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[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] However, one major lesson of Musk’s takeover is that these corporate sites are at the end of day controlled by billionaires. Whether it’s Musk or Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, why should we trust control of our social […]

@rwg I really enjoyed the "Move Slowly and Build Bridges" talk this afternoon! Numerous others, none of whom I know, asked good questions and got good answers from you. We're at a fascinating moment in the #socialmedia space; we have a confluence of new capacity and sudden need that I hope our […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] When he talks about Marcia’s efforts to make Playvicious and the rest of the fediverse a better place, Ro absolutely gushes.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

I'm doing a bit of a mini-Western Canada book tour for "Move Slowly and Build Bridges!" I'm talking in Edmonton and Burnaby, BC. Maybe I'll see some of you at one of these events! https://libcal.macewan.ca/event/3981088 […]

If you’re looking for something Fedi to do in Edmonton today, our very own @dawn from #CoSocialCa will be on a panel with @chad to talk about the new book from @rwg#cosocialca“Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media” Check it out here […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] My plot summary doesn’t do justice to the sheer chaos of the film. As one critic notes, Godmonster “is the strangest, most surreal exploitation movie ever made.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Contributor Covenant. Federation. It’s a somewhat happy accident we have these concepts. The etymology of “federation” comes from Latin, foedus, meaning a diplomatic agreement – specifically, a covenant – between two […]

Privacy is patriotic. Use a VPN. Install an ad blocker. Quit Google and Meta, use privacy-forward alternatives like Proton, Duck Duck Go, and the fediverse instead. Throw out your “smart” devices. Use the app Permission Slip to request data deletion from corporations. If you won’t do it for […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Mastodon instance codes of conduct can be created in different ways. Some instance admins simply copy language from the Mastodon Server Covenant or the original instance, Mastodon.social. Many instance admins I spoke to […]

Reading scholarship on #resistance to #ai — I just want younger people to know, this is different. In my memory, theorists and practitioners didn't feel bound to organize a *resistance* to word processors or gps or email. Now, maybe we all turned technophobe all of a sudden. But maybe, just […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] I spoke with T.X. Watson, the author of a solarpunk short story and former editor of a solarpunk webzine. For Watson, solarpunk is speculation about the near future.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com […]

That old joke, "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out" has a grain of truth. I'm at a #toronto #marlies game and there were three fights in the first 15 seconds.

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] The lack of profitability is only one part of the answer, however. The other part has to do with a spat between Facebook and Google over open technical protocols. In 2007, Google convened a group of Facebook competitors to […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Unlike corporate social media and the infinite scroll, the fediverse is open for experimentation. There are innovations possible with fediverse technologies that are not possible on corporate social media. This is a strong […]

[uspol] I thought he campaigned on making crypto so valuable eggs would be cheaper

“Canada's incentive program for zero-emissions vehicles, known as iZEV, was suspended more than a year ago after it ran out of money due to high demand.” Canadian consumers: we want EVs! Government of Canada: Hello, we're from 2005. Let's do Fuel Efficiency! #canpoli #cdnpoli #ev […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Solarpunk originates in Brazilian science fiction in the early 2010s. Unlike cyberpunk or other -punk science fiction genres, solarpunk is not dystopian. Appearing in anthologies, solarpunk stories feature people shedding […]

It is not too late to register for "Move Slowly and Build Bridges" at MacEwan University in #Edmonton #YEG https://libcal.macewan.ca/event/3981088 Speaker and panelists @rwg @chad#edmonton#yegdawn and Jordan Foster @avilewis

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] As VICE reported in late 2016, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey publicly called for advice from Twitter users on how to make the service better.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

Next month, I'll give a book talk at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta. It's an in-person event and I do believe they're planning on bringing together a lot of area fediverse folks. https://libcal.macewan.ca/calendar/library/RobertGehl I'll talk about Move Slowly and Build Bridges, my […]

Pleased to announce that my book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media, is now available online, and will be out in print in a couple weeks! https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com That site has more stuff, too -- links to related […]

Is #signal down for anyone else? I can't connect to it.

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] As for the three features of covenantal federalism, the fediverse demonstrates those, as well. The fediverse is noncentralized – it is allergic to powerful centers. An instance’s members consent to abide by a code of […]

The latest FOSS Academic post is: New Nextcloud with Possible Digital Sovereignty https://fossacademic.tech/2026/02/01/new-nc.html I discuss setting up a new Nextcloud instance on Canadian public infrastructure, moving away from my previous US-based host. I talk about the "how" of that […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Ehmke didn’t start small. During and immediately after her transition, she and her allies tackled one of the most sacred rituals in the tech world: the convention, or “con” for short.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com […]

it's all barreling towards the inevitable conclusion... I have to learn how to use #docker, don't I?

