As you are likely aware the European Data Protection Supervisor (@EDPS@social.network.europa.eu) recently started a pilot project on the Fediverse and launched the #EUVoice and #EUVideo mastodon + peertube servers with official EU accounts.
On the #EUVoice mastodon server you can explore the profiles already present, and more may be added in future.
The project is a pilot. As it is for most people the Fediverse is still unknown terrritory to the EU representatives. Those operating this new channel don’t know if it is worth their time, and how they can get most value from their interactions. Fediverse is much different than corporate social media. And as we know much better
But a lot of the do’s and don’ts are unknown. The EU representatives need your help. It is important that the pilot succeeds, as much more follow-up may result that is to the benefit of all fedizens. The operators need our help
Organize a Fediverse training
Who is interested to help organize, plan an “Explore the Fediverse” training?
You will coordinate with contact persons from the EU institutions to set things up. The training could be online, but it may also be held in Brussels in the parliamentary buildings where you’ll meet the trainees in person. It is up to you to arrange this according to your wishes. As organizer you’ll be in charge of the format.
Some topics that should be addressed:
How is the Fediverse different from corporate social media? What exciting opportunities exist?
Tutorial on the functionality of Mastodon and Peertube to make the most of the software.
Explanation of Fediverse culture, the do’s and don’ts and the unwritten rules of Fediquette to take into account.
Handling a Q&A Ask-me-anything session to address the curiosity of participants.
The event should strive to convey the meaning of our slogans:
"United in Diversity": How the Fediverse fosters a truly diverse culture where people collaborate and flourish. A Peopleverse!
"Social Networking Reimagined": The enormous potential to “Do Social Right” this time, and go way beyond walled garden silo’s.
The event is ideally recorded and placed online on the #EUVideo instance. If it is remote vidcall format it may be open to anyone to join, but moderation should take that the primary audience is best served.
If you are interested to participate in the organization, please respond to this SocialHub forum topic, or ping me on the Fediverse at @humanetech@mastodon.social. The more people the better, so that tasks can be divided.
Thank you so much, all of you! On the fediverse toot there were also a number of people who have shown an interest. These are @rysiek and @bram@koyu.space.
Since the launch of the pilot I have had informal contacts with people that want the fediverse to be successful, and see potential for more broader test-driving and adoption within EU institutions. They informed me that a training is much needed and would serve to create further buy-in with other involved departments. They are however not directly in the decision-making chain of the pilot, and hence I cannot name them as contactpersons here.
It is good for people to realize how special it is that this pilot has been started in the first place.
At the EU side there is a very complex, very formal organization structure when you consider anyone involved in operating social media channels. Many different departments, institutions, directorates where every decision or action goes though multiple levels of management for consent. Any public message of any formal account or contact person needs to be vetted.
Within this organization it is the task of EDPS to show and convince other departments about the value of the Fediverse.
Current status
I mentioned there are volunteers willing to help (that’s you fine folks )
I got informed that EDPS can’t arrange something on a short notice. We may have up to late summer.
This means there’s ample time to prepare something, and maybe to organize a bit more broadly (see below).
I requested there will be a contact person that interacts on this forum, who we can refer to when we organize.
This is in the pipeline, and is also not an easy decision process.
All in all, to quote @rysiek it is likely that this moves forward “slow but steady”. I’ll add any updates to this thread.
Proposal: Broaden the training initiative
One thing that is clear is that there’s a broader need for training material on how to deal with the Fediverse in the best way. There are many other (governmental) institutions and non-profits that would benefit from more guidance material.
So in preparation for EU training we might create material that can be reused in any similar context.
This is the #EU so going to ask something impolite - do they have a budget for this - in vertical structures money has social value.
This is a hard subject, think mathewlowry might have done some paid work on some of this fedivers stuff, can we get some clarity and do we have some #4opens process on this please, just to keep it fedivers native
That needs to be determined as we get further along and depends on what we organize. For the current fedi pilot there are very scarce resources (time + budgets) I have heard. But in some cases there may be compensation. For instance for travel arrangements, if a training were done in-person in Brussels. Whether this is possible in our case, I don know. But it is certainly a point that we should bring up.
PS. Note that I am a #4opens fan and wanna stick to that as much as possible, but right now I am an intermediary volunteer myself, that is just transfering information as it reaches me.
I remember seeing this post and subsequently forgetting to reply to it.
I am very interested in helping out in any form. Though I am not knowledgeable on the ActivityPub protocol, I do know my way around the Fediverse etiquette and best practices.
I agree with @hamishcampbell: it is improper that the European Commission or its departments make use of volunteer work without compensation. There is too much public money going into destructive matters not to spend it into restoring processes such as informing professionals about the Fediverse. Training is not gratis.
The is a lot of drift in our current organizing, if I was to be a bit paranoid would say the are hidden agender pushing this drift, would be good to keep (force) things #4opens to slow the piles of #techshit and social mess, we can’t keep adding mess
Improper but pretty common. Active volunteers, moreover, projects the message of an active community, which would encourage take-up and funding down the line. Fwiw.
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