I keep thinking about #Threads / #ActivityPub / #Mastodon interoperability - the deliciously virtual federation that Meta made happen purely through media announcements.
There's a the Verge interview with Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, where he says:
"I do think that more and more people are going to be interested in and appreciate more open systems. And I think that’s the direction of travel for the industry."
and adds:
"Creators are a really good example. Creators are becoming more and more savvy. They’re using more and more platforms. It’s becoming rarer that a creator is completely attached to one platform because they’re always worried about the risk of being overly beholden to one company that they obviously can’t control".
So we have Meta betting - adventurously - on something that they see as the future, but also a major challenge for platforms. And also addressing the needs of creators, who no longer want to be bound by platforms (like Instagram or Facebook).
This is either very exciting or quite ridiculous. If Threads do indeed federate, Meta will be a company that will have in its portfolio both closed and open platforms.
Final quote from Mosseri:
"We know that we need to evolve, or else we run the risk of becoming irrelevant."
There's a saying in Poland: "honey for your heart", the nicest words that you could hear from someone. Let's see if this becomes reality, or remains in the virtual realm.
ps. And then there's the interesting bit about DMs - where Mosseri declares that these will not be supported - in order not to further fragmen the DM space. But I wonder... what if it is a play that's meant to "protect" Threads from #DMA #interoperability requirements?
There are a lot of funny things there. For example, with ActivityPub the creator is no longer beholden to one company that they can't control but rather an untold number of federated instances that they can't control.
But my main reaction is that a lot of people focus on questions like, Will creators post on Threads? while overlooking that with federation Threads will tap into a massive amount of content for its readers.
Finally, DMs in ActivityPub are a bit different from how they exist in other platforms, as they aren't really a second stream but rather the same as any other public post, just with a smaller declared audience.
To say DMs will not be supported sounds like it might be an issue of terminology.
