Announcing the Social Web Foundation
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I helped launch the Social Web Foundation today and will serve as its first Research Director. I’m proud to be part of the group of supporters, advisors and founders who made this foundation possible; it is an honour to be among people who share my passion for ActivityPub and the Fediverse.
I want to say why I think it’s an important project.
Since its publication in 2018, ActivityPub has had support from different organizations. The W3C formalized the standard. Mastodon led implemention and defined the network. The EFF have advocated for the Fediverse. Until now, no major organization has taken on advocacy for AP as its central goal.
Many people have ideas about what the Fediverse needs to be bigger, safer, and easier to use. But the solutions they propose fall between the cracks of any one implementer or service. We want the SWF to be the entity that takes on those jobs.
Not everyone agrees that the Fediverse needs to be available to more people. That’s OK. And not everyone is going to be comfortable with the mix of commercial and Open Source implementers plus civil society groups that form the support for the SWF. That’s OK too. Hopefully, our work will still benefit you.
For me personally, the work will be straightforward. I’m going to continue doing the work I’ve done for the W3C and other ActivityPub projects: protocol refinement, documentation, meetings, speaking engagements, reports. But from here, I’ll be doing it with my SWF hat on.
I’ll also help develop the content like explainers, guides, and case studies for different targeted audiences. And I’ll do outreach through speaking at events, private meetings, or other personal engagement.
This work won’t replace my regular job at the Open Earth Foundation, which is important to me. I’ll just be taking on additional responsibilities with SWF.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us financially, with advice, or with feedback. And thanks to my family for their patience; with the book launch, the foundation, and my work at CoSocial, there’s a lot of talk about the Fediverse around our house every day.
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@evanp Congratulations. As soon as it has an instance and a handle to follow, please let us know
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Evan Prodromoureplied to Thiago Ferrer Morini last edited by