Edit: Attention! The venue is at max capacity, so if you did not sign up to the meetup link they can not let you in. The meetup link currently has a queue of 30 people who want to attend..

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Low-Tech Magazine explores techniques of the past and combines them with the knowledge of today to propose more sustainable futures.

Based on this idea, Kris de Decker and Roel Roscam Abbing organize an evening exploring concepts from the Internet's history that can help create a more sustainable future internet. With talks by Kris De Decker, @rra and @timrodenbroeker

How about systems where independent publishers could own their platform? Or what about media where you actually get to see posts from those you follow?

The evening will start with short talks and then make space for a larger discussion and chats over a drink. Are you curious what fresh ideas from the past can tell us about the future and who are the people working on them? Join us at #Akasha Hub in #Barcelona on the 21st of February.

More info: https://www.meetup.com/es-ES/akashabarcelona/events/299157033/

Poster design by @johannagratzer

Wow the Mastodon FAQ on Meta is a piece of work. Really short-sighted and apolitical.

"Will Meta embrace-extend-extinguish the ActivityPub protocol?"

1. Yes.
2. 'No, look at XMPP, that is still around' is the worst argument. XMPP is completely harmless and neutered with respect to challenging platform power. There are great people working on it and I use it daily for many years, but from a political perspective it is dead. It improves but is steadily years behind the curve with features. Momentum and perspective matter! It could have been turned around if an easy integration with Mastodon was made as it would have given Mastodon instances e2ee messaging, but that didn't happen. (Not too late for that yet btw!)
3. Here is how Meta will EEE ActivityPub:
It will start with Meta being the first ones that ship full account portability including post history. That is hard problem to solve decentralized, which is why we have it yet. But Meta won't care about that. They will just use Meta nameservers as a centralized identity provider which will make it possible. (Similar to how Bluesky does it btw. ) They are extremely well positioned to do this, FB is already "the identity platform" and there is regulatory pressure. From there on there will be increasing incompatibility and extensions on Meta's terms.

Yes donating to the admin is nice, but have you considered we can use this energy to build institutions for actual user power?

Large scale user unions which fund the systemic development and sustainability of this environment? That fund moderation labor across the network?

Democratic institutions that can push back simultaneously against Big Tech, BDFL like Mastodon and misguided legislation to regulate the internet?

Umbrella organizations that can shield users from arbitrary abuses of instances and simultaneously assist teams running instances with legal issues, know-how, funds and best practices?

We're currently only scratching the surface of what federated social networks can be and we need to be way more ambitious.

> tfw @darius has written a book about your favorite videogame.

JA2 is hands down one of the best and weirdest games made. Released in 1999 people are still modding it over 20 years later. Other studios have purchased the naming rights and developed all kinds of sequels and spin-offs but no one has managed to get even close. The mods are pretty good however (mostly building on never finished features already present in the engine) and one can come back to the game every few years.

Looking forward to read it!

https://bossfightbooks.com/products/jagged-alliance-2-by-darius-kazemi

"I also got a bad taste in my mouth from Twitter supporting kinds of speech that I don't particularly agree with, and I began to feel like putting my toys and art there was just adding value to the network. For a while I felt that the tradeoff was that the art I published there still enriched my life and the lives of my friends. At some point, though, I started to feel like the balance got out of whack, and I could do more good by putting my work on alternate networks and giving people a reason to get off Twitter. "

All cultural producers with some degree of audience and influence should really think about this: what structures do I validate by my presence? What and whose structures do I reinforce? What other places can I advantage?

@darius in https://logicmag.io/security/party-at-my-house-darius-kazemi-on-human-scaled-social-media/