within the app, essentially. So, we’ve got information marketplaces, moderation marketplaces..”
How can that produce enough revenue to make the VCs happy? Just what kind of information marketplaces might she be thinking of that can produce those results?
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/25/24108872/bluesky-ceo-graber-federation-social-media-decoder-interview