Some time ago, I created the toot below. I also posted this to Fediverse Town. Now I am adding it as a discussion topic to Social Coding, as I want to explore and elaborate the vision of the Peopleverse a bit more..
The #Peopleverse is the excellent opportunity to uniquely position the Fediverse once and for all. Of course we keep Fediverse as the name. It’ll become just as familiar to people as ‘web’ and ‘internet’. And when they hear it, they’ll instantly know something going on on the peopleverse! Something most likely worthwhile and of value.
I see a lot of fedizens (rightfully) complaining how blockchain / cryptocurrency movement have hijacked and co-opted the Decentralization movement. They try to make themself be seen as Web 3.0 and use the #Web3 hashtag broadly. To those not knowing much about the technology side of things it seems that:
DecentralizationequalsWeb3equalsBlockchain.
And yes, this is super frustrating as it detracts from the many other initiatives that are better and more feasible, less crazy than the blockchain Wild West hype train, or tulip craze.
In a response just now to one of these complaints I pose that we need our own new Hashtag. We have fediverse already, but we need a broader category similar to #Web3 to encompass our branch of the #decentralization movement that we are part of with fedi. I’ll quote my toots here:
I think we need our own new word, and a word that still stands upon #decentralization. A word we commonly use, and makes it clear that #web3 is just another fork of decentralization.
And I mean Web3 has zero inspirational value, right? The 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc. versioning scheme has become entirely meaningless.
We should be able to come up with something better for our own #commons branch of The Decentralized Web. We have a bunch of hashtags for desired characteristics already. #SmallWeb, #Weblite, #CalmTech, etc.
Fabrics are things of human creation. Cloth. Intricate beauty woven by people, artisans, craftsmen. Then when we create social fabric apps we know they wield the fediverse.
#Fediverse is where different things can be interconnected to create something bigger than the sum of its individual parts.
We have most of the capabilities of the #ActivityPub open standards still largely unexplored. Potential not yet tapped into fully. We touched the tip of the iceberg and created federated Microblogging fabric.
Now let’s extend that to the full range of human activity and in ways where online world truly enriches the real world.
Why do we even need the analogy of a spider’s Web where typically flies are caught. Captured, wrapped in, then sucked from their juices, their life flowing out from them.
Let’s move beyond #Web. We are about doing #Social right, do you agree?
I also liked a recent toot saying the opposite of ‘centralized’ is ‘autonomous’, not ‘decentralized’. Though maybe even a better word can be found. I really like the notion of ‘agency’. It inspired me to this:
#WebOfAgency
A web where people are in control of their life, their freedom and their destiny. A place where society can flourish online.
It can also be expanded to #SocialWebOfAgency to particularly address the fediverse.
the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.
one’s independent capability or ability to act on one’s will.
PS. I don’t see these hashtags as substitutes of terminology we already use, though, but as additional ones.
Fediverse: what it is, what we have. Use as much as possible. But it is a bit technical term and needs explaining of federation and instances, etcetera.
Social fabric: what we create on the Fediverse, emphasis on weaving valuable inter-human relationships.
Web of Agency: highlights the aspect of personal control and individual freedom. A Fediverse not just for microblogging, but for ‘doing and acting’ together.
Decentralization: something we strive for, and where the Fediverse is a means to.
Decentralization and Agency are different desirable qualities in this. Different aspects of that the Fediverse brings to its fedizens.
