Dave Lane @lightweight@mastodon.oeru.org

Open Educators on Mastodon

https://edtechfactotum.com/open-educators-on-mastodon/

Rejoining Mastodon, as I'm sure many folks will be doing today. Glad to be back in my #OERu instance, many thanks to @mackiwg et al :-) Following and tooting #OER22 this week.

@fgraver @dajbelshaw @kenbauer @Wiobyrne I too found the same issue with scholar.social. It seemed almost anything from history, which is predominantly my posting métier, elicited a call for a CW. One of the motivators for my instance hopping.

But, that’s the joy of a decentralised system, everyone can find a nook to call their home.

https://robert.winter.ink/a-mastodon-to-call-my-own/

@gloopsies Awesome! Transferring instances is so easy these days compared to how it used to be 🙌

Well, this is an encouraging pilot program to see. Welcome to Mastodon @EU_Commission > EU Joins Mastodon Social Network, Sets Up Its Own Server https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-joins-mastodon-social-network-sets-up-its-own-server

As one of the main Mastodon developers, I can't promise you that Mastodon will be a complete and exact Twitter replacement for you, but it may fit your use-cases, at least it does for me.

Just keep in mind that it is not exactly the same thing, some core design decisions are different (there isn't an unique centrally-governed website, but many interconnected servers operated by different individuals and organizations) and thus the tradeoffs can be different as well.

While I personally don't think Mastodon should aim at being an exact replacement to Twitter, I do hope Mastodon can be useful to more people wanting an alternative to Twitter! And I know there are lots of room for improvement, on things we do know, and on things we don't.

Also keep in mind that Mastodon is developed by only two core developers payed through a non-profit funded through sponsorship, grants and donations, so please be patient!

Searching works differently on #Mastodon than on #Twitter. In general Mastodon searches will only find hashtags, making discoverability explicitly opt-in and cutting down on unwanted conflict/harassment.

One thing you can do to search your own older posts is use the #MastodonArchiveTool to search your downloaded archive from within your browser. https://observablehq.com/@nuklearfiziks/mastodon-archive-tool Instructions are on the page. If the post is still online, clicking the links in the search results will take you to the post's location. Enjoy!

#FediTips

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A couple of years ago I wrote:

> Why Mastodon and the fediverse are “doomed to fail”

https://write.as/eloquence/why-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-are-doomed-to-fail

Note the quotation marks in the title - the narrative that Mastodon is doomed because it does not follow traditional patterns of "growth" will be endlessly repeated in the capitalist media ecosystem.

If you see this argument brought up again in light of current events, I hope the post above may still prove useful in offering an alternative interpretation.

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Campaigners force Shell to halt oil exploration on South African coast - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/28/campaigners-force-shell-to-halt-oil-exploration-on-south-african-coast great win, let's hope it can be sustained... shame on @Shell

BigBlueButton Tutorial
https://events.oeru.org/events/440930c7-0d56-4e57-bbb0-0ff713a55865

La version française du cours #LiDA103Fr débute le 17 novembre - Inscrivez-vous aujourd'hui : https://oer.nz/lida103fr-21

Bicycles are kind of an obnoxious technology in that they set your bar for how capable other tech should be wayyyyy to high.

In every metric bicycles are unrealistically good

1) Bicycles can double the top speed of a human easily, even if the operator isn't especially good at biking

2) Bicycles require absurdly little maintenance per mile

3) Bicycles are so prevalent that old bicycles barely hold any value even if they function perfectly

4) Bicycles are tough as shit for the most part

Pressure works:

> "Facebook is extremely thinly staffed ... and this is because there are a lot of technologists that look at what Facebook has done and their unwillingness to accept responsibility, and people just aren't willing to work there," Haugen said

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/25/tech/facebook-papers/index.html

#Facebook

If governments of the world realised (as I've often suggested) that they should be funding critical digital #FOSS infrastructure, instead of OAuth run by mega corporations, slurping our data with their surveillance capitalism bizmodels, we'd be using Mozilla Persona and our lives would be better for it. Huge opportunity missed. Sadly, by failing to take it, you've thrown further fuel onto the fire currently razing our national and personal sovereignties.

So American, but still so good. https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=JmSP8gDHYYc

Exciting EU study on open source software:

> strongly contributes to GDP
> avoids vendor lock-in
> reduces costs & maintenance
> drives state-of-the-art tech
> fosters competition, interoperability & tech-neutrality

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/study-about-impact-open-source-software-and-hardware-technological-independence-competitiveness-and

I really enjoyed this interview: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018815698/doireann-ni-ghriofa-the-story-of-how-we-haunt-each-other Make me realise how lucky we are in NZ to have RNZ and, especially, Kim Hill, to help us gain insights into interesting, thoughtful people doing important things. No dumbing down to be seen. Unapologetically inquisitive and erudite.