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

Sure, very much agreed bob. But it still does not approach the point that it's far too late to introduce a new term with any likely success, and therefore I do believe it's a distraction.

Beyond that, I don't believe "fediverse" is a terrible term and we have no reason to believe so besides a hunch. I will not be the only one in the community who will want some evidence that there's a tangible issue here.

Have efforts to force a change in terminology by well-meaning professionals, experts, nonprofits, academics, etc. succeeded in this space in the past?

Who is the "we" who will adopt a new term that is assumed to be more captivating than "fediverse", which already has emerged from past community efforts/projects?

The issue of the fediverse's most popular software, Mastodon, becoming the same as the fediverse in the eye of the public is also being conflated as a problem with the term "fediverse" itself. Why would we assume any new term introduced, even if it replaces "fediverse", would be successful at solving that problem?

The public and media conflating tech terms, confusing parts of the stack, and settling on something wholly inaccurate but related to a specific piece of software / product is at least as old as personal computing, which is why I grew up with an "IBM PC".

Though "Mastodon" is dominating public discourse as a stand-in for an entire ecosystem of software, the name originates from a FOSS project and not a megacorp this time around. Which, to me, is a sign of a job well done by traditionally non-powerful actors :)

Cheers,
- Sean



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


On December 20, 2022 2:58:40 AM UTC, Bob Wyman <bob@wyman.us> wrote:
>You wrote:
>
>> "perhaps another term will emerge spontaneously from users or through a
>> coordinated PR campaign *by a powerful actor.*"
>
>I suggest that we have come to rely too much on "powerful actors" to define
>the Social Web, the Internet, etc. Too many of our previous attempts to
>build Social Web protocols have failed or been sidelined because one or
>another "powerful actor" failed to support the effort or stopped supporting
>it.
>
>We would be wise to wean ourselves of this attachment to the powerful and
>to discover that our own power, in the aggregate, is sufficient to achieve
>what we need or desire.
>
>bob wyman
>
>
>On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 9:45 PM Sean O'Brien <sean.obrien@yale.edu> wrote:
>
>> Well "multi" isn't very exciting either when it's separated from
>> "multiverse" and that term is also pretty popular in mainstream culture atm
>> ;)
>>
>> IMO it's not early enough to introduce a new term for the fediverse. The
>> ship has sailed, or perhaps another term will emerge spontaneously from
>> users or through a coordinated PR campaign by a powerful actor.
>>
>> Social Web has been used in this context for a long while and I think it's
>> fine. But it also is less specific and descriptive re: federation, which is
>> the defining and common aspect that unites these instances / platforms.
>>
>> Whatever happens, I hope we can avoid the ambiguity of "free" in any term,
>> so I don't have to explain _gratis_ vs. _libre_ :)
>>
>> Cheers,
>> - Sean
>>
>> --
>> Sean O'Brien
>> Fellow, Information Society Project at Yale Law School
>> Founder, Privacy Lab at Yale ISP, https://privacylab.yale.edu
>>
>>
>> On December 20, 2022 1:17:23 AM UTC, Johannes Ernst <
>> johannes.ernst@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Dec 19, 2022, at 17:08, Sean O'Brien <sean.obrien@yale.edu> wrote:
>>> ... Gen Z and younger folks ...are, after all, hyper-exposed to
>>> cinematic universes, the spiderverse, and so on :)
>>>
>>>
>>> “Spiderverse” is a so much cooler term than “Fediverse”. I know what a
>>> spider is, and it creates a gamut of emotions, all of which get me fired up
>>> — but what’s a Fedi and how should I feel about that?
>>>
>>> IMO it's very unwise to add more terminology to the pile here.
>>>
>>>
>>> If a rebranding needs to happen, it needs to happen at the
>>> earliest-possible time, which is why I bring this up now.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Johannes.
>>>
>>> https://reb00ted.org/
>>> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Freb00ted.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7Csean.obrien%40yale.edu%7C06beaf2d1f4549048d9c08dae227faa7%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638070959463465327%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=32kS8Fy7Avl6gEXrBX0hNiPr9mCLVHGzNOHsw%2FqAEwU%3D&reserved=0>
>>>
>>>
>>>