In recent years there has been a lot of dissatisfaction about social media. At the same time there has been a new platform, Mastodon, which has been gaining popularity in the way it seeks to address the sources of this unease. It looks and behaves like similar platforms, but under the hood it works substantially different ways.

Rather than a single service, Mastodon is part of a collection of community-owned independent services that interoperate with each other. This larger set of projects is also known as the Fediverse and is compromised of vastly different softwares, cultures and attitudes.

Public conversation

A general introduction into Mastodon and the Fediverse
Saturday 8 December 2018
20:00h - 21:30h

On the Saturday 8th of December Wtt�F will host an evening roundtable as a general introduction into Mastodon and the Fediverse. How does it work? What are the underlying concepts? Who made it? What has been the history behind it? What kind of different communities inhabit this Fediverse? What does it mean to host such a community?

It will be hosted together by an administrator of a large Mastodon community and an administrator of a small Mastodon community. Both are also contributors to the fediverse.

Worksession

Translating and documentation of the Mastodon project
Saturday 8 December 2018
14:00h - 18:00h

As part of this edition of Wtt�F we will also spend the afternoon together to look at the documentation and translation of the Mastodon project. How does the translation of open source projects work? How are projects communicated? How can the technical concepts be made accessible for larger audiences without diluting their significance?

If you would like to join the worksession, please register in advance by sending a mail to info[at]varia.zone.

Practical

This gathering takes place in Varia, Gouwstraat 3 in Rotterdam.

Welcome to the � Federation

Welcome to the � Federation is grounded in a renewed interest in 'alternative' on-line services such as social media and chat. Through meetings and worksessions the project hosts various events around software projects that are working towards these ecosystems. A particular focus will lie on those projects whose activities have reinvigorated interest for their underlying protocols, in part by their focusing on design, language and user experience (UX).

The Wtt�F question is to explore how arts and design communities can play a supportive role in these processes by contributing skills, knowledge, time and exposure. For more information please visit: Welcome to the � Federation

This project is made possible with the support CBK Rotterdam and Varia.