For months I've been working with two leaders of the open social networking movement, Tom Coates and Evan Prodromou, and together we have formed the Social Web Foundation. SWF is a new non-profit organization dedicated to connecting social networks with the open standard protocol ActivityPub.
The “social web”, also called the “Fediverse”, is a network of independent social platforms connected with the open standard protocol ActivityPub. Users on any platform can follow their friends, family, influencers, or brands on any other participating network. Advocates of this increased platform choice say it will bring more individual control, more innovation, and a healthier social media experience. But there is work to do: journalism, activism, and the public square remain in a state of uncertain dissonance and privacy, safety and agency remain important concerns for anyone participating in a social network.
Tom, a product designer and entrepreneur, will serve as the organization’s Product Director; Evan, the current editor of the ActivityPub specification and author of the book “ActivityPub: Programming for the Social Web” from O’Reilly Media, will be our Research Director. My contribution will come through the Executive Director role.
We have a bunch of keen advisors. And we're grounded by implementers: Mastodon, Flipboard, Automattic, Meta, Ghost, Pixelfed, Medium, IFTAS, Write.as, Vivaldi.
However, the real work begins. And there's a lot at stake:
To fight inequality, participate in democracy, build an equitable society and economy, we can’t rely on a few corporate-owned, profit-driven spaces. The Social Web Foundation is our best chance to establish the conditions in which the new social media operates with zero harm.
"Mastodon is committed to the Fediverse and proud to back the Social Web Foundation’s efforts to build a stronger, more open, and dynamic social web for all," says Eugen Rochko, Founder and CEO, Mastodon.
“Our vision for Threads has always been to make it the place for public conversation, and interoperability is an important part of that. That’s why we integrated Threads with the Fediverse through ActivityPub,” says Rob Sherman, VP and Deputy Chief of Privacy Officer at Meta. “We believe that the Fediverse helps create a more diverse ecosystem that empowers users to connect, share, and learn from each other in new and innovative ways.”
"Automattic is excited about the launch of the Social Web Foundation and its mission,” says Matthias Pfefferle, Open Web Lead at Automattic, makers of WordPress.com. “We're eager to collaborate with the Foundation to expand platform diversity and enhance the support for various content types—especially long-form content—within the Fediverse, fostering greater interoperability across the ecosystem.”
"We've been inspired by the products being developed across the fediverse and the people we’ve had the pleasure to work with,” said Mike McCue, Flipboard CEO. "And now, with the Social Web Foundation established, there will be a dedicated organization to foster even greater awareness, collaboration and innovation. We’re excited to be a part of this next wave of the web, using open standards to advance how we connect with each other every day."
The Foundation will collaborate with other organizations in the space. “IFTAS wholeheartedly welcomes the launch of the Social Web Foundation and its commitment to a healthy Fediverse,” says Jaz-Michael King, executive director. “We anticipate great opportunities for collaboration in our efforts to enhance trust and safety, and we look forward to working with the Foundation to strengthen the Fediverse for the benefit of all its communities.”
SWF is an obvious extension of my work to consider human rights in internet and web standards. ActivityPub was standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 2018. It has attracted over 100 software implementations, tens of thousands of supporting web sites, and tens of millions of users.
I am here because I feel strongly as a public interest technologist coming from civil society that we need to build a strong base of community organizations, movements and researchers who are uncovering harms, addressing inequalities, offering solutions and building alternatives. If this is you and your organization– please reach out! I will be spending the next month or so on a listening tour to build more partnerships with civil society organizations and movement organizations.
The Social Web Foundation can be found on the web and social web at https://socialwebfoundation.org.
Please forward and share with your networks!
Republished with permission from Mallory Knodel's newsletter Internet Exchange.