Notices by Robert W. Gehl (rwg@aoir.social)

@liaamancio @brasiliana @josemurilo Cool! There's a PhD student at York, Alex Martin, doing similar work on Canadian digital sovereignty and the potential role of federated social media. (In fact, I'm presenting a paper he co-authored with me).

@liaamancio Hey, cool! Looking forward to learning about your research!

The easiest way to get a PDF of the book is if your library has a copy, because Oxford UP provides a PDF version to libraries.

E-book wise, maybe Kobo is the way to go? I don't think there's an e-pub version, unfortunately.

I can bring down a physical copy to AoIR if you want to go that route.

Hey! If you're new to the fediverse and curious about it, may I humbly suggest my new book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges?

https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com/

It offers a history of Mastodon and discusses the highs and lows of content moderation and governance on the fediverse. This is a complex space, but... it's *our* space. We can make it what we want.

#fediverse #mastodon #alternativeSocialMedia

This is probably a dumb question, but can't ICE Block be reimplemented as a website?

With Apple doing this, and Google's Android severly restricting side loading, it seems to me people ought to start bulding websites again.

#ICEBlock #Apple #Google

premium content

@evan that's quite a historical document!

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

I'm having a virtual book event with the @fediforum 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

Anyone else use #Fennec, which is an Android browser from F-Droid based on the latest version of Firefox?

Today I've noticed that it no longer loads any pages. I've turned off/onwifi, turned off/on data, turned off/on my VPN, and reset the phone and it still won't connect to any sites. I wonder if there's a bug in its latest update?

@skinnylatte I followed this guide:

https://blog.xmgz.eu/jekyll-mastodon-comment/

If you view the source on my site you can see the javascript (with some modifications):

view-source:https://fossacademic.tech/2021/12/16/CommentsTest.html

I should probably upload all of it to Codeberg. Soon!

@skinnylatte Here is their code:

https://bin.disroot.org/?267646869fc04ab7#33NQRZBvKKQZB38pske33XD7c2aWYo1TmoX6WrChmtqC

Note that this is geared towards a Markdown-based blog, so the frontmatter is important.

Latest FOSS Academic is I DID IT! I DID IT! I re-implemented my static blog generator in Python and moved it off #Github onto my own hosting!

https://fossacademic.tech/2025/08/25/reimplemented.html

What's that? You want an archive and previews of posts? Done. Tags? Handled! Atom feed? Generated. (https://fossacademic.tech/feed.xml)

What about comments, you say?

Respond to this post and they shall appear on my blog, I say unto you.

I did it! Yay!

#FOSSAcademic #Python

"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

@evan the correct answer is "In less time than than Liz Truss had in office as British PM"

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!

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.

New unboxing vid dropping soon #MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges

When the original authors of #fediblock, Marcia and Ginger, were publicly noticed, the attention was often negative. As an Afro-Indigenous woman, Marcia was a favorite target. Marcia told me about being stalked, with people using multiple accounts, screenshotting her posts, and sharing their personal information....

https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com

#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

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

@josephcox It's an internet of plagiarists and clickbaiters anymore

can we have a new internet, please?