Good morning and happy Saturday to all of you here in the #Fediverse

Tell me about your #MorningMoments such as what you hope to accomplish today, what you've already accomplished today or just a funny story of sorts!

I'm not sure what today holds to be honest. Might stay home and relax, might get out of the house for a bit with the wife. We'll figure that out shortly.

#GoodMorning #HappySaturday #AI #Art

Hey #Fediverse! @Seirdy has a 'forever' article: A look at search engines with their own indexes

One thing this article should remind you all about: there are three dominant #search indexes - Google, Bing, and Yandex. And Yandex is dominant outside of English.

But there are real options, and many of them are open source, especially for outside the commercial internet. (I am partial to the MarginaliaSearch project.)

#dev #internet

GitHub - MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch: Internet search engine for text-oriented websites. Indexing the small, old and weird web.

Internet search engine for text-oriented websites. Indexing the small, old and weird web. - GitHub - MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch: Internet search engine for text-oriented websites. Indexing ...

^GitHub

Indonesian interest in social web or #fediverse seems practically nonexistent. Not aware of any more Mastodon instances left running, the Pleroma instance will shut down in April unless someone is willing to take over, and apparently misskey.id is the only one remaining, according to @redseraphim, and maybe some private or personal instances.

From: @t1
pleroma.id/objects/af8dffe2-b9…

Have you heard the terms "Fediverse" or "Fedi" and wondered what they are?

I've done a little article that tries to explain what the Fediverse is, and how Mastodon is a part of it:

➡️ fedi.tips/what-is-mastodon-wha…

TL:DR - The Fediverse is a network of thousands of independent social media servers that communicate seamlessly using a common standard. Even totally different kinds of Fediverse server allow users to follow each other.

#FediTips #Fediverse

What is Mastodon? What is the Fediverse? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

^fedi.tips

We’ve been floored by everyone’s support for Project Tapestry! Three of the pledge tiers on Kickstarter are already sold out, but there are still several to choose from with rewards ranging from wallpapers to stickers, pins, and even a free year of Wallaroo. At this rate, we’re going to need to come up with some more stretch goals soon! kickstarter.com/projects/iconf…

#ProjectTapestry #Fediverse #RSS #iOSDev

@damtux @erAck @italovignoli

Already had some conversation in the past with #LibreOffice via #Fediverse.

I miss real versions numbers, that are useful on technical level.

That's why i asked, if there is somewhere one... hidden under the hood...

Advertising should maybe be separated from engineering...

But i don't wanted to start a heavy or intense discussion...

Online media can be overwhelming. It's fragmented between countless services, websites, social networks, and apps.

You need an app that weaves together an overview of nearly everything that’s happening across all the different services you follow.

That’s our vision for Project Tapestry, the new Kickstarter we're launching today.

kickstarter.com/projects/iconf…

#ProjectTapestry #Fediverse #iOSDev

Project Tapestry is a universal chronological timeline of your favorite social media services, blogs, RSS feeds & more. All updates in one place, in the order they’re posted with no algorithm deciding what you see or when you see it.

But we need your help! Check out our Kickstarter campaign to learn more about the project and the backer rewards we have planned, then make a pledge to help us turn Project Tapestry into a reality.

kickstarter.com/projects/iconf…

#ProjectTapestry #Fediverse #iOSDev

There's a new free open source Reddit-style platform for the Fediverse called PieFed. It's still fairly early in development, but you can try out a demo server at:

➡️ piefed.social

There's more info on its official website at:

➡️ join.piefed.social

You can follow the project at:

➡️ @piefedadmin

It's lightweight and written to make it easier for developers to contribute. (For any devs reading this, it's written in Python.)

(via @Mrfunkedude)

#FediTips #Fediverse #Reddit

Hi #accessibility mastodon,

I’ve been building a #fediverse web app, “PieFed”, for the last few months and recently put a bit of effort into making it more accessible. It is almost WCAG 2.1 AA compliant now.

However I have no lived experience of using the web with disability so any feedback in this area is most welcome. Please give it a try at piefed.social and let me know what you think, from an accessibility perspective.

Hey #fediverse,

Can y'all Please tell #NPR about #mastodon, #activityPub (and #Matrix!), please?

No really.. They're literally asking for it,

npr.org/2024/01/11/1223974976/…

Ok, I could be reading too much into it, but it really would be nice if maybe I wasn't the only one that mentioned maybe it's something they should look into?

kthx,
- A. Rando

If you browse a lot of #smallweb #indieweb blogs and websites, you should add the StreetPass extenstion to your web browser. It finds #fediverse accounts associated with the blogs you read, and allows you to view the accounts and follow them if you want.

