Yes. Many years ago, I had a hot summer affair with Ayn Rand. Moaning with pleasure, I read “Atlas Shrugged” through (including 181-pages long programmatic monologue of John Galt). When I finished reading, I looked around, and said to myself, “No f… way!”

Historically, that was my turning point towards anarchism.

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Hi, I am (at least temporarily) back. No time for chats, unfortunately. War demands attention and effort. But I am getting more active internationally again, so I may have some interesting things to publish (not necessarily just technology).

I think this is the least probable group of adopters for now, at least until we reach the early majority stage. They live in a groomed bubble of corpoinfluence and are not likely to break out on themselves. The demographics, however, is on our side. In every generation there is always a group of dissidents, actively looking for something “above and beyond” and – even bigger – a group of those who see no alternative but getting molded into a shape that mainstream dictates.

IMO it is not the fediverse lack of anything. It is rather that fediverse appeals to those, who are not happy with the centralized media ecosystem. And such people are:

• a minority (while growing)
• very often invested in their long-term footprint in the former environment
• also often not knowing what is the fediverse about and what would they trade their “comfort zone” for.

I believe it is to us, precursors, to keep “educating, agitating and organizing” long-term, so more and more people come here, shed their toxic habits acquired in the corpozone, and become happier and caring members of their communities.

What it needs, I believe, is

1. Building our own social permaculture ecosystem.
2. Supporting technical infrastructure of fediverse by elaborating other levels of social dynamics, for example as I outlined here: https://lemmy.ml/post/63108
3. Expanding the variety of needs (social, psychological and material) fediverse services can fulfil, so people keep coming not just for a whiff of freedom. :-)

“They come for services, they stay for freedom”

Well, for now, I have installed osada (osa.tepewu.pl) and it works. Until I get a substantial help with Hubzilla or learn some serious reason to swich to Zap, so be it.

Thanks, I will try to ask there. Fully confused now…

There are two problems with it:

1. I find Hubzilla extremely unfriendly for a non-coding admin, particularly if run within Yunohost. I was unable to get any feedback from Mario, wha – if I get it right – is Hubzilla main dev. Zotadel is down. Hubzilla dev forum is unresponsive and Hubzilla room on Matrix seems to be above my level of competence. To do what I have to do, I’d need a full time admin/dev support which I don’t have.

2. Zap is clearly declared out of AP zone, while retaining nomadic identity. I need something to interact with fediverse, not just within Zot family.

So far, Osada seems to be the least problematic and, while I see its limits (which can be later overcome with some custom plugins) I like it.

Try “edit wars” :-)

I am more and more interested in getting into hubzilla. It surely has a potential to become community hub. I just need someone to help me with configuration and integration.

I am also on SocialHub, slowly exploring discussions there.

While I am an infrastructure freak and part-time technologist, I also feel that we need to acknowledge “the geek problem”, as stated by Hamish Campbell. Not being a Marxist, I see strong potential in dialectical tension between social and technological visionaries and “design thinkers”, prioritizing already identified and expressed needs. This tension can move us ahead without struggling for unified and “one for all” answers.

I have just translated a piece by John Holloway, originally published here. I believe there is a fragment there that may help to develop a meta-narration for our joint efforts:

…a politics of questions is very different from a politics of answers. If we have the answers, it is our duty to explain them to others. That is what the state does, that is what vanguardist parties do. If we have questions but no answers, then we must discuss them together to try and find ways forward. “Preguntando caminamos,” as the Zapatistas say: “Asking we walk.”

Absolutely!

• NetCommons: https://kanenasblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/27/between-the-kill-switch-and-facebook-zero/
• Platform Cooperatives: https://czytanki.tepewu.pl/calibre/book/4
• Economic self-organisation: https://czytanki.tepewu.pl/calibre/book/6

What is your opinion abut usability in the context I gave? From some other source I got this:

Zap and Osada do one thing (social networking) and do it well. Use Osada if you want a really good ActivityPub server, and use Zap if you want or need nomadic identity and much stronger privacy than the fediverse can offer. Use Hubzilla if you actually know what a ‘platform’ is and want to build something great (decentralised communities and cities with shoppes and businesses that all respect your freedom) rather than than just waste your life in idle chit-chat.

What says you?

Shall we compare notes? I believe the sociopolitical aspect is primary, as long as there is interoperability on technical level. My interest in ZOT family comes from the fact that they are largely ignored in Fediverse discourse and I would like to know why.

For new readers here, let me emphasize that these are not theoretical cases. In my day job I participate in a team that is working towards finding an innovative solution for these two problems and – if I can offer a viable proposal – it is an opportunity to get funding for a small PoC project.