Coming Together to Inspire Monumental Change on Social Media
Recarving the landscape of social media is a big ask. So, how do we do it? Together.
Many of the people behind the open social web projects, whether admitted publically or not, have been struggling to stay inspired the last few months.
We're all aware that, right now, our world kind of sucks. But what's worse is that we're working on something that could help, just a tiny little bit, but we're offering many different routes to an online social network that doesn't suck. Unfortunately, that's not enough for a lot of people.
It's hard to stay inspired against that. It's hard to keep going when you're watching your friends become the target of propaganda, when you're watching places near and far succumbing to climate-induced disaster, when you're wondering if your marriage will be legal in six-months time, if you should flee your country.
But, that's why we keep going and keep building. It's more important than ever.
Personally, I see myself more as a user of open social platforms, rather than a builder. That's because I haven't built anything (figures), but I have helped design a few bits and done my fair share of insanity-inducing testing.
Like the others, I've felt drained by this work to improve social media. I've felt hopeless, I've felt defeated, I've felt out of my depth. I'm just a 25 year old girl, who knows how to code a simple IF, YES, NO sequence on Python. My skills are in communication and design (and accents, but that's a party trick for another day).
I, like the others in this space, have been staring at the question that titles this blog post and wondering how. How do we make this work? How do we show people that there is something better (and how do we do it with little to no money)?
Collaboration
The strength of the social web is the people behind it.
It's not the vision of a single person. It's not built for profit. It's a collective of ideas and people who want to see change.
To grow the social web further, we must work together.
It's wonderful to have so many projects in this space, but if we stay in our own circles the wider space will never thrive. I think this is my key takeaway from FOSDEM, working together isn't hard - even if it's just a 20 minute call to talk about what you're doing.
Not everyone will agree with me. Some love the isolation and independence. It allows them to do what they want and answer only to themselves. It's one of the great things about a decentralised network. But facing the societal challenges we do, I believe it is time for us to work better together. To brainstorm. To plan. To do. A decentralised network of people with a centralised goal to grow the open social web.
And, we need more 'normal' people to join in. People who don't think in tech terms. People who aren't as close as this to the people behind the projects. We need to listen to the community we want to bring to the open social web, meet them where they are, and show them the way. We can't keep shouting into this echo chamber.
So, that's what I'm going to start doing. I'm going to try new things, reach new people, and hopefully soon we'll bring together some brains to start making a difference. If you want to get involved, get in touch.
