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The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

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Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#171

Post by indigochill »

zoogeny wrote: post #92

This is a very interesting concept and one I think most comments here are missing. This isn't a question as to why Mastodon (or "Fediverse") has yet to catch on in the wider public. It is more a question as to why scholarly societies are still organized around paid journals. I think the answer to that isn't inertia or greed. I would argue that the tools of federation aren't necessarily suitable to that specific probl…

> There is a difference between tweets and feeds compared to peer-reviewed papers in magazine-like journals.

> Federation might be a part of a solution to the problem, but no where near the whole solution.

To be clear, federation and even the ActivityPub protocol have nothing to do with the tweet-like interface of Mastodon (and ActivityPub isn't the only way to federate, either. Email is federated), although TBF the article itself fails to make this distinction clear. There are a number of ActivityPub applications which use a different presentation:

* Pixelfed: Basically federated Instagram

* WriteFreely: federated super-minimalist long-form blogging

* Wordpress: Ubiquitous (maximalist?) long-form blogging platform that has recently added ActivityPub support

That said, I'll admit I have no idea what the obstacles are since I never got into that world. Are there technical requirements which nothing else fulfills? Does it mainly require providing a means of searching for research documents in different stages of review and validating that an individual is a legitimate reviewer/contributor (something like the authorization around git, come to think of it)?

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#172

Post by mananaysiempre »

RandomLensman wrote: post #151
mananaysiempre wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Illegal in many countries post the rise of social democracy, for what it’s worth—the US being a notable exception.)

Not really true for Germany during the cold war, pretty sure that wasn't the only example. Just think about things like security clearances.

France specifically lists political affiliation among protected categories, while post-socialist countries flat out prohibit hiring decisions on anything unrelated to the ability to perform the job (and arguing “cultural fit” qualifies would be a difficult proposition, were the rejected hire to actually go to court).

Governments may be allowed to be more discriminatory for national security reasons, and AFAICT security clearances are in part a backdoor to get this to be permissible in private employment as well.

(Of course, it’s a different story if the political organization in question is actually banned, but in most civilized places that’s a very high bar—I’d argue that’s one of the qualifications of the moniker, even.)

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#173

Post by RandomLensman »

mananaysiempre wrote: post #172
RandomLensman wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really true for Germany during the cold war, pretty sure that wasn't the only example. Just think about things like security clearances.

France specifically lists political affiliation among protected categories, while post-socialist countries flat out prohibit hiring decisions on anything unrelated to the ability to perform the job (and arguing “cultural fit” qualifies would be a difficult proposition, were the rejected hire to actually go to court). Governments may be allowed to be more discriminatory for national security reasons, and AFAICT securi…

Not to forget: Government is also a large employer, not just the private sector.

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#174

Post by [deleted] »

RandomLensman wrote: post #173
mananaysiempre wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France specifically lists political affiliation among protected categories, while post-socialist countries flat out prohibit hiring decisions on anything unrelated to the ability to perform the job (and arguing “cultural fit” qualifies would be a difficult proposition, were the rejected hire to actually go to court). Governments may be allowed to be more discriminatory for national security reasons, and AFAICT securi…

Not to forget: Government is also a large employer, not just the private sector.

[deleted]

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#175

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos »

wolfendin wrote: post #29
Eumenes wrote: post #12

How about not naming it the "Fediverse" .. sounds like some .gov thing nobody wants to be part of unless they have to pay taxes or register a car.

“Twitter” and “tweeting” also sounded stupid in 2007.

It was improved by adding the 'e'

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#176

Post by keymasta »

xkekjrktllss wrote: post #2

[flagged]

I don't understand why you would get downvotes. Maybe it's because you're making a general point, non-specific to the topic at hand (Fediverse). Or maybe it's because Capitalism is the dominant ideology around these parts (Earth).

It's obvious to many, who've seen through the motive of greed, that collaboration yields more "economic" results. Economy can be a synonym for efficiency, but in modern usage is the definition of a caste system where groups exist primarily to extract the blood of those doing the real work.

But people practice doublethink, equating lord-serf "economies" with effectiveness, because greed (the motive to serve ones own interests) == good, and because profit (the act of taking excess value generated, for oneself) == good. Because somehow a selfish motive makes the work legitimate, because that's how "the world works". Or because there are examples of useful work having happened under this system.

Until they suffer for it many won't be able to see the problem, but luckily the vampires get more and more brazen, to the point where even people living life "the right way" have began stuggling in many cases. So when the previously-sheltered upper castes begin to bleed out into the ever-gaping maw of moloch [0], there will be change in perception. The Capitalists are insatiable (luckily [?]), which I think will eventually undo the idea. It will take more blood, and more time, but I feel it's starting to happen.

All this to say, that you are not alone in your vantage. And here's Ginsberg excerpted, on what I interpret to be this exact topic (which granted, is only my personal interpretation).

"Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments! Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!"

[0] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#177

Post by piaste »

OfSanguineFire wrote: post #155

My concern with scholarship on the fediverse would be clash between academic cultures, and potential exclusion. Some fields of the humanities in some parts of the world do not have the absorbing interest in race/sexuality/gender/power that North American and Western European academia does; they look at those developments with bemusement or horror, and frequently complain about how funding gets tied to using Westerner…

This is a truly bizarre critique, because it seems completely backwards in every respect.

The ability to not be beholden to the preferences of whoever runs a fedi server is, in fact, the #1 selling point of federated network in the first place.

And all other alternatives are far worse in that specific aspect you bring. There is a very mild barrier to running your own Mastodon/PeerTube/etc. instance (you don't even have to self-host, you can get one on Masto.host or similar services). But it is flat-out impossible to run your own Twitter or Youtube or Discord.

And most cloud services adhere strictly not just to Western cultural norms, but specifically to Bay Area cultural norms, which are even more narrow.

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#178

Post by flagrant_taco »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #55
flagrant_taco wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume it's better these days, but Mastodon avoided adding proper search for years because the core devs knew there was plenty of questionable content or there and making it discoverable would put many hosts at legal risk.

That's not at all why mastodon doesn't have search. It's all about stopping "bullying" when you post something stupid.

I'll see if I can find the links, it's been a while since I last saw them, but there was a very active GitHub issue on the main Mastodon repo back in 2017 or 2018 related to search. It came down to concerns over content that is considered acceptable in some cultures and child pornography in others.

Re: The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore

#180

Post by networkchad »

OfSanguineFire wrote: post #155

My concern with scholarship on the fediverse would be clash between academic cultures, and potential exclusion. Some fields of the humanities in some parts of the world do not have the absorbing interest in race/sexuality/gender/power that North American and Western European academia does; they look at those developments with bemusement or horror, and frequently complain about how funding gets tied to using Westerner…

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