The Fediverse as it stands now is super ambitious, prospering, and honestly really exciting to see and be a part of.
I worry about the sustainability, though. The current model of donations, volunteer mods, and so on is working as intended, and the experience is flourishing. I see this model standing up for at least a couple of years as-is, barring any major changes of any kind.
My question becomes: How do we plan for the future entry of corporate influence into all of this? Because it will happen. I’ve watched most social media platforms and systems come into being in my lifetime, and also watched most of their demises. Money, marketing, and ads always come for them in some form.
What’s being done now to help prevent toxic corporate influence in the future? Can anything be done? The best part about defederated instances is a corporate influence could get ahold of one instance, but not all of them. Great in concept, but how do we plan for a future when corporate interest reaches these platforms and they throw enough money around to shake things up for the worse, as it always seems to?
We collectively need to do something to secure the long-term future. My initial thought is to follow aspects of Craigslist - create a non-profit behemoth that has a virtual monopoly on the infrastructure, so it cannot be displaced by a for-profit entity. No one can challenge Craigslist’s hold on “electronic classified ads” because 1 ) network affects 2) they can’t be undercut on price while still creating an “economic surplus” ie profits for someone else. Maybe this proposed organization could charge a small subscription fee for power users or something like that.
Craigslist’s competitive advantage has diminished to the point where people that I know don’t even use it anymore. Not a great example.
They went over a decade with basically zero innovation. Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp happily waltzed in and took a huge amount of market share.
I do agree with your main point however, that Lemmy/ActivityPub needs clearly communicated strategic vision to avoid being overtaken by corporate interests etc.
PS if anyone wants to work with me to try and make this happen, I am game.
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