Back in the old days before I became software developer, I used to be a plumber, one thing I learned back then is to like the idea of connecting simple, semi-independent components into one large network.

As both political activist and free software user, I'm not total stranger to the concept of Fediverse.

the #Fediverse is design to respect your #freedom and #privacy. this is more then just service provider being nice, this is ensured by free software, open standards and the decentralized nature of the network. together it comes to your data being yours. the freedom to publish your content or to keep it private, is the core of online freedom of speech and privacy.

No wonder, therefor, that when I decided to start a blog, my first step was to explore the #Fediverse and it's different platforms (social networks, file hosting, microbloging) to find a platform suitable for writing and sharing with others, independent of any centralist corporate network (such as Facebook or Twitter) and at the same time easily distributed on such networks.

In the case of a blog, privacy is a lesser issue, and the top priority is freedom, not being subject to censorship, thanks to the basic fact that you can be banned from a server but it's almost imposible to ban you from the whole network.
when choosing a platform that respects your freedom, a strong case that comes to mind is the case censorship of #Layla Khaled by Zoom, Facebook and Youtube (thanks to @cbug@venera.social).

the result, maybe temporary result, is using
Plume. a blog engine written in #rust. it does have problems, but that is for another post.
the federated design of the #Fediverse lets me "boost" (like retweet) this in my @bhyoram@mastodon.social account, which in turn is piped to my twitter.

I may dive into #Plume source code one day, to help improving my ecosystem, it's more fun then maintaining "friends" in the big book of no faces.

The reason why we as consumers get held to ransom by Big Tech is because they are the one's who create walled gardens of their apps to ensure it is very difficult to leave their service and to maintain any communication with your friends or family who stay behind. They count on that sticky network effect to hold you in place.

The world was not always like this, as we see with e-mail where any app can e-mail any other app. Neither was messaging as it was also once open.

So what we need is a protocol to be broadly supported that will connect anyone to any other app supporting that open protocol, but which allows end-to-end encryption. We need apps to support it, just like Hubzilla which built in a number of plugins to allow it to communicate with Diaspora, XMPP, Fediverse, etc all from one place.

What do we do about Big Tech like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft? Well either they must be mandated by law to build in this protocol support, or we as consumers must start voting with our choices and not make use of services that are walled gardens. Our future lies in an open interoperable Internet offering privacy. The future cannot be walled gardens separating us all.

From the link below the key columns are the License (how open is it for anyone to use without cost?) and End-To-End Encryption (can I use it privately?). From these requirements we can see that the following protocols could be suitable to consider:
* Bitmessage (Desktop P2)
* Briar (P2) but Android only
* Echo
* Jami (Desktop and Mobile P2P)
* Matrix (Desktop and Mobile Federated Client-Server)
* Ricochet (Desktop P2P)
* Signal (Centralised Desktop and Mobile)
* SIMPLE (more phones with SIP?)
* Tox (Desktop and Mobile P2P)
* XMPP (Desktop and Mobile Decentralized Client-Server)

See Comparison of instant messaging protocols - Wikipedia

#technology #instantmessengers #interoprability #bigtech #privacy

The following is a comparison of instant messaging protocols. It contains basic general information about the protocols. Note 1: In ~usr@a.b.com, the a.b.com part is known as the "hostmask" and can either be the server being connected from or a "cloak" granted by the server administrator; a more realistic example is ~myname@myisp.example.com. The...

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https://gadgeteer.co.za/open-secure-instant-messaging-protocol-not-what-needed-allow-any-messaging-app-communicate-any