Robert W. Gehl

Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice, York University.

My latest book, "Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media" was published by Oxford University Press late 2025.

Been on the fediverse since 2017. I'm now helping run AoIR.social

he/him

Trans rights are human rights. I boost #BlackMastodon and #MutualAid posts. I also call for alt text for accessibility.

Book: Move Slowly and Build Bridges: https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
Book: Social Engineering: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543453/
Book: Dark Web: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262038263/weaving-the-dark-web/
Blog: FOSS Academic: https://fossacademic.tech

Public Key

npub1jhf0njgd4wxygrxar687yz3h7ryluz93s8dxuq4xrldqgdc03lxsxt35pm

NIP-05 Address

rwg_at_aoir.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsft5heeyx6hrzypnw3arlzpgmlpj07pzccrknwq2nplksyxu8clngpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsg7c7fm

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1jhf0njgd4wxygrxar687yz3h7ryluz93s8dxuq4xrldqgdc03lxsxt35pm

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Last Notes

2026-03-29 13:00:03 UTC

Even though Mastodon was the first major project to implement ActivityPub, it’s an open protocol, meaning anyone with the technical ability can adopt it. Today, dozens of different projects rely on the ActivityPub protocol, including not only Mastodon microblogging but also PeerTube video, Pixelfed image sharing, and WriteFreely blogging....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2026-03-27 15:20:15 UTC

maybe that doc was in slack. maybe it was in teams. maybe someone shared a google drive. it was sharepoint, I'm sure of it. it was whatsapped to me. it was signaled.
WHY CAN'T WE JUST USE EMAIL

2026-03-24 13:00:03 UTC

Research confirms this observation. Technologists of color, for example, often face obstacles, including the brute obstacle of bigotry: white coders often question the qualifications of their Black peers. This is in part due to the fact that Black contributions to science and technology have repeatedly been overlooked....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2026-03-08 13:00:03 UTC

Exacerbating his feeling of burnout, the existence of surveillance capitalist, for-profit social media gives Rochko a vision for how things could have been otherwise....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2026-03-04 19:36:21 UTC

Umm... must we call someone with an honorary doctorate "Dr"? Good lord, the ego on this guy.
https://hostux.social/@fsf/116172571144464102

2026-03-01 14:00:02 UTC

Facebook and Twitter want users to be able to log on and infinitely scroll and post at any time. To achieve such reliability, however, requires massive amounts of energy and hardware – they regularly cycle through hardware, draw power off energy grids, and use water to keep their systems cool....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2026-02-28 14:00:02 UTC

Covenantal federalism has three main features: noncentralization, the consent of the governed, and federal liberty. Noncentralization is a core organizing principle: it means that the network of groups is designed so that a powerful center cannot emerge. Typically, this is achieved through opposing powerful parts of the system with other powerful parts....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2026-02-26 22:59:02 UTC

The latest FOSS Academic post is an early review of Zotero 8, the latest from @npub15et…uqzt . TL;DR version: I might just use this version to do a lot more 'synthetic' note taking, a practice I had been doing in Zettlr with Markdown files.
https://fossacademic.tech/2026/02/26/zotero-8-review.html
I've been using Zotero since 2009 and I can't imagine doing my job without it. Kudos to the team at Digital Scholar!
#zotero #FOSSAcademic

2026-02-13 14:00:02 UTC

However, one major lesson of Musk’s takeover is that these corporate sites are at the end of day controlled by billionaires. Whether it’s Musk or Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, why should we trust control of our social interactions to a single person? A cadre of wealthy shareholders (such as the group that owned Twitter prior to Musk’s takeover) isn’t any better....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2026-02-10 16:56:46 UTC

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can you? It's really hard to come to Canada right now.

