Re: The term: "Mastodon" vs "fediverse" vs ...?

Hi Johannes,

I have also heard this confused usage a lot recently, and it will 
encourage centralization around Mastodon and, specifically, the most 
well-known Mastodon instances (despite all the efforts at 
"choose-an-instance" websites and docs for noobs).

If the battles over GNU/Linux vs Linux, cryptography = crypto vs. crypto 
= cryptocurrency, and Free Software vs. Open Source vs. FOSS vs. FLOSS 
have taught us anything, it's that professionals, non-profits, and 
academia will not be able to change usage once nomenclature is entrenched.

I'm actually encouraged by the fact that "fediverse" is in usage at all, 
even though there are some internecine fights over that term as well, 
mainly around "what is interop".  Due to the lead-time that the term 
fediverse has had, it still seems to be pretty popular and I actually 
don't think it's as uncool or that Gen Z and younger folks won't adopt 
it.  They are, after all, hyper-exposed to cinematic universes, the 
spiderverse, and so on :)

IMO it's very unwise to add more terminology to the pile here.

Cheers,
- Sean

Sean O'Brien
Fellow, Information Society Project at Yale Law School
Founder, Privacy Lab at Yale ISP, https://privacylab.yale.edu


On 12/19/22 19:49, Johannes Ernst wrote:
> With the recent uptake, the general public talks about “let’s leave Twitter and use Mastodon instead”.
>
> Worse, often it is described as “the Mastodon service” (as opposed to many independently operated services that all happen to run the same software)
>
> Worse, very few people talk about the core value proposition here, which is not “Mastodon” but the fact that it is an open network in which anybody can participate with any software, only assuming it speaks the right protocols.
>
> In other words, the “fediverse”.
>
> Which unfortunately, in my view, is a term only hard-core geeks could love. Hard to imagine anybody else would go to the picnic at the park and enthusiastically tell their friends and non-geek family "all the cool kids are on the fediverse” — and they would turn around and sign up.
>
> Can we do better? Uptake by the general public could probably be 2x with a friendlier term. FreeNet is taken — but something like that would be better.
>
> (IMHO it’s not "ActivityPub” either. For one, other protocols are necessary to make it work, from Webfinger to HTTP signing. In the future, all of those will evolve and perhaps be superseded, but the “fediverse” (whatever its name) will hopefully remain.)
>
> (Now taking cover in case anybody considers this line of thinking unacceptable :-))
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Johannes.
>
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