Notices by Chris Trottier (atomicpoet@calckey.social), page 7

In the 2000s, more and more of the Internet became centralized. There were numerous reasons for this, among them:

1. The growth of cloud computing
2. The adoption of mobile devices that required the computational resources of cloud computing
3. The growth of Internet platforms instead of protocols
4. The emergence of building public services based on private and for-profit proprietary APIs

No where was this trend more apparent than in the realm of social media.

Modern social media grew in tandem with cloud computing, often built first for mobile interfaces, often requiring an app, with an ecosystem requiring APIs associated with that app.

This is how the whole world centralized around Instagram, Facebook, Twitter -- the rest of Big Social.

#LearnFediverse

Node connectivity isn't the entire story. It can happen in several ways. Here's three ways networks can connect with each other:

1. Centralized: where one authoritative node facilitates the connectivity of all other nodes, making all decisions regarding connectivity

2. Decentralized: all nodes are connected to each other, with no singular authority, each node making autonomous decisions about who it connects with

3. Distributed: All nodes are connected to each other, with singular authority being collective, each node acting in sync with all others -- often as a "mesh"

Of these three models, the Fediverse is decentralized at the node level.

#LearnFediverse

So what happened to ARPANET?

In the 1980s, the National Science Foundation (NSF) expanded ARPANET to universities, providing funding for supercomputing centers. These centers provided for the expansion of interconnected nodes.

And this expansion was just the start. Soon ARPANET found its way into commercial enterprises, community centers, libraries, and homes.

It evolved into what is now known as the Internet.

That's right, the Internet itself is a collection of federated nodes.

This chart is a visualization of Internet routing paths -- all connected to nodes.

#LearnFediverse

What you're seeing here is one of the first nodes on ARPANET. It's known as a Interface Message Processor (IMP).

Note the word "Message" in "Interface Message Processor" because messaging was core to its use.

These nodes were used to connect participants of ARPANET, and they were the precursors to today's modern routers.

An IMP's job was to be a middleman node that would literally store and forward a message from one originating node towards its ultimate destination.

Why do I mention IMPs? Because right out of the gate, the goal of federating nodes was about creating the infrastructure for sharing messages. And what enabled this unique form of cooperation were IMPs.

The terminology has changed, but the idea remains the same.

What the Fediverse is about is sending messages from one node to another. And when there cannot be a direct connection, middleman nodes can send messages from one originating node to its ultimate destination.

#LearnFediverse

Interestingly, the concept of a Fediverse is as old as Star Trek itself. It's not a new idea. Just like Star Trek, the idea started in the 1960s.

In the 1960s, United States Department of Defense launched Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET).

ARPANET was a network of federated nodes that communicate with each other over vast distances.

Amusingly, in early memoranda, ARPANET was described as the "Intergalactic Computer Network".

The idea was simple. If you have three computers, rather than having three separate sets of commands, have one set of commands that would enable conversation across the three computers.

And as more computers join the network, each which would have access to the same set of commands, the usefulness of the shared connectivity would increase.

Here's an early map of what ARPANET looked like.

#LearnFediverse

Like Star Trek's fictional Federation, the Fediverse has "planets". But we have another term for this.

We call them nodes.

Each node communicates and cooperates to build something greater than the sum of its parts.

When one node cooperates with another, and there's a tacit agreement with other nodes that they will continue to talk to each other, this is called federation.

#LearnFediverse

The fictional United Federation of Planets works because they're a network of diplomatically connected to planets.

In Star Trek, there are hundreds of planets that make the sum of the Federation. What's core to making the organization work isn't military. It is communication.

Check out this map of Star Trek's fictional Federation.

#LearnFediverse

But what do we mean by "federation"? Before I go further, let me talk about my favourite science fiction: Star Trek!

In the 1960s, Star Trek introduced an interesting idea. It was called the United Federation of Planets (UFoP).

The idea was that a whole lot of planets came together to build an organization greater than themselves.

Humanity got together with other alien species to cooperate. Rather than going to war, we humans created diplomatic ties with Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarians to build something greater than ourselves.

Seeing the power of cooperation, even more alien species joined the United Federation of Planets, pooling resources together, to build prosperity.

This is not so different from the Fediverse. In fact, the fictional UFoP works a lot the Fediverse!

#LearnFediverse

What is the Fediverse?

The clue is in the name! It's a portmanteau of "Federated Universe".

It's not a platform no is it an ecosystem, it's an entire universe of stuff!

Now think about what's in our literal universe: galaxies, black holes, comets, cosmic dust, planets, an unfathomable amount of stuff.

This is not unlike the Fediverse which also has lots of stuff 🌌

#LearnFediverse

Head's up! In about 10 minutes, we're going to have a discussion regarding What is the Fediverse?

Use the hashtag #LearnFediverse to follow along.

I'll be coming with history, charts, and anecdotes about what the Fediverse means.

@drupalthoughts@fosstodon.org A lot of the stuff I find is simply stuff I've gleaned from the news. But yes, I'd love it if it were much easier to find stuff. A hashtag can only take you so far.

@BostonBibliophile@zirk.us It certainly doesn't help that it's not so easy to read an entire conversation on Mastodon.

To clarify, social discovery isn't merely about federation. Nor is it about search.

It's literally about people discovering what has been said before they post a comment.

Most of social discovery can be fixed through modifications of UI/UX.

However, UI/UX comes about largely due to certain design philosophies. And once entrenched, a design philosophy is hard to fix.

@oblomov@sociale.network It’s not about federation in and of itself, it’s that it takes effort to read a thread. Most of the problem is the UI.

@kichae@kitchenparty.online @philpem@digipres.club Thank you for saying this. You get it.

@philpem@digipres.club No, this has nothing to do with federating better. Social discovery really is about design patterns.

@smitten@snowdin.town Are you pulling my leg? Are you parodying a reply guy or are you serious?

@smitten@snowdin.town No, this has nothing to do with “federating better” nor has it to do with “higher quality” replies.

It has to do with reply guys busting into threads without context, many who don’t bother reading threads before commenting.

This isn’t a federation problem. It’s a social discovery problem.

Ironically, if you slowed down and read my entire post prior to commenting, you would know this.

#Mastodon tried hard to kneecap social discovery on the #Fediverse in the name of preventing toxicity and abuse.

Little did they know that lack of social discovery would be a catalyst for toxicity and abuse.

It’s this lack of social discovery that causes Reply Guys to randomly pop into threads with neither sensitivity nor context, demanding people educate them on things when they’re called out on bad behaviour.

If only these people would read threads before talking—but they don’t because social discovery is kneecapped on Mastodon.

@skotchygut@social.tummyacid.net This one is said quite often.