2026-01-29 15:53:20 UTC

I wrote a little post for Own Your Digital (a Canadian project to help folks move to the fedi). It's called "The Canadian Network Effect":
https://ownyourdigital.ca/news/the-canadian-network-effect/
Basically, I'm addressing something I hear all the time about the fediverse, whether it's #Mastodon or other systems: I'd move there but all my friends are on [name a corporate social media site].
We gotta start somewhere. One by one, as people move, the Canadian fediverse gets better.
#MastoCanadaGov #fediverse #Canada

2026-01-28 15:54:58 UTC

Yesterday I met with a bunch of folks who plan on advocating for politicians, municipalities, journalists, and others to set up accounts on the #fediverse. The focus is on Canada. I'm totally on board for it, because I've long advocated for folks to leave corporate social media, and let's face it... that's an area dominated by US corporations.
Democratic deliberation in Canada is far too important to trust to US corporations.
#MastoCanadaGov

2026-01-22 16:52:32 UTC

Hey, Canadians!
I'm looking for recommendations for podcasts about Canada. Right now I listen to quite a few, mostly focusing on politics and news. I also listen to APTN news about Indigenous issues.
But there's a glaring gap: Quebec. I'm an American so of course I never learned French, and while I can work on that, are there good podcasts (or news sources) that discuss Quebec for Anglophones?
Another area I'm interested in is the Maritimes.
#canada #askFedi

2026-01-20 19:03:54 UTC

Anyone making a version of Noscript (the Javascript blocking plugin for Firefox) that blocks "AI assistants" or any other such garbage?

2026-01-20 14:00:02 UTC

Critical reverse engineering includes a normative component: the goal is to make something better than the original. What is “better” can vary quite a bit. In my research, I’ve studied alternatives that center protections for free speech, seeking to avoid censorship....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2026-01-14 14:10:08 UTC

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is that West Branch?

2026-01-09 14:43:39 UTC

Nothing says "Canadian digital sovereignty" like a website that relies on Google infrastructure
https://cdn.masto.host/aoirsocial/media_attachments/files/115/865/662/190/993/685/original/a0afb9fb16ff4975.png

2025-12-21 18:53:45 UTC

Latest FOSS Academic post is -- you guessed it -- a 2025 year in review post. Thrill to the fact that I'm using much of the same FOSS to do my work as I always have! Feel the chills as I talk about #generativeAI and how terrible it is! Above all, join me in living the FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream!
https://fossacademic.tech/2025/12/21/year-in-review.html
Replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog thanks to the magic of #ActivityPub!
#FOSSacademic

2025-12-16 15:11:04 UTC

Someone at a conference I'm attending just called ChatGPT "capitalism on cocaine."

2025-11-19 14:00:03 UTC

Federated social media is a radical departure from corporate social media. While big companies like Google and Microsoft produce email servers that can intercommunicate with hundreds of other providers, in the world of social media, cross-company communication is largely unheard of....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2025-11-15 17:35:22 UTC

Hey, #admins!
Along with a grad student, I am working on a paper the surveys Mastodon (and forks -- Hometown, Glitch) servers that have some connection to #Canada.
We have done a lot of digging and have found ~40 instances that have some connection to Canada. We presented our work recently:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/CanadaFediASM.html#1
But! Maybe we're missing some. If you are willing to share, please let me know if your Mastodon/fork instance meets this criteria.
Boosts appreciated!

2025-11-09 19:39:51 UTC

I'm grading student papers, and I can report that one effect of generative AI is that I now suspect everything my students submit. And that's not a good place to be in while grading.
#banGenAIfromUniversities

2025-10-30 13:00:03 UTC

In addition to content moderation concerns, those who sign the #fedipact or otherwise pledge to block Meta cite many other reasons for doing so. vanta’s fedipact site sums up several: “that time they helped facilitate a genocide. that time they helped try to rig an election....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2025-10-19 13:00:02 UTC

Second, the use of Amazon and Cloudflare could also be a violation of the ethical covenant many fediverse instances adhere to, since these are corporations with poor reputations for their anti-union activities or willingness to host conspiracy theorists....
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2025-10-07 22:26:15 UTC

Because we need more #dogsofmastodon, here is Agnes.
https://cdn.masto.host/aoirsocial/media_attachments/files/115/335/228/777/624/553/original/1a163fb70f5f8170.jpg

2025-09-23 16:47:06 UTC

you know where I just don't see AI slop?
that's right, the fedi
thank you fedi! Keep it human!

2025-09-19 23:31:27 UTC

This kind of came a bit unexpectedly today, but I have a new article out:
https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1556
It focuses on those most controversial moderation tools on the #fediverse: #blocklists. I consider the philosophy and practice of listing to argue that those who run blocklist services work hard to mitigate their problems.
I also make a case that we simply need more scholarship on content moderation on #noncentralized, noncommercial social media.
#alternativeSocialMedia

2025-09-13 17:50:59 UTC

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In exchange for asking my students not to use #generativeAI, I've pledged to them that *I* won't use it. That means I will not use generated images for slides, for example, among other things (no generated summaries, no generated lectures, nothing).
But the slop is so ubiquitous that even looking for (for example) a picture of the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey returns AI-generated images.
To be blunt, this fucking sucks.

