 If you're here on the Fediverse right now, you're probably experiencing shock. You're coming to grips with ideas that were previously foreign to you: decentralization, federation, instances, etc. This is intimidating -- probably even scary. But while you might feel like a noob (and you are), you're also on the cutting edge of *the* biggest communications revolution in a generation! 17 comments
When Facebook and Twitter were pitched to VCs, a key value proposition was that these corporations owned the network effect. Owning the network effect, meant owning personal data of every person who used the social network -- and then leveraging that data into other revenue streams. For awhile it worked. We were happy to give up our privacy and personal data in exchange for access to social media. Over the past 5 years, three things have wrecked the previous social media model: 1. Social media is becoming more transient and generational. In other words, Big Social cannot be assumed to be here forever. The Fediverse is the biggest communications revolution in a generation because it attacks Big Social in the following ways: 1. It welcomes transience and generational change This shift from Big Social to the Fediverse has been years in the making, iterated many times over. However, it looks sudden -- and most organizations are not prepared for this change! The social media industry was once worth $1 trillion -- perhaps that's now vanished! Some people might dismiss this as a bubble, but that's not the case. A bubble implies imagined value. During this past decade, social media was a critical aspect of communications. The decimation of social media is actually worse than a bubble. It's purposeful destruction of the public square. And it was possible because Big Social claimed the public square as their property. The real-world impact of the Fediverse is the reclamation of the public square on behalf of the common good. Like I have a hard time believing that governments, companies, non-profits, etc. are just going to say, "Well, time to stop providing the world with updates -- Elon Musk is taking his ball and going home." This is what might happen: @EnricoAriis This is why everyone should know that the Fediverse is bigger than Mastodon. *Bleep bloop* I have unrolled this Mastodon thread for you :) . You can find it here: https://threadunroller.com/thread/3708f122-6f1c-4ec7-aaca-bab3d09c8aa2 @atomicpoet Maybe it makes you happy to know that the German national public agency @bfdi started running a Mastodon server for all public authorities, including state and local authorities. They stopped their Twitter account.  @atomicpoet More like the ideas you've been safely shielded from by the corporations which somehow found a way to subvert the whole idea of the Internet, turning knowledge into ignorance and ignorance into profit. |
Gregory's Server
The first social media revolution started ~20 years ago.
The features may have changed, but the general structure has remained intact since then.
Since Friendster, every social network's value has been contingent upon grabbing as much of a mass of people as possible, and leveraging the network effect.
Why was MySpace, Twitter, Facebook valuable? Because of how many active users were on it.
At least, that was how the first social media model worked.