Spring on the Social Web

New life is blooming

As a hayfever sufferer, spring isn't something I often look forward to. Even as I write this, I can smell the sickly sweet pollen from the very pretty blossoming trees across the street. I'm resisting the urge to itch my eyes.

But, just like last year, spring seems to be the season where we see the social web open up and show off its petals again.

After a flurry of events, the open social web has had a huge increase in press coverage. The biggest being SXSW. I think I speak for most of the open social web when I say thank you to Flipboard for providing a stage where the developers of the open social web could show off.

I imagine I speak for far less when I also thank Bluesky. Although many in the space still want to keep their distance from the quickly growing platform, we must acknowledge that the press they're getting, their references to ActivityPub and the Fediverse, have helped drive this sweet smelling new beginning.

They're not the only ones though. It's taken multiple people and organisations to raise the awareness to a point where the big orgs can show it off. But every little bit counts - even the tiny, bottom of the page, FediForum mention on the monthly Democracy Bulletin here in the UK (I'm taking credit for that one).

Now we have to make the most of it.

We have to come out of our wintery hibernation, feel the hot sun of an LED monitor, and start showing off. Not just the latest updates and best platforms in the space, but also the relationships between the people here. The community needs to be at the heart of what comes next and all the talk of working together needs to be turned into action.

But spring isn't all good...

With it comes the defrosting of bad actors on the social web. Spam accounts, like Nicole, the infamous Fediverse Chick, or entire instances dedicated to pumping out AI slop.

It was around this time last year that the Fediverse struggled with a spam wave that encouraged organisations like IFTAS to launch FediCheck. Now, a year on, that service has shut down and these actors aren't caught anywhere nearly as quickly as they should be.

This is why, I believe, as we go forward we should be doing more to support each other. Even if it's just highlighting the benefits of a service to others, or sharing a post that could increase reach. This is how we can help build the momentum that's been given to us by the early buds of spring.

The work we do now to protect the future of the open social web will take us to a summer worthy of a white sand beach.

(Apologies if you're reading this in the southern hemisphere - enjoy sweater weather.)