OK, so it’s been a year and a half since I first posted this half-baked proposal for another online fediverse conference, and although a lot of good groundwork has been done, we haven’t yet managed to hold an event. I’m not too worried about that. I tend to think that things happen when the time is right, and they can’t be rushed. But I thought I’d post a quick update.
Recently, I’ve been getting excited by the FEP process. Particularly when I saw that it had allowed a lot of cool Zot functions had been codified as FEPs, so they can be implemented in AP apps. Particularly the ones related to NomadicIdentity, which solves a problem that’s often brought up as a reason BlueSky didn’t use AP.
So I was thinking it might be cool to focus each monthly meetup on one FEP - or a group of them - and the features they can add to our fediverse experiences. Maybe with a mixture of technical talks about how to implement them and the implications for hosting, and UX talks about how they can benefit fedizens. That way there’s hopefully something for everyone. I’m keen to hear from the community about this; would you be keen to attend that kind of online meetup, and is there an FEP(s) you’d consider giving a talk about?
One reason for the monthly meetup idea was that it seemed like a simpler thing to organise than a full online conference. Along the same lines, maybe we need to go simpler still? Put on a single meetup, with the possibility of of organising more, or even making it a regular event, if there’s sufficient interest.
So if there was to be one 2-4 hour fediverse meetup this year, what do you all think would be the most important topic or theme to focus on?
@tallship, @indieterminacy, Horla7 and I have been brainstorming on and off, in the Matrix room we set up as a backstage area. We’re still super keen to bring in a few more people to this backstage group to spread the workload (especially while it’s all unpaid). Ideally we’d be about 5-7 people.
We’re painfully aware that so far the crew is mostly pale, male and stale (well, I don’t know about the others but I’m getting pretty stale 
). So we’re particularly keen to involve people who can bring in perspectives from other genders, ethnicities, nationalities, language groups, generations, and so on.
About 6 months ago, I was hoping to get our first clutch of monthly meetups happening in Sept/ Oct/ Nov. But for various reasons I haven’t had the spoons to be Lead Goose on getting that to happen, and I guess the others haven’t either.
Part of the problem for me is that I tend to do paid events work over summer (southern hemisphere), travelling and camping, which all chews up a lot of time and attention span. It also consumes a lot of my organising energy during late autumn/ early summer, and requires some R&R time in early autumn.
What would really help maintain the momentum is a volunteer who can be Lead Goose between about Nov-April. Someone from the northern hemisphere, or who carries on through the summer as if nothing’s changed. This would allow me to tag out and drop into a support role during that time, then tag back in about May. If anyone has the time and enthusiasm for that, please get in contact. Even if you can only commit to doing it over one 6 Nov-April period.
If we could get funding to pay someone to be Lead Goose, I’d be happy to step back into a support role, or maybe we could jobshare it seasonally. If you have any ideas about how we might be able to fund that, sing out!
That’s all I can think of for now. I just wanted you all to know this project hasn’t been forgotten, but we could really use some help and support to get us up and running.
PS: If for any reason you don’t feel comfortable commenting here (or you don’t yet have a SocialHub account), feel free to hit me up in the verse (@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz), including as Direct post if that’s what works for you 
We can make a dedicated category under 