2025-09-13 17:37:17 UTC

someone please make an image search system that filters out #generativeAI images
it is so, so miserable to search for images now.

2025-09-12 14:13:15 UTC

I had a wonderful time yesterday talking to folks at the @npub1cza…d6az book launch event for Move Slowly and Build Bridges! It was especially fun to see folks who were interviewed for the book!
As usual, I want to share the text of my talk as well as the slides. You can see them here:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/fediForumBookTalkText.html
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/fediForumBookTalk.html
The latter has alt text for images, and there's a "presenter view" if you want to see the text and slides together. (Marp ftw).
Also, this:
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com//images/discountBill.png

2025-09-09 21:01:02 UTC

This might be a longshot... but the fediverse might be the best place for me to post this and get the reply of fellow Linux friends.
One of my kid's buddies found an in-the-box Samsung SM-T113 "Tab." Doing searches, I see it may be possible to put something like PostMarketOS on it.
Anyone out there have experience in this?
boosts appreciated
#Linux #keepingStuffOutOfLandfills

2025-09-04 20:58:04 UTC

I'm having a virtual book event with the @npub1cza…d6az folks next week!
https://fediforum.org/news/2025-09-04-robert-gehl-move-slowly-and-build-gridges-special-event/
I will talk about my new book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media.
Here's a link for more information about the book: https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#bookstodon

2025-08-16 13:00:03 UTC

"Mark Zuckerberg called the people who trusted him with their data when he set up Thefacebook at Harvard “dumb fucks.” His extractive business of building intimate profiles of people to exploit for profit has made Facebook a trillion-dollar corporation and Mark a billionaire. So should you trust Threads and federate with it? Sure...." -- Aral Balkan
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2025-08-11 19:04:58 UTC

Hey, fedi, I'd like a bit of help. My book (https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com/) is out now in paperback. Yay! But as an author I have little insight into what that means, beyond the fact that Amazon is shipping it in North America.
Folks have let me know the book is on bookshop.org (https://bookshop.org/p/books/move-slowly-and-build-bridges-mastodon-the-fediverse-and-the-struggle-for-democratic-social-media-robert-w-gehl/22541467?ean=9780197776681).
What I'd like to know is: where else is it available? I want to collect this info for folks who don't want to buy from Amazon. I will put the info on my website.
boosts appreciated!

2025-08-04 17:05:46 UTC

What if there are no "best practices" when using generative AI for research?
What if all use of genAI is inherently harmful?
What if I don't want to participate in research using generative AI?
These questions seem to be completely off the table now.
This feels like 2006 all over again, when everyone everywhere seemingly thought they had to use corporate social media for their professional activities.

2025-07-27 10:42:32 UTC

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we have collected papers about alternative social media, including Mastodon and other fediverse systems, here:
https://socialmediaalternatives.org/bib.html
Also follow @npub1rps…pcvg

2025-07-22 19:04:19 UTC

Pleased to announce that my book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media, is now available online, and will be out in print in a couple weeks!
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
That site has more stuff, too -- links to related articles, some notes about how I researched it, and a contact form in case you want to talk about the fediverse with me! (I'd be happy to chat with journalists about it!)
#academicChatter #bookstodon #fediverse #mastodon

2025-07-20 14:10:53 UTC

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This, I believe, is a quote from @npub1e74…mmgq about promoting musical acts via social media.

2025-07-20 13:00:02 UTC

certainly been seeing a massive difference as to how people are discovering shows without Twitter. I think that’s because of the algorithm, the Twitter algorithm, would put stuff in front of you....
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/move-slowly-and-build-bridges-9780197776681?cc=ca&lang=en&
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2025-06-02 16:18:11 UTC

Wolfgang Messner, writing in @npub1gpe…88e5 on how generative AI could homogenize culture:
"The danger is not that AI will fail us, but that people will accept the mediocrity of its outputs as the norm. When everything is fast, frictionless and “good enough,” there’s the risk of losing the depth, nuance and intellectual richness that define exceptional human work."
https://theconversation.com/is-ai-sparking-a-cognitive-revolution-that-will-lead-to-mediocrity-and-conformity-256940

2025-06-02 15:09:02 UTC

I talked to @npub1psa…j5uh about generative AI's impact on teaching. Apparently I wasn't alone... not by a long shot. @npub1nn0…qf5k got a ton of responses about this topic and ran many of them here:
https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/
While it's distressing to read all of them, it's good to see I'm not alone.
#generativeAI #higherEducation #teaching #academicChatter

2025-05-22 18:42:41 UTC

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I've written a bit here and there, but agreed: the history of OStatus/diaspora federated social media itself is a rich tapestry that's very hard to present.

