Should there be a governance organization for the Fediverse?

Evan Prodromou

@pixel @drahardja thanks, I appreciate it! I'm not trying to be cryptic, but I usually like to write up all my thoughts once the poll is done.

Programmer 832-529 🍅

@evan The issue with the poll is it doesn't say what sort of governance. You'll probably get a split of answers depending on if people think its governance of the protocols or of the operation.

Evan Prodromou

@smallsees I guess you could read it as "any governance organization" then.

Arne Brasseur

@coldfish I think @evan knows how activitypub works

Evan Prodromou

Thanks to everyone who responded here.

I am a qualified no.

I think there are parts of the Fediverse that can benefit from coordination, like how the SocialCG coordinates work on ActivityPub and Activity Streams 2.0, how IFTAS coordinates trust and safety work, and how Fedipact coordinates blocking Threads.

Evan Prodromou

Using shared denylists or allowlists to control which servers can federate and which can't is also a way to shape the social structure of the Fediverse. I think shared services for filtering spam, harassment and abuse may take this down to the account and content levels.

Evan Prodromou

I also think that diverse governance models is a key advantage of the fediverse. I love that I'm on a cooperative-run social media service, and I love that families, friend groups, universities and enterprises run their own services on the fediverse. This is awesome and should be encouraged.

Evan Prodromou

But I don't think there should or maybe even can be a single org governing all parts of the Fediverse, saying how the protocols and software packages can work, which people and communities and platforms are allowed to connect, what can be done and said.

You can't spell Fediverse without "diverse".

Je ne suis pas goth

@evan did this poll stem from something you saw or heard? Or was it "just" you wondering about the fediverse's opinion?

Darius Kazemi

@evan missed the poll but my answer is there should not be an organization to govern the fediverse; there should however be at least one organization to enable many forms of governance in the fediverse

Evan Prodromou

@darius I think encouraging various forms of governance on the Fediverse is awesome. I also think we're probably going to see many, many more offline entities like universities, local governments, postal services, and enterprises setting up their own instances. What do you think an Organization to Promote Fediverse Governance Models would do, though?

Evan Prodromou

@jenesuispasgoth I don't understand the point of your scare quotes or smiley emoticon. I think you should decide what it is you want to ask, and ask it directly.

Darius Kazemi

@evan great question. I think: build resources for groups that want to govern (like the IFTAS library does for moderation), build tools for governance (third party and supporting PRs to major software, again kinda like IFTAS here), and advocate as necessary in standards groups for the needs of groups that want to self govern (just like.... okay these parentheticals are getting repetitive)

Dan Morris

@plexus @evan lol! I'm so used to people asking me how stuff works, I just try to answer questions without even knowing who's asking.

I still can't figure out "how" to govern activitypub, but that's just me being slightly less ignorant than a regular user.

Evan Prodromou

@darius So, I get that, but I think it's more likely that we'd see advocacy for particular governance structures. Say, a Federation of University Social Networks, which focuses on the needs of those kinds of instances, and a different Alliance of Cooperative Social Platforms, and so on. Unsupported crystal ball prediction; take it for what it's worth.

Evan Prodromou

@coldfish @plexus Evan also always has more to learn about how ActivityPub and the Fediverse work.

Je ne suis pas goth

@evan sorry if I wasn't clear, there really was no hidden question. I really was wondering if that was just you wondering, or if it was in reaction to something you read or heard wrt the fediverse (something I myself hadn't read or heard).

Evan Prodromou

@jenesuispasgoth I can say that there is a big section on SocialHub about governance. A lot of people were concerned that the Social Web Foundation was an effort to set up a governance organization. Also, Bluesky is governed by a single startup. All these things got me thinking about Fediverse-wide governance. Does that answer your question?

Evan Prodromou

@jenesuispasgoth oh, cool. I didn't have much of an agenda, except that I somewhat disagree with this idea, and I wanted to see some discussion about it.