This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Abstract

This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Some challenges mentioned in the paper:

  • Discoverability as there is no central or unified index
  • Complicated moderation efforts due to its decentralized nature
  • Interoperability between instances of different types (e.g., Lemmy and Funkwhale)
  • Concentration on a small number of large instances
  • The risk of commercial capture by Big Tech

What are your thoughts on this? And how could we make the Fediverse a better place for all to stay?

  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.comEnglish
    26·
    17 days ago

    I‘d say I‘ve fully embraced the fediverse for over a year, running half a dozen instances for many fediverse services.

    The discoverability is indeed an issue for many services but the worst on peertube. It actually has great content but nobody sees it due to it not being properly suggested.

    On lemmy vs reddit I can proudly say a lot of topics have great content and its not easy to run out of it if you subscribe to varied communities. One big problem is how spoiled the users of commercial socials are. The amount of people there is of course insane compared to here so someone used to heroine (x, facebook and reddit) will always feel withdrawal on lemmy, mastodon and such.

    Imo, we need to keep making strong, compelling cases for the fediverse, against the corpoverse and increase our technical arsenal. Peertube needs clients for every platform and a central discovery (for example instances.joinpeertube.org).

    We also need more straightforward installation procedures so more people can host their own. Of course non tech folks will have a hard time either way but a „fire and forget“ compose file or ansible playbook, ideally next to one another like with awesome selfhosted on github.

    • mke@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      We also need more straightforward installation procedures so more people can host their own.

      Hosting your own instance is not a fire and forget operation. The closest thing is single-user instances, but even then there are matters the admin must handle. Plus, there’s little incentive for doing all this work.