2025-05-10 15:23:45 UTC

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Rock fact: Led Zeppelin was named because Keith Moon of The Who said they would go over "like a lead balloon."
Lead is of course a heavy metal, and the idiom indicates that a balloon made of lead would not fly. Moon was suggesting the band had no chance to be popular.
But! In a 2008 episode of The Mythbusters, they were able to construct a balloon made of lead and float it! And, in fact, Led Zeppelin went on to become a very popular rock band.

2025-04-29 03:03:42 UTC

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why do you say that? Because whatever government forms will not last?

2025-04-21 17:42:09 UTC

What will the cardinals do this year?

2025-04-15 13:28:15 UTC

As if I needed more reasons to loathe Elsevier.
Lately I've received peer review requests from Elsevier journals. If I decline their request via the email link, it takes me to a website that has an angry red box that says "Action not allowed."
Ok, so I will email the editor to say I can't do it. That apparently goes to some IT support system, not the editor.
And today I got an email implying I was being unprofessional because I did not respond to their reviewer request.
#academicChatter 1/2

2025-04-13 13:00:02 UTC

The following is a random quote from my next book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges:
Will people keep using Twitter, even after Musk’s takeover – even after he changed its name to “X”? Is this time different? As of this writing, that remains an open question....
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2025-04-02 13:00:02 UTC

The following is a random quote from my next book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges:
It’s time, Balkan and the Small Tech Foundation argue, to degrow things like corporate social media. Degrowth is a way of thinking that counters years of capitalist fantasies of infinite growth....
#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

2025-03-28 18:24:31 UTC

I keep hearing people call legitimate concerns about LLMs/generative AI a "moral panic."
I really hope folks stop using that framing. This is not the same as parents getting freaked out about Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s. This is a moment when huge, for-profit interests are seeking to exploit the creativity of writers, artists, and anyone else who creates. It's completely legitimate to express concerns. It's not a moment of "Won't someone PLEASE think about the children!?!".

2025-03-27 16:46:27 UTC

My book about Mastodon and the fediverse is now available for pre-order!
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/move-slowly-and-build-bridges-9780197776681?q=gehl&lang=en&cc=ca#
#Mastodon #fediverse #bookstodon #academicchatter

2025-03-25 01:27:44 UTC

Use Tor
Use Signal
BUT NOT LIKE THAT NOOOO

2025-03-22 15:39:12 UTC

I know activists use corporate social media because many other people do, but it also means you put all your eggs in a really shitty basket. And it's meant that since about 2006 or so.
https://www.politico.eu/article/musks-x-suspends-opposition-accounts-turkey-protest-civil-unrest-erdogan-imamoglu-istanbul-mayor/

2025-03-21 15:27:14 UTC

that whooshing sound you're hearing is me rushing off to join any class action lawsuit against Meta for training its LLMs on my books
#Meta #LLaMA #generativeAI

2025-03-05 19:51:01 UTC

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So maybe a screen reader would parse all that ok?

2025-03-05 18:58:34 UTC

Hey, accessibility advocates! While I've used screen readers on occasion, I do not use them regularly. I'm curious to know from folks who either regularly use screen readers or are accessibility experts: is this site accessible?
https://freeourfeeds.com/
I took a look at the code and it's almost entirely javascript and styling, not really readable HTML. My take is this is pretty inaccessible to something like a screen reader, but maybe I'm wrong?
boosts appreciated
#accessibility #askFedi

2025-03-04 17:06:25 UTC

Umm... hey, Canadians, why don't you also look for Canadian social media instead of discussing "Buy Canadian" on Facebook?
You know, the company that won't let you read Canadian news?
https://cdn.masto.host/aoirsocial/media_attachments/files/114/105/244/013/735/238/original/a4bfddf424fc33e9.png

