Month: November 2024

The Future of Social Media: Why Decentralizing and the Fediverse Matter Now More Than Ever

~ Taran ~ Leave a comment

There was a time before social media and social networks as we know them, where people would talk to each other in person, isolated by geography. Then we figured out how to send our writing, and there was a period when pen-pals and postcards were important. News organizations adopted technology faster as reports came in from an ever increasing geography until, finally, we ran out of geography.

Social media has become an integral part of our lives, connecting us to friends, families, communities, and global events in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. Yet, as platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now X) dominate our digital landscape, serious questions arise about privacy, control, and freedom. Who owns our data? How are algorithms shaping our perceptions? Are we truly free in these spaces? Are we instead slaves to the algorithms?

It’s time to rethink social media. Enter decentralization and the Fediverse—a revolutionary approach to online networking that prioritizes freedom, community, and individual ownership.

The Problem with Centralized Social Media And Networks

At their core, mainstream social media platforms operate on a centralized model. They are controlled by corporations with one primary goal: profit. This model creates several challenges:

  1. Privacy Violations: Your data – likes, shares, private messages—becomes a commodity, sold to advertisers and third parties.
  2. Algorithmic Control: Centralized platforms decide what you see, often prioritizing sensational or divisive content to keep you engaged longer.
  3. Censorship: Content moderation decisions are made by corporations, leading to debates about free speech and fair enforcement of rules.
  4. Monopolization: A handful of companies dominate the space, stifling innovation and giving users little choice.

All of this comes to the fore with the recent issues in the United States surrounding Tik-Tok, which Jon Oliver recently mentioned on his show and which I mentioned here on KnowProSE.com prior. The same reasons that they want to ban TikTok are largely the same things other social networks already do – it’s just who they do it for or could potentially do it for. Yes, they are as guilty as any other social network of the same problems above.

These are real issues, too, related to who owns what regarding… you. They often leave you looking at the same kind of content and drag you down a rabbit hole while simply supporting your biases, and should you step out of line, you might find your reach limited or in some cases completely taken away. These issues have left many users feeling trapped, frustrated, and disillusioned.

Recently, there has been a reported mass exodus from one controlled network to another – from Twitter to BlueSky.

There’s a better way.

What Is the Fediverse?

The Fediverse (short for “federated universe”) is a network of interconnected, decentralized platforms that communicate using open standards. Unlike traditional social media, the Fediverse is not controlled by a single entity. Instead, it consists of independently operated servers—called “instances”—that can interact with each other.

Popular platforms within the Fediverse include:

  • Mastodon: A decentralized alternative to Twitter.
  • Pixelfed: An Instagram-like platform for sharing photos.
  • Peertube: A decentralized video-sharing platform.
  • WriteFreely: A blogging platform with a focus on minimalism and privacy.

These platforms empower users by giving them control over their data, their communities, and their online experiences.

Why Decentralization Matters

  1. Data Ownership: In the Fediverse, your data stays under your control. Each server is independently operated, and many prioritize privacy and transparency.
  2. Freedom of Choice: You can choose or create a server that aligns with your values. If you don’t like one instance, you can switch to another without losing your connections.
  3. Resilience Against Censorship: No single entity has the power to shut down the entire network.
  4. Community-Centric: Instead of being shaped by algorithms, communities in the Fediverse are human-driven and often self-moderated.

How You Can Join the Movement

  1. Explore Fediverse Platforms: Start by creating an account on Mastodon or another Fediverse platform. Many websites like joinmastodon.org can help you find the right instance.
  2. Support Decentralization: Advocate for open standards and decentralized technologies in your circles.
  3. Educate Others: Share the benefits of decentralization with your friends and family. Help them see that alternatives exist.
  4. Contribute to the Ecosystem: If you’re tech-savvy, consider hosting your own instance or contributing to open-source projects within the Fediverse.

