I was just looking at the musings of @Gargron yesterday, and I love his vision for the #Mastodon platform. What I question, though, especially considering I'm the head of a division of a company, now, no matter how small, is how that vision will be accomplished in a world of instant gratification and advertising. How will companies change their mindsets, as well as their promotion methods in order not to have to rely on the big centralized networks? Especially for startups trying desperately to get up off the ground. I would love to hear thoughts and comments on this.
twitter was expected to be the heartbeat of the internet. It could have been the pipeline through which all information flowed. Advertising and deviating from open standards killed that future. Twitter will now never be more than a just another social media platform. Social media platforms do not have to be the future of the human interfacable internet.
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@cambridgeport90 @Gargron
Open systems, such as #Mastodon et.al, do not face the same constraints as commercial enterprises. Without advertising restrictions you have no incentive to hive off portions of your API. This allows for representations of the information flowing through the systems to be adjusted to suit various needs. It also allows for the competition of those services that represent the data, ultimately leading to a better "end user product / experience".
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What might be even more impactful than this, is that with open systems you can interop with other services easily, see #peertube on #Mastodon. This is how a federated network can become integral to the fabric of the internet. A set of standards for information exchange that is open and available for everyone^1.
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Ultimately profit seeking companies, including startups will utilize such a network, not for it's user base (though that is increasing every day), but because they can customize it to meet the needs of their business and the fact that its based on a series of open standards that simplify interoperability and will still function, even if large members of the federation collapse.
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These profit seeking companies will certainly include adverts with their services. However, unlike today, these adverts will be only at user endpoints, not integral to the backbone of the information flow.
[1] One caveat of this that I see to this openness is that while no one will be selling off access to info to Cambridge Analytica, it will be because this info is already out there in the wild.
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@alexjgriffith So, then, for open source, we're on the right track. But if federation is good, then why isn't every single organization or service supporting it? Thinking of orgs like Foursquare, Disqus, and others like that that provide a variety of social interactions. And ... on a different note, I'm surprised that with the location features of ActivityPub, Foursquare hasn't become decentralized already. That's just one example. Disqus is another one. They offer sharing on Twitter, facebook, but why not Mastodon? just a sort of rambling thought, not necessarily like anyone from there is up here. (that's another one I'm wondering. Some of the biggest companies in tech; Microsoft, Dell, IBM/Lenovo, with all the research they do, I'm surprised to not see their official presences up here.)
@cambridgeport90
I don't think their will be critical adoption of #mastodon, or other federated services, as a traditional social media outlet. Rather, once the system becomes stable and has been proven to scale, companies will begin to either build on top of it or integrate it more completly into their proprietary systems. They just don't know this can be done yet because it's not feasible with current platforms.
@cambridgeport90
With regards to Disqus at least, mastodon and federation make it completely obsolete. The only reason it still exists is Mindshare, and unlike FB and the bird site that Mindshare is not "to big to fail".
@alexjgriffith I know. But ... like everything else, I'm stuck with it because of the delay in recognizing web standards. Twitter? I just had to set stormlighttech up with an application ... are you kidding me? You have to apply for access to an API?, last week,and it makes me feel not very good.Not to mention, that account on Twitter loses more followers than it gains. Is it just me, or does it seem easier to gain followers on here? There was a time when this account was gaining at least a follower or two a day. My project Twitter account, on the other hand? We lose at least 30 per week. Not to mention, how do I convince my friends to join Mastodon? I've got a friend, and he's always been a social media person, playing the role of social media manager for nonproffits, no less, who hasn't joined up here. What do I need to do to get him to?
But even then, until there is organic critical mass why would a corp want to use #mastodon as a "social media" platform?
As an individual influencer, trying to get people to use mastodon may be a loosing battle, but as a utility federated services outstrip their garden walled opponents.
If they had input on the site design they could incorporate mastodon as a self hosted comment tool tool. They could render their account real time on their website - 2/3
They could release a simple update app that pushes out updates via pub sub in a federated fashion. The list goes on. - 3/3
@alexjgriffith Are there apps that support both? I wasn't aware such things existed?
@cambridgeport90
There are, but I don't know if there are any good ones. Twidere does, however it's awful.
@alexjgriffith I'll have to ask. He tweets on his blog account a lot, but not as much on his personal one. Then again, I tweet on Twitter an inordinent amount as well, though probably because the interface I use is mostly only accessible via the ears, not the eyes.
@cambridgeport90
I don't see what the sell is for your friend to include mastodon in his activities. There are some cross posting tools, but the additional effort may not be worth it for them.
To lower that barrier you could suggest a good app that supports both mastodon and the bird site - 1/3