The four months I have spent exploring the Fediverse, doing deep dives for the blog The Future is Federated, have been a transformative time. A journey of self-actualization, really.

I had this realization a few days ago and felt compelled to publish this toot:

It would be so funny if I could hop in a time machine & speak to my old self circa June 2024 (aka 4 months ago). I was just a creative person with some Wordpress development skills.

That person would be surprised, puzzled & endlessly amused by what I'm up to now.

Ele from Jun 2024: "what are you up to?"

Ele from Oct 2024: "I'm creating Sharkey antennas, shopping for a Raspberry Pi 5 & researching books on Linux for beginners."

Loving this learning journey I'm on, it feels really empowering

Here is a more detailed timeline of my explorations of the Fediverse, FOSS projects and the effects they have had on me in a short amount of time; I jokingly say that the Fediverse has radicalized me (in the best possible way):

It shouldn’t be surprising that spending so much time on Fediverse and FOSS projects and basking in their culture of independence from Big Tech is having a profound effect on me.

After I shared the aforementioned toot about my Fediverse/FOSS timeline, Roney Belhassof replied on Mastodon (in Portuguese, translated here from DeepL):

Empowering...

Reading @_elena about her journey through the Fediverse and now FOSS, I think that's a key word for what brings us to these ever-virgin, ever-changing lands of the Internet!

It's not just not having an algorithm, it's having a voice, freedom!

Absolutely: finding freedom, a voice and: connecting with like-minded people who reject the dystopian online world that is being created by Big Tech.

It’s all about the people

Re-reading this timeline and a list of projects I tried feels reductive, like it’s missing a big piece of the puzzle.

The BEST thing that has come out from my 4 months all-in on the Fediverse have been the connections I have made with so many interesting, smart and generous individuals who share the same values as me, who are striving to build safer, healthier online spaces. Remember, this was the original purpose of social media platforms before they ensh*ttified.

When I used to post on other social apps (Twitter 1.0, Bluesky, Threads) I would often feel this sense of “I wonder how this post will do and who will engage with it.” Well, the Fediverse has changed my state of mind, retraining my brain to seek genuine connections. Now whenever I post something on Mastodon or Sharkey or Friendica I often wonder if specific people I have become acquainted with will have something to say in reaction. And what I would learn from their comments. And oh the things I have learned! I feel like I went from tech elementary school to the senior year of high school in the span of 4 months.

The Fediverse has given me an incredible gift: virtual friendships with smart, kind, generous people who are inspiring me to be a better (and more empowered) digital citizen. I couldn’t say the same thing about other platforms and my gratitude for that is infinite.

A tech goal driving me forward: Linux phone

David Clubb, a fellow parent who interacted with me on Mastodon mentioned he created Linux phones for his children, in order to protect them from predatory, addictive apps and promote healthier tech habits.

Now I want to create a Linux phone for my child, too. I have a few years before my little one will have a phone, so there isn’t much pressure to learn it and do it ASAP. But it’s a big, energizing goal driving me forward.

“If your dream is only about you, it’s too small”

These words: “If your dream is only about you, it’s too small” were spoken by American filmmaker and producer Ava DuVernay (13th, When They See Us, Selma, Queen Sugar). I think about them often and my journey to tech empowerment via the Fediverse and FOSS projects does not stop with me. I would like to document my experiences and hopefully inspire others to join in (read until the end for a more concrete plan of how to make this happen).

The Fight for a Human Future

One of my favorite books from the past decade has been Shoshana Zuboff’s “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.” It’s worth pointing out the book’s full title: “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.”

The book’s language is at times dense, the prose not exactly free-flowing. It’s an important but slightly difficult read for those accustomed to more accessible language. Still, I looked up my old highlights, extracted from my Kindle and found a 64 page document filled with brilliant takes by Zuboff. A few quotes relevant to this discussion:

Young life now unfolds in the spaces of private capital, owned and operated by surveillance capitalists, mediated by their “economic orientation,” and operationalized in practices designed to maximize surveillance revenues. These private spaces are the media through which every form of social influence—social pressure, social comparison, modeling, subliminal priming—is summoned to tune, herd, and manipulate behavior in the name of surveillance revenues. This is where adulthood is now expected to emerge.

"This is not a rehearsal. This is the show."

Zuboff continued (and you could substitute “Facebook” with “Meta” and also “TikTok” and other mainstream social platforms):

This is not a rehearsal. This is the show. Facebook is a prototype of instrumentarian society, not a prophecy. It is the first frontier of a new societal territory, and the youngest among us are its vanguard. The frontier experience is an epidemic of the viewpoint of the Other-One, a hyper-objectification of one’s own personhood shaped by the relentless amplification of life lived from the “outside looking in.” The consequence is a pattern of overwhelming anxiety and disorientation in the simple act of digital disconnection, while connection itself is haunted by fresh anxieties that paradoxically leave too many feeling isolated, diminished, and depressed. 


For almost a decade I have accumulated knowledge about surveillance capitalism, tech's dark patterns, programmatic advertising and the erosion of privacy. I thought I would produce a documentary of the topic – The Realists – but I have had to put that idea on pause while raising a small child. And things are changing at such breakneck speed that writing a new script feels as difficult as trying to shoot a moving target. While The Realists (the film) is on pause, I have found the Fediverse, which I see as a healthy alternative to the dystopia being created by Big Tech.

