There are a LOT of good conference talks this year at #apconf2020. Like, seriously, I can't believe how many are so good.
I'm going to highlight a few in particular in this thread (if I don't highlight yours, it's just due to lack of time, I was seriously impressed by all the talks)
"Digital public sphere - From gated platforms to the fediverse" by @eest9 takes a sociological approach to analyzing the fediverse, and cites some interesting academic papers that I had no idea were being written! https://conf.tube/videos/watch/c28fe948-1308-4669-97a7-3c0e08500116
I think this is really important; we should be approaching federation tech in an interdisciplinary manner. It's not just technology... it's people!
@darius gave the perfect closing keynote to #apconf2020 in "Let's Play and Win Our Own Game" by helping us think from the perspective of: what are the centralized systems failing at, and what can we do that they can't? Lots to think about here! https://conf.tube/videos/watch/b8d6c88a-0e73-46dd-9e35-d4645bb12db8
Okay maybe I'll actually do my commentary on all of them, but later. I'm just going to cover two more for now and maybe we'll come back later to do the rest.
I really enjoyed watching @redchrision's talk at #apconf2020 on "An analysis of privacy design principles as applied to decentralized systems" https://conf.tube/videos/watch/a0196813-fb0d-4740-a37a-5f2b1fd1e774
It's interesting to me because this is the one talk we've had this year that was a clear continuation of thoughts from a previous year's talk https://conf.tube/videos/watch/2a48c7bf-b4a9-443c-a62d-e8dc6fda9c8e
Christina has expertise in GDPR policy; between both talks you get an excellent overview of thoughts from policy-oriented last year and network structure this year
Also I really recommend watching the #apconf2020 opening keynote, a panel of authors/editors from the ActivityPub spec https://conf.tube/videos/watch/6289920f-4e35-4141-ab6f-379b357849ec
I moderate it, but my goal here was actually to highlight everyone *else's* role in the AP specification. I think since I'm the noisiest of the ActivityPub-standardizing people on the fediverse, it may be possible to miss just how many other people were involved... and the way their thinking and involvement contributed to the spec we have today!
Okay, that's all for now. There are really, seriously, a lot of other good talks, and I'm sorry I was only able to highlight a few, but I do have to get back to work! I might come back later and give my thoughts on each one (I did watch all of them). They're all listed here! https://conf.activitypub.rocks/#talks
@cwebber @Argus Also, something that wasn't mentioned in the video: The Fediverse largely took a proactive approach to blocking Gab. Gab announced they were coming a little while before actually making the code implementations.
During this time, many instances, including ours, pre-emptively suspended all potential Gab-related domains before they even had a chance to infect us. In other words, a large portion of Gab's isolation happened before they even started federating.
@KitsuneAlicia @cwebber Are you Yowlen? It's great to connect with you, I had hoped to be able to track you down but had trouble.
The video is live but I still am tweaking the paper. Could I pick your brain?
@cwebber @Argus Some posts in my timeline (I forgot who was, but it wasn't me) propose to change the #Federated description/tag to #Confederated if, and only if, the federated has mens to deal with abuse/spam accounts or instances in a group of trust (such as blocking or, for the less aggressive form, hiding, for example).
@cwebber Awww thanks for the 🌹
@cwebber @redchrision Great talk, and we're thinking a lot about this.
"Decentralized Social Networks vs. The Trolls" by @Argus is hands down the highest amount of polish I've ever seen at a conference talk EVER. It's all animated! How on earth did @Argus manage to do all this work? https://conf.tube/videos/watch/d8c8ed69-79f0-4987-bafe-84c01f38f966
And the talk really delivers on its subject, with actual data and interviews. It's good journalism and highlights how, even though I think the moderation tools we have on the fediverse are today, fediverse admins are *making them work* with huge success.