The Fediverse Report

Meta plans on joining the fediverse – the responses

Meta is planning on joining the fediverse. There are early plans on making a decentralized network with ActivityPub, so that it connects to the fediverse. This lead to a lot of different reactions within the community. This article documents some of the different types of responses.

Medium launches their paid me.dm Mastodon server

Publishing platform Medium has opened up their me.dm Mastodon server to all current Medium subscribers, the company announced this week. I take a look at what this paid server actually offers.

Other federated protocols

Other federated protocols are having a moment in the spotlight. A bridge between Nostr and the fediverse is created, and Jack Dorsey launches Bluesky, another decentralized network.

SURF Program Manager Talks about Their Mastodon Pilot for Dutch Higher Education

In interview with @SURF, the Dutch IT cooperative for education and research, which has launched a Mastodon pilot. This means that tens of thousands of Dutch students and researchers can use Mastodon with just a one-click login via their institute, without having to register and pick out a server. In this interview with the Program Manager, I dive deep into how it all works, and what other organisations can learn from it.

Flipboard joins the fediverse

Flipboard has announced it is joining the fediverse in a major way, by allowing you to interact with Mastodon through their app, as well as setting up their own instance. Reading the language in the blog posts, it is clear that Flipboard sees this not just as a side experiment, but that they are all in on the fediverse. The title of the announcement post by CEO Mike McCue (@mmccue) leaves little to the imagination: "The Future of Flipboard Is Federated".

Mammoth, a new iOS app for Mastodon, launches

Mammoth is a new app for iOS that launched this week, that stands out in a crowded field in multiple ways: Mammoth focuses on helping new users with a tailored onboarding flow. The company behind Mammoth is an investor-backed startup, raising questions about how it will make money.

Cloudflare´s Wildebeest has a bug

All software always contains bugs. But some bugs are worth noting, if only already for public response to it. Cloudflare's Wildebeest has a bug with private messages, and the community's response to it is a good indication that Wildebeest is far from popular in the community.

Nature publishes correspondence about value of moving to the fediverse

Nature has published correspondence that calls for every scholarly institute to set up their own Mastodon instance. It talks about how global communications platforms such as Twitter and the fediverse are common goods, that should be in public hands, not private property.

Last Week in the Fediverse, ep 6

Mastodon and the fediverse keeping growing in mainstream acceptance. Major tech news outlets are seriously discussing and talking about it. In the Netherlands, a pilot has started that allows higher education students and researchers easy access to the fediverse. Growth of a network is hard, and growing pains are visible again this week.