How does it work?

1. Mastodon users verify themselves by adding a custom link to their personal site.
2. StreetPass lets you know when you've found one of these links, and adds them to your StreetPass list.
3. Browse the web as usual. StreetPass will build a list of Mastodon users made up of the websites you go to.

##StreetPass is made possible by open web identity verification standards and is 100% open source!

streetpass.social/

@tvler

Frage | Friendica: Fehlende Bezüge

Ich hatte eben unten stehenden Austausch und frage mich da natürlich ob mir irgendwelche Informationen fehlen bzw. ob es bei Mastodon Bezüge gibt die ich so nicht sehe.

Wäre schon interessant zu erfahren ob man da mit Mastdon mehr sieht.

Tags: #Frage #Friendica #Mastodon #Bezüge #Fediverse #Sascha #2024-01-12 !Friendica Support

Week in Fediverse 2024-01-12

Servers

- lotide v0.14.2
- ActivityPub for WordPress v2.0.0
- Bovine v0.5.7
- snac v2.44
- GoToSocial v0.13.1
- Lemmy v0.19.2
- Hubzilla v8.8.6
- Mitra v2.7.0
- ActivityPods v1.5
- tootik v0.5.14
- Thank you for making Owncast a success in 2023

Clients

- SubwayTooter v5.545
- IceCubesApp v1.10.20
- Voyager v1.34.0
- Lemoa v0.5.1

Tools

- TootSDK v2.0.0
- Lemmy Migrate v1.1.2
- Kbin KES v3.2.0
- Rebuttals on the Fediseer

Protocol

- Activity Streams/Primer/Link type
- ActivityPub editor's draft

Articles

- The Pirate Ship Model of Federated Social Media
- Podcasting news
- How Threads will integrate with the Fediverse
- Last Week in Fediverse – ep 50

-----

#WeekInFediverse #Fediverse #ActivityPub

Previous edition: mitra.social/objects/018cdb6f-…

The Pirate Ship Model of Federated Social Media

It’s romantic sailing the high seas with your mates.

^{תַּעֲלֻמוֹת (@taalumot)}

Im Januar 2024 richtete das Aktionsb. neue Soziale Medien einen offenen Brief an die Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (#HRK). Darin werden die #Hochschulen in Deutschland aufgefordert, ihre X/Twitter-Präsenzen zu beenden und stattdessen auf dezentrale Plattformen im #Fediverse wie #Mastodon umzusteigen. Diese seien besser geeignet, den Regeln eines demokratischen und nachhaltigen Miteinanders zu entsprechen. Ich bin Erstunterzeichner des offenen Briefs! Mitmachen. 👇

openpetition.de/petition/onlin…

@neuSoM

The free fediverses should make it easier to move between (and create) instances

Part 5 of Strategies for the Free Fediverse

privacy.thenexus.today/make-it…

There's likely to be a lot of moving between instances as people and instances sort themselves out into the free fediverses and Meta's fediverses -- and today, moving accounts on the fediverse today. There are lots of straightforward ways to improve it, many of which don't even require improvements to the software. And there are also opportunities to make creating, customizing, and connecting instances easier.

#fediverse #fedipact #threads @fediversenews

The free fediverses should make it easier to move between (and create) instances

Part 5 of Strategies for the free fediverses

^{Jon (The Nexus Of Privacy)}

The free fediverses should emphasize networked communities

privacy.thenexus.today/the-fre…

Here's how @lrhodes describes the Networked Communities view:

"instances are valuable for the relations and interactions they facilitate locally AND for their ability to connect you to other parts of the network."

By contrast, @evanprodromou notes that "Big Fedi" advocates typically see instances as typically see the instance as "mostly a dumb pipe." But The Networked Communities view aligns much better with the free fediverses' values – as does the "Social Archipelago" view @noracodes sketches in The Fediverse is Already Dead. Not only that, it's good strategy!

@fediversenews #fediverse #threads #fedipact

The free fediverses should emphasize networked communities

Part 3 of Strategies for the free fediverses

^{Jon (The Nexus Of Privacy)}

The free fediverses should focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety

privacy.thenexus.today/free-fe…

(Part 2 of "Strategies for the free fediverses")

#fediverse #mastodon #fedipact @fediversenews

The free fediverses should focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety

Part 2 of Strategies for the free fediverses

^{Jon (The Nexus Of Privacy)}

Strategies for the free fediverses

privacy.thenexus.today/strateg…

The fediverse is evolving into different regions

- "Meta's fediverses", federating with Meta to allow communications, potentially using services from Meta such as automated moderation or ad targeting, and potentially harvesting data on Meta's behalf.