The Call to Action

Social media doesn’t have to be controlled by a handful of tech giants. The Fediverse represents a vision for a better internet—one that values privacy, freedom, and genuine community. By choosing decentralized platforms, you’re taking a stand for a more equitable digital future.

So, what are you waiting for? Explore the Fediverse, join the conversation, and help build a social media landscape that works for everyone, not just the corporations.

Take the first step today. Decentralize your social media life and reclaim your digital freedom!

joinmastodon.org

When You Can’t Trust Voices.

~ Taran ~ Leave a comment

Generative AI is allowing people to do all sorts of things, including imitating voices we have come to respect and trust over the years. In the most recent case of Sir David Attenborough, he greatly objects to it and finds it ‘profoundly disturbing’.

His voice is being used in all manner of ways.

It wasn’t long ago that Scarlet Johannson suffered such an insult that was quickly ‘disappeared’.

The difference here is that a man who has spent decades showing people the natural world has his voice being used in disingenuous ways, and it should give us all pause. I use generative artificial intelligence, as do many others, but there would be no way that I would even consider misrepresenting what I write or work on in the voice of someone else.

Who would do that? Why? It dilutes it. Sure, it can be funny to have a narration by someone like Sir David Attenborough, or Morgan Friedman, or… all manner of people… but to trot out their voices to misrepresent truth is a very grey area in an era of half-truths and outright lies being distributed on the Babel of the Internet.

Somewhere – I believe it was in Lessig’s ‘Free Culture’ – I had read that the UK allowed artists to control how their works were used. A quick search turned this up:

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, is the current UK copyright law. It gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways in which their material may be used. The rights cover: Broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public. In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be identified as the author and to object to distortions of his work.

The UK Copyright Service

It would seem that something similar would have to be done with the voices and even appearance of people around the world – yet in an age moving toward artificial intelligence, where content has been scraped without permission, the only people who can actually stop doing this are the ones who are scraping the content.

The world of trusted humans is being diluted by untrustworthy humans.

KnowProse.com off WordPress.com, Now on Hostinger.

~ Taran ~ 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I wrote something on the site – that was largely to do with not wanting my content scraped, and being WordPress.com did not fill me with trust or confidence in what the company was doing.

Nevermind the whole WordPress vs. WPEngine debacle, that I have not read much into because my life has sufficient drama and I do not wish to overflow with it. I did do some initial reading and quickly realized the whole thing seemed engineered.

Instead, I switched to Hostinger (referral link). It was fairly easy since I opted to continue using WordPress for the site after shopping around a bit, though I am working on a semi-personal project with Drupal 11 – which Hostinger’s love for on the command line is as deprecated as the command line PHP version is. This related to running Composer – the command line is PHP 8.2.19, and Composer2 on there presently requires 8.3+ as Drupal 11 does… bleeding edge requires blood or it’s not bleeding edge, right?

The domain transfer was about the full 7 days, and I could speculate on why that is but that has no value.

The site is more plain, at least for now, and eventually there will be likely be some advertising on it – but not in the way advertising has manifested itself on sites I visit. No, the site will not spam you to give you updates. No, the site will not have pop-ups that just annoy you. No, the site will not… well, you get the point.

I did consider Bluehost. Over a decade ago, I had a really bad experience with Bluehost whose pain this site still feels – their automatic backups, at least then, did not really work on a daily level. The site went down when I was at a CARDICIS conference – I forget which one – and by the time I could have unfettered access to the site when I returned home, a lot of the site was gone. Bluehost may have improved since then – I certainly hope they have – and even though it was likely an outlier event for me, and they may have improved, I opted not to go with them.

This does not mean my experience should color yours, mind you. It would appear that they’re still in business, so they’re doing something right. At the time, I had a tendency to be bleeding edge with the sites that I write on and that may too have bitten me in the posterior. We are, though, creatures that remember pain even beyond rationality.

So yes, KnowProse.com is back from hiatus.

What to do about scraping for LLM learning is the only real thing left.