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if not now, when? Mutual aid and organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere
https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/
Mutual aid. Organizing. Sharing, contextualizing, and making meaning of news and health information to counter propaganda and information overload. The use cases for alternative social networks – not controlled by techbro white supremacist CEO's working with their cronies in authoritarian governments – practically write themselves in today's world. And with so many talented social scientists, designers, systems thinkers, and developers directly impacted by DOGE, MAGA, et al, there are a lot of people with the right skills for these new networks to make rapid progress.
The good news is there's a lot of promising work happening in the decentralized social media ecosystems known as the fediverses ("federated universes") and the ATmosphere (a fediverse built on Bluesky's AT protocol), including DAIR-tube, Blacksky, the #FreeFediverse, and more.
Still, as promising as these efforts are, there's still a long ways to go.
We need to accelerate work on a few things at once:
Find ways to leverage and improve the current prototypes for mutual aid, organizing, and counter propaganda, hate, and information overload
Help people move from corporate social networks - without losing their support networks, ties to communities, and connections with friends and family.
Build whatever comes next. Structurally, and in terms of applications, what will decentralized social networks, designed from the margins using design justice principles look like?
Easier said then done, but the opportunity is there. As Afsaneh Rigot says in Can We Build Tech That Is Not Oppressive?
"The details of how highly marginalized communities are criminalized are the key to how we can build robust and even scalable tech that is not oppressive. This is how Design From the Margins truly works....
The experience of the most criminalized in the US and globally shows how power really works. This knowledge, the workarounds, can also be translated into stealthy tech design, build, and engineering choices that help navigate systems."
How to make progress? Here's some of the questions I have ... very interested in hearing people's thoughts! If you'd prefer to respond anonymously, here's a CryptPad form (it takes a few seconds to load, so don't panic).
What examples have you seen of successfully leveraging social networks for organizing and mutual aid? (It's fine to include examples from centralized commercial social networks as well as alternative and/or decentralized social networks)
How could social networks better support organizing and mutual aid?
What do you see as the most promising and/or urgent short-term opportunities?
And if you'd like to get involved, you can leave your contact info in the form and we'll follow up with you once there are some concrete next steps in place. (Although you're also welcome to fill out the form anonymously!)
Notes (and thoughts) on organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere is a deep dive on the landscape today, based on multiple discussions with US-based organizers.
There's certainly room for progress!
stopped reading at "Us-based", sry
@sl007 fair enough, if there are people working on similar projects elsewhere I'm certainly interested in connecting with them!