- "free fediverses" that reject Meta – and surveillance capitalism more generally

The free fediverses have a lot of advantages over Meta and Meta's fediverses, some of which will be very hard to counter, and clearly have enough critical mass that they'll be just fine.

Here's a set of strategies for the free fediverses to provide a viable alternative to surveillance capitalism. They build on the strengths of today's fediverse at its best – including natural advantages the free fediverses have that Threads and Meta's fediverses will having a very hard time countering – but also are hopefully candid about weaknesses that need to be addressed. It's a long list, so I'll be spreading out over multiple posts; this post currently goes into detail on the first two.

- Opposition to Meta and surveillance capitalism is an appealing position. Highlight it!

- Focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety

- Emphasize "networked communities"

- Support concentric federations of instances and communities

- Consider "transitively defederating" Meta's fediverses (as well as defederating Threads)

- Consider working with people and instances in Meta's fediverses (and Bluesky, Dreamwidth, and other social networks) whose goals and values align with the free fediverses'

- Build a sustainable ecosystem

- Prepare for Meta's (and their allies') attempts to paint the free fediverses in a bad light

- Reduce the dependency on Mastodon

- Prioritize accessibility, which is a huge opportunity

- Commit to anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and pro-LGBTQIA2S+ principles, policies, practices, and norms for the free fediverses

- Organize!

#fediverse #freefediverse #threads @fediverse @fediversenews

Strategies for the free fediverses

How to leverage the free fediverses' many advantages?

^{Jon (The Nexus Of Privacy)}

The free fediverses should support concentric federations of instances

Part 4 of Strategies for the Free Fediverses

privacy.thenexus.today/the-fre…

Here's how @zkat describes caracoles: "you essentially ask to join concentric federations of instances ... with smaller caracoles able to vote to federate with entire other caracoles."

And @ophiocephalic's "fedifams" are a similar idea: "Communities could align into fedifams based on whatever conditions of identity, philosophy or interest are relevant to them. Instances allied into fedifams could share resources and mutually support each other in many way"

The idea's a natural match for community-focused, anti-surveillance capitalism free fediverses, fits in well with the Networked Communities model discussed in part 3, and helps address scalability of consent-based federation discussed in Part 2.

privacy.thenexus.today/the-fre…

#fediverse #fedipact #threads @fediversenews @fediverse

The free fediverses should support concentric federations of instances

Part 4 of Strategies for the free fediverses

^{Jon (The Nexus Of Privacy)}

Under-the-radar late night launch: RSS Parrot is live! It talks like Mastodon, but it doesn't walk like Mastodon. BUT! It will relay any RSS feed straight into your timeline.

Turn Mastodon into your very own feed reader. Follow anything that has an RSS feed and get a toot about new posts.

How? Mention @birb with the address you want to follow.

More details at rss-parrot.net. Boost for visibility :)

#RSS #Atom #FeedReader #Fediverse

Výborná prezentace z #OpenAlt o #Fediverse a #Mastodon od @sesivany

Pokud budete sdílet dál, dovolím si rovnou doplnit:

* Je možné sledovat i hashtagy
* Pro vyhledávání uživatelů je dobrý FediSearch fedisearch.skorpil.cz od @stepan
* V ČR běží také instance #Piráti mastodon.pirati.cz a na vlastním železe

invidious.cz/watch?v=xsfSpCNfg…

People

Search people on Fediverse

^{fedisearch.skorpil.cz}

Hashtags being what they are on a decentralized network, it's probably better to go see what Mastodon.social has listed behind
#AntennaPodEcho
mastodon.social/tags/AntennaPo…

It really feels like there are no two people on the #Fediverse listening to the same #podcasts.

Mastodon

The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

^{Mastodon hosted on mastodon.social}

Hey #lawfedi friends, every day a new person in #law or #legal adjacent fields joints the #fediverse and isn't aware of Lawstodon - the legal community directory for #Mastodon (and eventually the fediverse more broadly).

Feel free to add yourself, claim your profile, etc. I have been using it when I send recommendations for folks looking for practitioners in specific practice areas and it works a treat!

