Open vs. Closed: The Fight for a New Internet

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A federated internet is forming. It's built on open protocols like ActivityPub & connects services like Mastodon, Threads, Pixelfed, Tumblr, Wordpress and more into a connected network known as the fediverse. And everyone from tech enthusiasts to Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey seem to want in.

The Story Behind

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Stock images, videos & music by AP Archive, Reuters, Getty, Storyblocks, Epidemic Sound.

[fedora]

It is amazing to see open platforms thriving and more people using open source software on a daily basis 🎉

[VivaldiBrowser]

We do love the Fediverse. Thank you for the shoutout!

[thepopmanbrad]

my father still uses the you got mail sound for his notifications which is funny to me

[RemotHuman]

I think a big comparison is email, since its also an interoperable protocol between different mailservers. One problem with email is that the big players like google have created network effects by making smaller email servers more likely to get put in the spam folder, which makes companies and organizations less willing to host their own mail server like they used to, and instead centralize on google or Microsoft etc. Will this same thing happen with the fediverse once it gets big enough for people to start to send spam with it (does it work like that?), and so the existing big servers will automatically block newer and smaller players leading to a network effect where you can't really create a new server? Just like email today?

[alexikensen]

People: * freely chatting with their friends *
Facebook: absolutely not

[chrishuhn]

Back then, everyone mocked Compuserve and AOL users for not having access to The Real Internet™

[Komentujebomoge]

4:10 POV: Someone sees your search history.

[possamei]

I swear to god this is one lf the most underrated channels on youtube. Been watching you for almost 8 years. Keep up the good work, I really really like the format you've got going on!

[IlRovina]

The instant someone explained to me that the fediverse worked very similarly to the email I immediately got it.

Not so difficult to understand after all, at least the general idea.

[docopoper]

To be fair, the argument that some servers might refuse to delete your content is very similar to pointing out that people can download your YouTube videos. Though true that it might be a lot more pervasive. It'll be interesting to see how the law interacts with that eventuality if it occurs.

[tivrusky]

What you're also seeing with Mastodon is also a policy choice. They call it the Server Covenant -- essentially, to get listed on their first-party directory, your instance has to commit to a baseline set of content moderation rules. (If memory serves this was shortly after Gab moved to a Mastodon instance, but don't quote me on this.) So while it's still *possible* to discover instances that don't, to a certain degree there's a filter for it being applied to the network at large.

[rompis.a]

What's stopping this ActivityPub network from sharing the same fate as WWW—that is, becoming commercialized to the point of enshittification?

[OOOOOO-dxzu]

One thing that I can foresee happening is a further fragmentation of the internet. You can choose to leave a federation if you do not like it, join another, or even start your own. Kind of like subreddits, fragmenting users and giving them their own bespoke experiences. But it can also lead to echo chambers that fuel extremism. Which we already see on reddit to a level.

[Grizazzle]

Been online since the BBS and CompuServe days. Never used AOL or MSN because it wasn't necessary. All you needed was a dial-up ISP.

[LeoAngora]

I would like to see this in the instant messaging universe. Same platform for every phone number, users choose their operator (Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp, Line, etc)

[shaun_rambaran]

"enshitify" is my new favourite word! hahahahahaha

[TheGuillotineKing]

Fun Fact AOL still exist and have over a million subscribers most of the subscribers signed up more than a decade ago and forgot

[AQDuck]

To be honest this is one of the last channels I would expect making a dedicated ActivityPub video this "early" in its life.

[SleepyPossums]

These are the kinds of conversations I want us to be having. It’s thoughtful, interesting, and important.

Thank you for making another great video!

[bubbleman]

Now I finally know what URL stands for :D