2025-03-01 19:42:15 UTC

I have reached the copyediting phase of the book, with a proof version of the title page as a nice tease of what it will all look like!
#bookstodon
https://cdn.masto.host/aoirsocial/media_attachments/files/114/088/872/518/070/134/original/6ca90c6d8f58eef4.png

2025-02-19 15:13:49 UTC

My university, York U, is suspending admissions to a bunch of programs, mainly in the humanities. This includes Indigenous Studies.
There's news coverage in @npub1x6r…uhj0. But it doesn't really address the cause.
1/2
#academicchatter #indigenousStudies #YorkU

2025-02-07 21:07:05 UTC

UsefulSmallCorp is now a part of ConHugeCo. Over the next few months, we'll migrate your account to ConHugeCo, where you will be ignored except when we eliminate the free plan you initially signed up for.

2025-02-06 22:14:48 UTC

Hey, y'all, I've been on the fedi a minute. I've been on Mastodon since 2017, and an admin since '22.
The people at IFTAS are doing great work. Needed work. They provide space for admins to share knowledge, and they build evidence-based blocklists new instances can use to stay safe.
They need help. Now. Consider giving to IFTAS:
https://about.iftas.org/donate/
I've done it.
#fediverse #mutualAid #IFTAS #trustAndSafety

2025-02-01 15:34:32 UTC

For Global Switch Day, I'll recommend my blog post about switching to Linux. I wrote it for academics, but other professionals might benefit from it:
https://fossacademic.tech/2024/05/24/fald.html
#GlobalSwitchDay

2025-01-28 18:38:55 UTC

@npub10fd…lytg and I wrote a book called "social engineering."
The Trump White House loves that term. What do they mean by it? What is the history of this curious term? And might Trump and his pals, themselves, be engaging in social engineering?
May I humbly suggest you check out our book? It's now available as an e-book on Bookshop.org!
https://bookshop.org/p/books/social-engineering-how-crowdmasters-phreaks-hackers-and-trolls-created-a-new-form-of-manipulativ-e-communication-sean-t-lawson/17170706?ean=9780262368933&next=t&next=t&digital=t

2025-01-23 01:41:12 UTC

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Last I heard "none of the above" Liberal candidate was winning in a national poll... if the internal polls are correct, that's a huge swing, no?

2025-01-23 00:58:06 UTC

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hell yeah! Congrats!

2025-01-21 18:41:23 UTC

Me in 2010: you should leave corporate social media.
Others: LOL, that's silly. They spread Democracy(TM)!
Me in 2015: you should leave corporate social media.
Others: sure, they spy on me, but I have nothing to hide.
Me in 2025: you should leave corporate social media.
Others: that wasn't a Nazi salute, I swear. And what about Engagement(TM)?

2025-01-20 15:18:10 UTC

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Or this:
"Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism.”
#MLKjr

2025-01-20 15:17:50 UTC

Today you'll hear many people quote the "I have a dream" speech (including people on the right) but fewer people quote this:
"'And one day we must ask the question, 'Why are there forty million poor people in America?' And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth."
1/2
#MLKjr #MLKday

2025-01-19 18:42:51 UTC

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I was literally thinking the same thing today re: Bluesky. Especially in light of US states getting into regulating algorithms (mostly to protect freeze peach)

2025-01-18 15:02:57 UTC

With a lot of folks trying out Pixelfed, if you're predominantly on Mastodon (like me) but you want to discover Pixelfed accounts, don't forget that you can follow hashtags. Follow #photography, for example, and you will see lots of Pixelfed accounts in your feed -- and then you can follow accounts you find interesting from there.
#FediTips #Pixelfed #Mastodon

2025-01-15 13:24:46 UTC

The legend of John Pixelfed is becoming reality
#pixelfed

2025-01-14 18:03:04 UTC

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking to a seminar run by @npub1tl9…0j90 about the fediverse. It was titled, "The Fediverse: What it is, why I study it, and why you should, too."
My slides for the presentation are here:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/Muenster.html
You can see the talk text if you select presentation view. Or, just go to this link for the text:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/MuensterText.html
#fediverse #academics #research

2025-01-13 18:49:51 UTC

Over on Bluesky, @npub1gq5…qcul is trending because Meta is actively blocking links to Pixelfed servers.
When will any of these tech CEOs learn?