@law

lawstodon.org

Lawstodon | Find Lawyers and the Legal Community on Mastodon | #LawFedi #Lawstodon

Lawstodon.org is a directory of lawyers, attorneys and the legal community on Mastodon. #LawFedi #Lawstodon

^{www.lawstodon.org}

Way more interesting and healthy fediverse news is happening in the shadows and is barely getting discussed! Discourse has federation between different instances of itself and other #fediverse software such as Mastodon working!

Attached is a demo video from Angus McLeod via their announcement here: meta.discourse.org/t/activityp…

Android or iPhone — either Google or Apple delivers our messages — surely? You don't accept that?

Time I Learned: there are freedom-respecting phones.

People who do not want to depend on Google or have them control our devices are using android-compatible but not google-controlled phones, a.k.a. “degoogled phones”. We have been asking (ourselves) for several years if we can have google-free push notifications. Thanks to the developers of the UnifiedPush standard, the answer is now, “yes!”

But why?

You've probably heard of the Observer Effect. Partly influenced by hearing that someone is observing my blog from a social psychology angle relating to attitudes among the open source community, but also I was already thinking I should, I've decided to write more about why I write/build/care about the topics I choose. For a start I wrote a “Why Would I Care?” section for my latest post Google-Free Push Messaging for Google-Free Phones. Here, that section is published as an article on its own.

Why Would I Care?

Why would I care how my push notifications reach my phone? What difference does it make to me?

That's a good question. Inside a building that has a good heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, we don't notice the system, we just feel comfortable. With push notification delivery, part of the answer is the same: the system just does its job and our notifications come through. Whether the delivery channel is controlled by Google or by us or by someone else doesn't change that. The immediate, concrete result is the same. So it's not about wanting it to function differently; that's not why I care.

The difference it makes to me is about freedom, privacy, independence, self-agency. I am happy to have the choice to use any particular company's service, but I am not happy to be forced to use them, to have no choice, if I can't leave no matter how bad it gets. What if I don't like Google monitoring my notifications to know what I'm doing? What if I don't like to live in fear of offending them in some way and being cut off from their service and having no replacement option? What if I just don't want to condone their business model by using it, but I still want to be notified when I have messages?

Push notification delivery is one of the many invisible technical services that underpin our online communication systems. These kinds of services are implicitly considered to be part of the public infrastructure, something that we now assume is available to everyone.

When we allow ourselves to become dependent on any particular company's service, and yet do not regulate it as a public service provider, then we subject ourselves to the company's whims, priorities and values, which are different from ours. They will inevitably act against public interests.

Building publicly owned infrastructure based on open standards and freedom software is therefore essential to ensure the independent provision of services aligned with public needs and values.

I am one of the people who feels it is my place to use, promote and build non-proprietary public services, both for my own mental wellbeing and because I believe it is important for society.

It is the same reason why I support: open Ed-Tech, degoogled phones, #matrix, #fediverse, freedom software, open-source hardware, #rightToRepair.

Speaking as one of the people who prefer our devices not to be controlled by and dependent on Google:

What do we want? UnifiedPush!

When do we want it? Now!

I would love to work on any freedom tech project bringing UnifiedPush to a wider audience.

See my other posts tagged... #unifiedPush #degoogled #awesomeFOSS

Follow/Feedback/Contact: RSS feed · Fedi follow this blog: @julian​@wrily.foad.me.uk · use the Cactus Comments box above · matrix me · Fedi follow me · email me · julian.foad.me.ukDonate: via LiberapayAll posts © Julian Foad and licensed CC-BY-ND except quotes, translations, or where stated otherwise

awesomeFOSS — julian

awesomeFOSS posts on julian

^julian

julian

2023-12-04 12:42:55

Google-Free Push Messaging for Google-Free Phones

UnifiedPush open-standard push messaging complements degoogled android-compatible phone OS's such as LineageOS.

People who do not want to depend on Google or have them control our devices are using android-compatible but not google-controlled phones, a.k.a. “degoogled phones”. We have been asking for several years if we can have google-free push notifications. Thanks to the developers of UnifiedPush, the answer is now, “yes!”

The open standard UnifiedPush.org has now been created. While not a large number yet, a useful handful of apps already support UnifiedPush, including several matrix and fediverse apps. For its servers and the associated client-side “distributor” component, there are multiple successful implementations deployed.

The current situation is such that anyone can use UnifiedPush on an android-compatible device by installing their choice of UnifiedPush distributor app (which must run in the background), configuring it to connect to their chosen U-P server (compatible with chosen distributor), and then installing any number of U-P-aware apps which will then use it (without needing per-app configuration to do so).

In android-compatible OS ROM projects such as LineageOS, implementing some core support for the UnifiedPush.org standard now seems to me like the right way to go. Exactly what form of support is to be decided.

