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+Title: Social Media Critique 
+Category: long-read test
+Slug: federation
+lang: en
+
+> This is in the end what Silicon Valley tries to prevent at all cost:
+> resistance and exodus. How can such a momentum be unleashed?
+
+So aside from the discussion of who listens (or didn't listen) to whose
+opinion it can be interesting to have a closer look at action and momentum.
+
+Three projects caught my attention and I think could be an interesting
+case for this 'next steps' discussion:
+
+Mastodon (2016) en Conversations (2014) and Peertube (2015) *
+
+All three are projects that during the past twelve months have somehow
+reinvigorated (the work on, attention for) their underlying protocols.
+Protocols that have been proclaimed dead or unsuccessful for many years.
+And probably will be for more to come.
+
+The first one, Mastodon (https://joinmastodon.org/), you may have read
+about or even tried out. It is essentially a twitter clone /
+alternative. Technically it is based on Ostatus, which is a protocol to
+distribute
+status updates across networks. Ostatus is the protocol that powered
+early 'alternative 2.0 style' social networks such as Friendica and
+Lorea. The latter was a product of and important site of organization
+for the Spanish Indignados and 15M movements. Mastodon also supports
+ActivityPub which is the likely successor of Ostatus as a protocol for
+further ongoing work on so-called federated publishing. The interesting
+thing is that Mastodon managed to attract a good chunk of the recent Twitter
+refugees. These where mostly voices which aren't white, loud or extreme
+right wing and for those reasons felt themselves increasingly out of
+place on twitter. Mastodon communities managed to involve so many of
+these people by focusing on developing tools for community moderation,
+content warnings and the ability to block other instances in the
+network. As a result (the english language) Mastodon became a site that
+is predominantly populated by the queer, PoC, left and artistic, or
+anyone that would otherwise be at risk of being on the receiving end of
+the Gamergate-style interactions on twitter. The decentralized nature of
+mastodon has created a culture of 'thematic mastodon servers (see
+https://instances.social/list) that have become a large part of what
+makes the network interesting and relevant to its several hundred
+thausand users.
+
+
+Conversations (https://conversations.im/) is a messaging application
+that is based on the very old XMPP protocol. This is a chat protocol
+which has at one point also been the underlying technology of both
+Google and Facebook chat before they closed it down and made it
+proprietary. From the onset Conversations focused on a combination of
+user friendliness, security and ultimately visual design to be on par
+with mobile messengers such as whatsapp and telegram. The work of
+Conversations has reinvigorated the XMPP protocol. Partly because it
+focused on implementing the double-ratchett encryption algorithm almost
+immediately after it was open-sourced. This is the modern userfriendly
+end-to-end encryption algorithm developed by Moxie Marlinspike for
+Signal and licensed to companies like Whatsapp. Another effect of the
+work of Conversations is that the decades old protocol has been updated
+in the span of a few years to work very well for mobile usage. For me
+one of the interesting aspects of the development of Conversations is
+the role that modern thinking on UIs, design and user friendliness
+played in its popularity. This especially becomes apparent in the very
+technical and awkward world of XMPP software. The developer has
+mentioned multiple times that he 'bases' his design on that of his GAFA
+'competitors'. Apropos tactical media, this project's appropriation of
+corporate design, yet very clear and
+solid political stance (see https://gultsch.de/objection.html) leading
+to an increase in popularity and community involvement is an interesting
+development.
+
+
+Lastly, Peertube (https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube) is an attempt
+at making the hosting of video content accessible to small
+organizations. The sheer amount of infrastructure and thus capital
+required to set up an alternative to the monopoly position of Youtube,
+forces any project trying to replace Youtube to use peer-to-peer
+technologies. Peertube does so by trying to implement WebTorrents. Like
+the older 'BitTorrent' protocol it is based on, WebTorrent tries to
+mitigate the sheer amount of data and bandwith involved with exchanging
+online media, by making sure these are streamed from many sources at
+once. Unlike torrents, which need separate applications, WebTorrents run
+in familiar web browsers. One could say the conceptual forbearer of this
+approach was a project called Popcorn Time (2014). An app that convinced
+many with its good UI and design to do 'Netflix-like' streaming on top
+of the torrent network. Again this is something that lead to a
+reinvigoration of the decaying (use-wise) torrenting protocol. (I'd also
+argue though, that Popcorn Time was simultaneously the nail in the
+coffin for torrenting because of the individualistic streaming mentality
+built into it. This also meant the definite end of what remained of
+-collectivist?- seeding/sharing culture on public trackers.)
