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#Fediverse #Mastodon #Decentralization #SocialMedia #Microblogging #FediverseGovernance: "We were drawn to this research question because the socio-technical aspects of Fediverse governance often seem opaque from the outside—from outside any given server, and especially from outside the Fediverse.
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Above all, we wanted to understand more about what happens behind the curtain of Fediverse server operation, and distribute this knowledge widely to help other server teams level up together—and perhaps to uncover characteristics of server governance that might be meaningful to others trying to build sustainable alternatives to centralized commercial platforms, whether on the Fediverse or elsewhere.

Having completed our initial inquiry, we’re optimistic that:

- thoughtfully governed, medium-sized Fediverse servers are especially well positioned to offer a model of high-context, culturally sensitive online community that outperforms most interactions with centralized platform governance;

- the Fediverse’s combined emphasis on the sovereignty of local norms and a federated form of network diplomacy can offer a real and optimistic challenge to the dead end of centralized content moderation at scale; and

- the emergent processes and technologies of the Fediverse can form a part of what media researcher (and Fediverse server operator) Nathan Schneider calls the “governable stack,” which he defines as “webs of tools and techniques that can support self-governing online communities.”

But, crucially, we don’t think that the Fediverse is likely to realize these potential benefits without ongoing and intentional emphasis on—and funding for—addressing the cultural, financial, legal, and technical governance needs and gaps highlighted by our research participants."

https://fediverse-governance.github.io/