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] However, while Playvious.social is no more, its influence echoes across the fediverse. These echoes can be seen to this day in two key places: fediblock, one of the most important hashtags on the fediverse, was co-created […]

[uspol] You. Yes, you, reading this. So much is going on. So much shitty stuff. It can be overwhelming and depressing. But you know what? You have a least one thing to be cheerful about. Unlike so many awful billionaires and horrible humans... *you are not in the Epstein files.* Hold your […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] The lack of corporate social media involvement in the SocialWG’s work was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the group was free to conceptualize social media in any way they saw fit without having to address the particular […]

On my way to #Fosdem while reading 'Move Slowly & Build Bridges by Robert W. Gehl aka @rwg Highly recommended read for anyone, especially if you're interested in alternative #SocialMedia, #Fediverse, #OpenSource, #Tech, #Mastodon and the people involved […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The copyright notice on a PDF sourced from an academic database is perfectly OCRed, while the actual document is hot OCR garbage. This is the digital era's version of the commercials are always much louder than the television show.

that whooshing sound you just heard was me upgrading #zotero to their new version, 8.0. Unfortunately, I've run into a bug involving Zotero's PDF reader and now I can hardly get anything done! But I did report it like a good human. I'm sure they will fix it. But I don't recommend upgrading just […]

I wrote a little post for Own Your Digital (a Canadian project to help folks move to the fedi). It's called "The Canadian Network Effect": https://ownyourdigital.ca/news/the-canadian-network-effect/ Basically, I'm addressing something I hear all the time about the fediverse, whether it's […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] I argued that GNU social and other alternative social media “are doing more than decrying what they see as the problems of mainstream social media; they are working to build better systems.” […]

[snark, Canada] Why is everyone in Canada obsessed with this Ryan wedding event? Is this Ryan person a royal or something?

Yesterday I met with a bunch of folks who plan on advocating for politicians, municipalities, journalists, and others to set up accounts on the #fediverse. The focus is on Canada. I'm totally on board for it, because I've long advocated for folks to leave corporate social media, and let's face […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] There are four shortcomings of concentrated use of Amazon and Cloudflare. First, it is a major flaw in the attempt to make the fediverse noncentralized. While instances are run by admins in a noncentralized manner, from […]

People are acting like this move from #mozilla is bad: https://stateof.mozilla.org/ But I disagree! "Doing for AI what we did for the web" -- if they're serious, that will be great! Push AI down to <1% of all Internet traffic? If Mozilla can do that -- like they did with Firefox -- I'd thank them!

Content moderation / AI scholars - what's the best paper you're aware of that quantitatively studies the problem of creativity in the evasion of content moderation systems? My go-to is @stevie et al, but surely there are more recent works? https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2818048.2819963

Lastest FOSS Academic post is: Fresh New Look, Same Great Flavor! I worked with @are0h to update the blog. Ro supplied the CSS and I continue to supply the hand-crafted Python site generation. The result? Some more of that FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Even the lack of behavioral advertising doesn’t explain why Mastodon grew in the 2016-2017 period. Another inheritance from GNU social is the FOSS model of community development. Mastodon has been fueled by contributions […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] In our conversation he argued that, since his childhood, computation has shifted away from our control over personal devices and towards distant, monopolistic centers – including corporate social media. Instead of having […]

The Canadian Political Fediverse is growing! Avi Lewis @avilewis joined today! He joins NDP leadership candidates @votetanille and @tonymcquailgreenprogressive! Add in BC Greens @mlabotterell and @emilylowan And the pioneer of them all! Senator Simons! […] [Original post on socialbc.ca]

Good to see @avilewis joining the ranks of Canadian politicians on the fediverse. The more politicians and journalists who move here away from US tech, the better!

Even recent history is hard for people. “What I’m more interested in is just sort of the cultural vibe shift that the change in ownership will bring,” said Harbath. She said TikTok’s fate could mirror what happened when Musk took over Twitter — “before he even made changes, there was kind of a […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] The answer is yes, but artists are also hedging their bets.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

ICE spotted near Blair high school in #silverspring, #md

Hearing about tech workers and (especially) execs that insist that #ai is their employee, their friend, their colleague because it always placates their every request, and my bro, that is not collaboration; that is palliative care.

Hey, Canadians! I'm looking for recommendations for podcasts about Canada. Right now I listen to quite a few, mostly focusing on politics and news. I also listen to APTN news about Indigenous issues. But there's a glaring gap: Quebec. I'm an American so of course I never learned French, and […]