+
+The position of the Peertube as a viable alternative or successful
+project is the most tenuous of the three. However, one might argue that
+our definition of success in this context should also be readjusted -
+away from the Silicon Valley, venture capitalist sense of success using
+metrics like usage counts, market cap, patent value etc. By nature of
+being built upon open, compatible and federative technologies,
+developments happening in all three projects could, and probably will,
+end up supporting one another. They do so to the extent that one project
+could even become an integral part of the other. As an example both
+Mastodon and Peertube use the same underlying ActivityPub, allowing one
+to become the underlying video delivery function of the other. As was
+the case with Friendica, Lorea and Mastodon, projects might stop but
+then become stepping stones and inspirations for newer generations of
+projects. In this sense definitions of success should consider the
+quality of longer term technological ecosystems within larger
+socio-political contexts.
+
+So the striking things for me to take away from these projects are:
+
+All three projects have managed to reinvigorate 'decaying' protocols in
+large part through their focus on UX, language and interestingly design.
+Which seems to me a huge opportunity for the arts which has been left
+largely unused in the first round of social media critique. Perhaps the
+model of artistic production in this domain should move away from the
+artists being on the forefront, sensing out emerging tendencies and
+taking the spotlight by creating mostly harmless critical and
+speculative works
+around these tendencies. Next steps for artistic social media critique
+should instead take a much more humble and supportive role contributing
+expertise, time and exposure to people working in and with these ecosystems.
+
+All three projects are based on federation. Which is the idea that
+various actors making up a network decide to cooperate in a collective
+fashion. Distributing responsibility and power as they do so. The future
+of social media has to be federated or there won't be any (for those
+privileged enough to retreat..). I think the case of Mastodon, where
+servers in the Ostatus federation are experimenting with blocking
+hostile content altogether from other servers in the federation (while
+still maintaining technical compatibility) are interesting experiments.
+For one, the debates over on-line harassment and fake news show that the
+grand 'electronic agoras', where one can find anyone and everyone
+clearly aren't conducive to productive interchange of ideas. Perhaps
+smallish, self caring communities are a good answer to the profit driven
+model of infinite interconnectedness.
+
+Lastly, I think it is no coincidence that two out of three of the
+projects have Germans leading development and all three are European
+based projects. I guess the following is anecdotal and partial evidence.
+Yet, I've not seen Google and Facebook run full page advertorials in
+leading daily newspapers except in the German ones. Ostensibly, part of
+an attempt on their side to prevent mass user exodus out of discomfort
+with the platform. It is in part German historical sensibility that
+leads to this kind of sensitivity on the issues of privacy, but it is
+also a sensitivity that is actively nurtured in public discourse. No
+Silicon Valley apologies are required for there to be scepsis. At the
+same time the European context apparently provides good enough living
+conditions for people to risk investing time in this kind of work. Risk
+which is also partly mitigated by initiatives such as German Prototype
+Fund and other European funding streams. However, testament to the fact
+that these projects have healthy communities and are part of wider
+ecosystems of support is that all projects finance themselves from
+diverse revenue streams, user contributions being the main one.
+
+So I'd say next steps for a social media critique would be to be more
+involved in (and involve more) these communities. To use positions of
+power to create opportunities for people working on these projects.
+While the center of development of these projects is Western-Europe they
+have many contributors outside of Europe as well, that could benefit
+even more from such opportunities. At the same time, doing close
+readings of the technical underpinnings of these media will also improve
+understanding of what is (not) going on. Now obviously all this was a
+news flash from within a very specific filter bubble, but actually from
+there 2017 was a very promising year for alternative media.
+
+> I still believe in vital methods to mass delete Facebook accounts.
+I'd say start doing so, but help your friends. Use your network effect
+to transition together to different kind of media. This is slow and
+laborious so mutual support is important. The time is always right, but
+now more than ever.
+
+* these are the dates of the project's source code first appearing in
+public, they are still actively updated and used.
+
+greetings,
+
+Roel
+
+