2024-12-15 16:18:19 UTC

One of the things I've come to enjoy on the fediverse is that most admins and moderators are pretty easily reachable, so if people want to know why they made whatever decision they made, the conversation usually can happen.
Can it get acrimonious? Sure.
But you cannot do this with corporate social media. When they make questionable decisions, you can't contact them. You can post to your public timeline and *maybe* some PR flack states "we'll look into it," but all the decisions remain opaque.

2024-12-06 20:00:57 UTC

I just gave a presentation at the Institute for Technoscience and Society at York University, titled "Seeking Just Governance in Community-Run Social Media."
Now, thanks to Marp and a bit of BeautifulSoup, I can share the presentation and notes easily:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/ITS_presentation.html
Here's the text:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/ITS_presentationText.html
The presentation includes alt text on images.

2024-12-01 18:22:13 UTC

Latest FOSS Academic: Marp!
https://fossacademic.tech/2024/12/01/marp.html
In which I discuss a Markdown-based way to make slide shows.
Thanks to @npub12qh…k48x for alerting me to the awesomeness that is Marp.
[Replies to this post will appear as comments on my blog]
#FOSSAcademic #FALD #marp

2024-11-29 19:35:47 UTC

Latest FOSS Academic post: libraries! Libraries everywhere!
https://fossacademic.tech/2024/11/29/libraries.html
In which I share links to two alternative social media/fediverse libraries. More scholarship! Bring it to me!
[Replies to this post will appear as comments on my blog unless privacy is set to followers-only or DM. CWs will work, as will deletions]
#FOSSAcademic #alternativeSocialMedia

2024-11-27 21:50:04 UTC

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this is why we must indoctrinate children. Sit them down in front of all the Sbemails
they will soon be singing "the Cheat is not dead" in the neighborhood

2024-11-27 17:28:14 UTC

I'm purposely going to follow more non-Mastodon/micro-blog accounts to expand my view of the network. Anything out there you would recommend? I've been poking through #Pixelfed accounts, but surely there is more cool stuff out there!

2024-11-12 17:43:55 UTC

Just got done listening to @npub1j6x…re8c give a book talk about The Digital Closet. It's a deep critique of the underlying technologies of content moderation used by #Google and #Meta. Such important work!
the book is free to read, too!
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545952/the-digital-closet/

2024-11-10 15:22:44 UTC

Hey, folks from what was once called Twitter! My fedi tip is: follow hashtags. You can search for hashtags of interest and then follow them just like you can follow any account. Your timeline will fill up quickly if you do that, and then you can start to follow interesting people in the timeline.
For example, some of the hashtags I follow include #blackmastodon, #mutualaid, and #canpoli, among others.
I've found that I can get news just as fast here as folks on #X.
#fediTips

2024-11-08 01:49:41 UTC

Latest FOSS Academic post:
Hey, Journalists: X is now Truth Social. Start treating it that way.
https://fossacademic.tech/2024/11/08/ASMandTFG.html
In which I argue that, if they cannot leave X, journalists need to treat it like Truth Social. Dip in, copy what you gotta copy, and get out.
[replies to this post will appear as comments on my blog]
#journalism #FOSSacademic

2024-11-06 15:25:51 UTC

lol at the post-election coverage that suggests Trump won in spite of "rhetoric that many Americans found repulsive"
umm... they found it enticing, actually. by definition

2024-11-06 04:58:48 UTC

the billionaire newspaper/market/pharma owners figured out which way the wind is blowing, didn't they

2024-11-05 21:34:43 UTC

People often ask why I support the #fedipact.
https://www.404media.co/zuckerberg-the-ai-slop-will-continue-until-morale-improves/
“I think we’re going to add a whole new category of content, which is AI generated or AI summarized content or kind of existing content pulled together by AI in some way,” [Zuckerberg] said. “And I think that that’s going to be just very exciting for the—for Facebook and Instagram and maybe Threads or other kind of Feed experiences over time.”

