Notices by Darius Kazemi (darius@friend.camp)

Hi Fediverse denizens. I've been working on a project I hope will help Fediverse devs make software that federates across ALL services, not just Mastodon-plus-a-few-others.

It's called the Fediverse Schema Observatory and before launching it, I am opening up a public comment period re: safety and privacy.

This post lays out what the software does, what data it records, and why I think it's safe to deploy:

https://asml.cyber.harvard.edu/fediverseobservatory/

Please give feedback here or at the email in the post!

@hipsterelectron to me the important bit here is this piece I've screencapped. when someone says AI is useless and they're talking to someone who believes it's useful because they've actually used it for things and found it helpful, then the critic loses credibility with that person. And now the critic has to convince the person that their experience with the software is not what they thought it was. So I personally try not to throw out the "it's useless" critique without qualifying it

Oh wow, Texas Observer quickly distinguished itself as the having the best presence on the Fediverse of any US news organization. I am sad to see it shut down.

https://texasobserver.social/@TexasObserver/110093148980077491

I've been talking with an academic researcher who is interested in speaking with people who have shut down their fediverse servers, for any reason.

I know it's a touchy subject so I didn't want to just refer her directly to people, but if you are seeing this message and you're interested, please DM me and I will give you her email. I did a 1-hour interview with her on more general topics and really enjoyed the experience.

(Boosts appreciated!)

Yes, surveillance capitalism gives us some material things that are useful.

There are also about a billion things we have never even tried out because rich people believe there's no money in it! Maybe some of those things will also be useful and we should try those instead. Just sayin!!!!

@stpaultim From what I have seen, people label something surveillance capitalism when some they don't like a new feature because it is collecting data about them with an eye toward some kind of retention or growth or profit.

I'm confused when devs claim that you can't experiment with software on the fediverse. I have spent the last 5 years of my life building experimental software on the fediverse, and people have been very supportive!

There is a MASSIVE design space for weird ideas that are not just dressed-up surveillance capitalism, but so many devs come here saying "I will try out some dressed-up surveillance capitalism" and then act like their genius design thinking is being stymied when people say "fuck off"