My exploration of the Fediverse and FOSS projects are inspiring me to become a “hacker mom”, learning to code, familiarizing myself with free, open source software... and spreading the word about all this.

More than anything, I am motivated to do this for my daughter because I want her teachers, her friends and her friends' parents and grandparents to understand what's at stake.

Zuboff wrote these stirring words at the end of her book:

If democracy is to be replenished in the coming decades, it is up to us to rekindle the sense of outrage and loss over what is being taken from us. In this I do not mean only our “personal information.” What is at stake here is the human expectation of sovereignty over one’s own life and authorship of one’s own experience.

In my humble opinion, there is far too much indifference and resignation to the world that is being shaped by Big Tech. I actually wrote a blog post about this a year and a half ago: "The real enemy of a Realist isn’t Big Tech… It’s Indifference."

The real enemy of a Realist isn’t Big Tech... It’s Indifference — The Realists
Big Tech isn’t the enemy - the real problem is INDIFFERENCE to the monumental changes created by Big Tech. Education and resistance are key
The RealistsElena Rossini

There need to be more discussions about what is being taken from us, as Zuboff pointedly said.

The Fediverse and FOSS projects give me a sense of reclaiming agency over my online life – and my social and professional lives, too, when I see so many of my peers under the spell of Big Tech and its illusions. 

99% of my real life friends, family members and colleagues are completely unaware of the existence of the Fediverse and most FOSS projects. When I mention their benefits, they immediately become curious and want to hear more.

I often think: what can a person do to make a difference - to get people on the other side, beyond the walled gardens of Big Tech? There is definitely interest… but not a lot of awareness about solutions.

Years ago a quote by Margaret Mead had a profound impact on me: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” I used to have a printout of that hanging on my office wall, next to another quote: “It’s not going to be easy. But it’s definitely going to be worth it.”

Pivot


I’m going all in.

I have an extensive network of contacts inside high schools and universities because my documentary The Illusionists did really well in the educational market and has been shown in hundreds of schools all over the world.

Instead of doing presentations about the sequel of The Illusionists, I could maybe go back to these schools to talk about the Fediverse. And I could share visuals/materials from my presentation with others so they could replicate these lectures - and tweak them too - for their own communities.

I understand this sounds very ambitious and far-fetched but I have already done something similar in the past.

I was bothered by the unattainable beauty ideals promoted by mass media and advertising; worked super hard for almost a decade to write, produce, finance and shoot a documentary on the topic; traveled the world with a minimal crew in order to film interviews for it. I ended up serving as writer, producer, director, cinematographer, editor and even motion graphics designer.

When the film was finished I was invited to show it at the headquarters of Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, the New York Times offices in Paris and London, Harvard University, the LA Chapter of UN Women, lots of prestigious universities in North America and Europe and the film ended up in the curriculum for some Stanford University classes (in California and in their Firenze campus). Universities and non-profits in the United States routinely organize independent screenings of it.

From top left to right bottom: a photo of yours truly in a living room with a big poster from Harvard University's screening of THE ILLUSIONISTS and photos of experts who participated in the Q&A; a photo inside News 8's TV studios showing anchors behind their desk; a photo of a hand holding up a postcard that says THE ILLUSIONISTS and behind it there is the News 8 TV studios; a photo of yours truly sitting next to outreach coordinator Serena Shapero at the New School with a big screen showing the title THE ILLUSIONISTS and a packed auditorium in the foreground; a photo of a hand holding up an ILLUSIONISTS postcard and in the background you see a door with the logo NEW YORK TIMES in front; a picture of yours truly at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley with a postcard THE ILLUSIONISTS in front of her face, standing next to a giant Android logo carrying a marshmallow

I was just one person with an idea; an international village adopted it and helped it, making its message go wide.

I want to do this again, but with the Fediverse.

I could start with a 40 minute visual presentation for schools and organizations, demo it, and see where things go. The cool thing is that I'm fully fluent in English, Italian and French so I could do these presentations in 3 languages – wherever people would welcome me.

It's not going to be easy. But it's definitely going to be worth it.

Elena

P.S.: if you'd like to help with this mission, the first thing you could do would be to recommend to your friends and acquaintances to subscribe to this blog... and forward it to teachers and anyone who might be interested in hosting a Fediverse presentation by me. Thank you!

The amazing Fediverse t-shirt I'm wearing is by Forge & Craft.

If you want to catch up on all the previous posts for The Future is Federated, you can find them here:

The Future is Federated - Elena Rossini
The Future is Federated is a series of essays about the Fediverse with the goal of introducing it to people not familiar with it... and showing interoperability between projects for more advanced users. The future is already here, thanks to the magic of ActivityPub!
Elena RossiniElena Rossini

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📽️ If you'd like to support my work, you could buy or rent my documentary The Illusionists on the globalization of beauty. Watch the opening on Vimeo:

Watch the first 4 minutes / teaser of The Illusionists on Vimeo
Buy or Rent The Illusionists

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Tagged in:

The Future is Federated, fediverse, Big Tech, activism, The Illusionists, The Realists, FOSS

Last Update: October 29, 2024