OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics. We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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Mastodon Special Issue: Some thoughts about Mastodon
Teri Kanefield, 2022/11/14

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Posts covering Mastodon controversies and issues: Journa.host has been defederated by some instances because of it's practice of (badly) vetting 'real journalists'. Similarly, there are calls to boycott fedifed, which is offering its own version of verified Twitter accounts on the fediverse. Related: can Mastodon cure the worst evils of social media, asks Teri Kanefield in a long and well-thought-out post. "The Mastodon model deincentivizes demogoguery." Also: on the question of Mastodon scraping without consent, by Robert W. Gehl. CBC should launch its own Mastodon server, writes the Tyee, "not just creating content online, but building better infrastructure for Canadians to create online." And in yet another Twitter thought piece Martin Weller writes, "We have failed to create the appropriate models of governance that prevent internet giants from realising digital infrastructure status." It would be interesting if it's new technology, not governance, that solves this issue.

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Mastodon Special Issue: #Tootorials Roundup
Miguel Guhlin, Around the Corner, 2022/11/14

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Posts containing Mastodon tips and tricks: "The fediverse is happening," says Ben Werdmuller. "Here's how to take part." A Mastodon Wizard takes you setp by step through the process. If you want, grab an app for your mobile device, and you're good to go. Miguel Guhlin offers a roundup of tootorials, including how to make a backup of your Mastodon account. Also, a Firefox plugin to make following people much easier. A new blog called 'Now We Are All Tom' offers this overview. Also, "Via Frank Meeuwsen I came across a.gup.pe which says it creates instant groups for Fediverse," writes Ton Zijlstra. How to move from one Mastodon server to another without losing followers.

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Mastodon Special Issue: On the importance of Fediverse server rules
Doug Belshaw, Open Thinkering, 2022/11/14

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Posts on managing a new Mastodon or ActivityPub instance: How to set up your own Mastodon instance. Setting up a personal Mastodon instance. Rixx.de describes its experiences running a Mastodon instance over five years at chaos.social. Mastodon isn't the only ActivityPub server out there; see this list of Activity Pub software curated on GitHub. Run your own social. The need for as code of conduct: "Most good codes of conduct are Creative Commons licensed... The one for exercise.cafe can be found here... like the Mastodon Server Covenant it's not perfect."

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Mastodon Special Issue: Twitter, Mastodon, etc.
Justin Weinberg, Daily Nous, 2022/11/14

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Posts listing places to land on Mastodon and elsewhere: "many of the philosophers and other academics joining Mastodon appear to be doing so through the zirk.us server". Also": Mastodon instances for journalists. Chris Aldrich on new Mastodon instances and a timeline experiment. Muguel Guhlin lists education-friendly Masstodon instances, mostly for the K-12 sector, and also a meta-list of lists including servers at MIT, OERu, and Raspberry Pi. Also, Internet Archive announces a new server. Hendrik Erz offers a long list of academic groups, lists, bots and servers on Mastodon. A new instance specifically for Canadians has been announced. There's an Open Education Global (OEG) Fediverse Directory.

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Mastodon Special Issue: Twitter’s potential collapse could wipe out vast records of recent human history
Chris Stokel-Walker, MIT Technology Review, 2022/11/14

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Posts on the (potential) fall of Twitter: the question, says David Hopkins, "is whether Musk's purchase of Twitter (and subsequent actions; firing staff, ordering 24/7 working to implement a paid-for anti-verification system) is the wholesale death bell of social media?" If so, researchers are concerned about the loss of the historical record should Twitter go under. To this end, Tim Hutton has authored a Twitter archive parser. Also: what are the symptoms of Twitter poisoning? Twitter is suffering from Mad Bro Disease, says the Register. "Instead of being above it all, like traditional strongmen throughout history, the modern social media-poisoned alpha male whines and frets." More: "Twitter's demise is ActivityPub's future," writes Ariadne Conill. Mark Liberman summarizes Ben Tarnoff's NY Review of Books article In the Hothouse: "Mark Zuckerberg once called Twitter a clown car that fell into a gold mine. Now there is a new clown behind the wheel, and the gold's all gone." Jean-Louis Gassée writers about Elon Musk's irresponsible tweeting. Also: "The Age of Social Media Is Ending," writes Ian Bogost. "It never should have begun." And let's remember: "Elon Musk's Twitter takeover is a reminder that Slack is never private."

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Mastodon Special Issue: Moving day
Wendy M. Grossman, net.wars, 2022/11/14

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Posts on the experience of moving from Twitter to Mastodon: Wendy Grossman observes, "the huge influx of new users doesn't bring revenue or staff to help manage it. This will be a big, unplanned test of the system's resilience." Mastodon feels like the old internet, writes Alex Hern. "Mastodon isn't one site. Instead, it's a protocol, a system of rules for spinning up your own social network." Miguel Guhlin writes, Farewell to #Twitter: A Tsunami of #Twexits. Some fun: I do not want a Mastodon, an Oliver Darkshire One Page RPG. Wired: what you should know about switching to Mastodon. ZDNet: Mastodon isn't Twitter but it's Glorious.

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