2024-11-03 16:49:58 UTC

I'd like to follow more academics from Central and South America. I can read Spanish (and I really ought to practice writing in it), and I also want to learn more from academics in that area. If that's you, please follow me and I will follow back!
(boosts appreciated)

2024-11-03 15:30:23 UTC

It's a long road to write a book, but I got word that, assuming the production goes as planned, Move Slowly and Build Bridges, my book about Mastodon and the ActivityPub-based fediverse, will be out from Oxford UP around August of next year!
Still a lot of work to do behind the scenes: editing, proofing, indexing. But I'm already giving book talks and would be happy to do so if you want me to visit your class/university to talk about the fediverse!
@npub1ny7…uv57 #Mastodon #Fediverse #books

2024-11-01 11:09:32 UTC

A lot of folks at #AoIR2024 are a bit peeved that more AoIR members aren't using Mastodon/the fedi instead of X. "We as a community have produced a great deal of criticism of corporate platforms," they say, "so why aren't more people switching?"
I've been studying alternative social media for a long time now. To cite Stuart Hall, there are no guarantees: you do this sort of work, trying to make something better, but knowing that it's a struggle and it may fail.

2024-10-25 17:58:22 UTC

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there's probably a new Marvel movie out

2024-10-21 22:52:05 UTC

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as a Michigander living in Canada who just mailed a ballot, this is a relief to read!

2024-10-19 18:09:42 UTC

The latest FOSS Academic blog post is a doozy. I took the text of a presentation I gave about my academic career and turned it into a (probably too long) post, titled "From reverse engineering to building bridges: adventures in alternative social media."
https://fossacademic.tech/2024/10/18/GMUpresentation.html
I reflect on my career studying alternative social media, from my time as a PhD student to the present.
[replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog]
#FOSSAcademic #alternativeSocialMedia

2024-10-14 23:03:34 UTC

Hey, fellow profs! I am sure I'm not the only one who's noticed the response rates for teaching evaluations has plummeted in the past 5 years. At first I thought it was specific to where I worked (the U of Utah) but I've now seen it at two other universities.
My question is: what gives? Is there a general move away from using evaluations?
(If so, I'm not arguing -- I don't think they're very good tools. And yet, they are still used in promotion and tenure...)
@npub15vf…kgqc @npub1vuz…esa4

2024-10-02 21:16:55 UTC

I wonder if Mastodon is to Meta what Firefox is to Google.
A little thing for a big company to gesture towards whenever a regulator starts mumbling something about monopolies.

2024-08-28 01:04:11 UTC

someone I am close to just went to a presentation about nursing, where the head of a nursing education program was touting the fact that, in the future, nursing will all be done remotely, and actual in-person care will be done by robots
two weeks ago, someone else I am close to told me the hospital they worked for was hacked by a ransomware crew
the future's so bright

2024-08-23 14:38:02 UTC

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This is compelling to me. What I like about Manjaro is the ease of installation and the rolling release aspect. What I don't like is that it seems to get brittle over time -- maybe a bunch of kruft piles up? So if Arch is easier to maintain over time... maybe I ought to give it a go.

2024-08-23 14:29:44 UTC

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yeah, I kinda figured I couldn't use the "I use Arch btw" flex. 😆
Maybe someday...

2024-08-23 14:21:39 UTC

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Does using Manjaro count?
#Manjaro

2024-08-21 23:41:46 UTC

It's happening! My book about Mastodon and the fediverse is now entering the production phase!
My editor at Oxford is asking what sort of cover image I would like. Any suggestions? Boosts appreciated!
More about the book here:
https://fossacademic.tech/2024/02/11/Move-Slowy-Preview.html
#fediverse #mastodon #bookstodon

2024-08-20 22:45:51 UTC

@npub1sac…kcpe and @npub1fd2…f2f9 have published a major new report about governance on the fediverse:
https://fediverse-governance.github.io/
I had the pleasure of seeing an early draft -- the final result is even stronger! It's going to be a key document for fedi admins and moderators.
#governance #fediverse

2024-07-15 13:55:17 UTC

I've said this before, but I think #ContentWarnings are largely dead on #Mastodon.
I find it hard to recommend members of my instance use them when no one else does. I don't know if it's a post-Twitter thing, or if it's pushback against CWs being used to silence marginalized people, but I just don't see them used all that often.
I myself don't really want folks to use CWs for things like calling out racism/*phobia, but I do think we ought to use them for capital-P Politics news.

2024-06-16 16:00:04 UTC

I don't know who cares to hear this, but I publicly pledge to never use generative #AI to do any of my writing.
That means no AI to generate ideas, generate words, or edit my writing.
(It does not mean I won't use tools to learn how they work for purposes of criticism.)
#takeTheOrganicAcademicPledge