Involving the OS ROM

Some ways an OS like LineageOS could usefully be involved to improve the UnifiedPush experience are:

• ensuring the U-P distributor app has a convenient way to be installed and permitted to run in the background, free from restrictions, because getting this right is critical and if the user installs the distributor manually it can be tricky to get right; (investigate: would it need to be a system app, or some kind of whitelisting (ugh), or be split into a system component and a user component, or what?)
• providing a convenient way to let the user (or the OS distribution provider) configure the distributor's U-P server address: perhaps rather than using an ad-hoc UI provided by the distributor app, it could integrate with “accounts” settings.
• potentially providing a system settings UI for monitoring the U-P connections and which apps are using them.

Thoughts on the role of microG. The purpose of microG as best I understand is to provide Google compatible APIs to apps which expect Google services. Underneath these APIs, it provides access to a mixture of actual Google services, alternative real services, and fake services. As far as I know it does not so far provide any non-Google APIs, and yet for push notifications the provision of UnifiedPush APIs might be a good fit for fulfilling its overall purpose as a compatibility layer. Or perhaps not, perhaps that is out of scope and should be in LineageOS or another add-on layer instead. I'm sure the folks involved will work out what is best.

Constraints, FCM Fallback, non-Android

Unlike the situation with some other google APIs, it is important to note that an OS compatibility layer such as microG cannot automatically divert the connections made by apps built using Google's FCM, to use U-P instead. The apps must be modified.

However, the inverse is possible: a UnifiedPush aware app can automatically “fall back” to using Google's FCM if U-P support is absent and FCM support is present. See details of the Embedded FCM Distributor in UnifiedPush documentation.

Non-Android devices can use UnifiedPush too, including Linux phones such as PinePhone and Purism Librem. The UnifiedPush D-Bus spec may be relevant. (On locked-down proprietary devices such as Apple's it is unlikely to be possible, nor to make much sense: FAQ.)

Packaging a UnifiedPush Distributor

A U-P distributor app could be built in to an OS or subsystem like microG but there is a significant down-side to that: it would support only one type, or at most a fixed small number of types, of U-P server. Choosing a distributor type is more of a whole OS packaging decision. In cases where the whole OS is related to a service provider of some kind (so not like LineageOS, but perhaps like Murena/Calyx/Graphene etc.), the service provider might choose to run a U-P server for their users and have their distributor automatically connect to it (with user consent/opt-in/opt-out). In the more generic/self-hosted case (like LineageOS) it makes more sense to leave it to the user to install their preferred U-P distributor.

I would love to see distributors of google-free phones, such as Murena, support google-free push notifications. I posted a brief sketch of a UnifiedPush Plan for Murena /e/-OS on their forum, without attempting to go into details of integrating the U-P distributor into the ROM.

History

A rough time line of UnifiedPush development. (From light research and having followed it through its development.)

• 2018: FOSS-Push planning
• 2019: OpenPush — defines the architectural concept
• 2020: UnifiedPush — building on OpenPush concept to a complete specification
• 2021: Gotify — a FOSS push system — was forked to add UnifiedPush support
• 2021: NextPush — NextCloud-based UnifiedPush system created
• 2022: ntfy — a FOSS push system — adds UnifiedPush support
• now: more and more apps use UnifiedPush for google-free push support

Conclusion

Whatever the specifics of how any android-compatible OS ROM project might choose to proceed with google-free push support, the solution space enabled by UnifiedPush now exists. Speaking as one of the people who prefer our devices not to be controlled by and dependent on Google:

What do we want? UnifiedPush!

When do we want it? Now!

---

See my other posts tagged... #unifiedPush #degoogled #awesomeFOSS

---

Follow/Feedback/Contact: RSS feed · Fedi follow this blog: @[url=https://social.jsts.xyz/users/8mflxtuvnp]Julian[/url]​@wrily.foad.me.uk · use the Cactus Comments box above · matrix me · Fedi follow me · email me · julian.foad.me.ukDonate: via LiberapayAll posts © Julian Foad and licensed CC-BY-ND except quotes, translations, or where stated otherwise

nextpush-android

Android application

^Codeberg.org

I just donated a small amount to #Thunderbird

You would expect they would offer the chance to automatically spread the word in the #fediverse because... you know... open-source and all that... But their choices are the same old privacy-unfriendly social networks. That was disappointing.
Hey @thunderbird I am not saying you should abandone the other socials, but at least include support for socials that align with your own values ;)