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Topic: Experimenting with decentralized social networks
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Getting started with scuttlebutt, a decentralized social network.
As some of you may have noticed, I've almost completely dropped off Twitter and Facebook. That's not because I don't value my friends and family! I just have a very difficult time stomaching the evolution towards corporate ownership and control of our communication. It's not good for humanity (or our planet as a whole) in either the short term or the long term.
I've definitely enjoyed both Twitter and Facebook in the past. They allow for truly incredible things to happen that were not possible without their massive social graphs. Fundamentally though I question whether it is ethical for corporations to own what are becoming essential avenues for communication. They are even less regulated than television networks and have even greater concentration of control. Mark Zuckerberg, one person, has majority control over a tool that is used by nearly 2 billion people. That is anti-democratic.
The new crop of social networks, such as Snapchat, are no better. In some cases they seem even more predatory.
With that as a backdrop, I've long been looking for alternatives. I've seen lots of previous attempts to replace both Twitter and Facebook. Diaspora was among the first open source alternatives. Many open source and company alternative attempts have come since.
Some have been federated, most have been just an another centralized server based version.
My take away has always been that what ever replaces Facebook can't just replicate it, but must be better than it.
Ok, so maybe this post isn't as short as I expected. All of this is too say that I'm dipping my toe into running scuttlebutt.nz. I think you should check it out, too. Please email me if you join the network, so we can be friends!
