As I understand it, "Mastodon" is a web server, which is also an ActivityPub node, and with a focus on microblogging. There are other ActivityPub servers, and y

As I understand it, "Mastodon" is a web server, which is also an ActivityPub node, and with a focus on microblogging. There are other ActivityPub servers, and you don't need Mastodon to do microblogging. As such, "Mastodon apps" seems a bit odd, though that could be my ignorance. Is that some way to extend functionality on a Mastodon server? If so, how is that different than any other plug-in? Also as I understand it, the administrator of a Mastodon node can decide which other node to associate with, and some Mastodon instances aren't part of the "Fediverse." > for more organizations of all types Why do you think that when it specifically refers to "companies", not "organizations of all types"? Consider that antitrust law prohibits large companies - ones with significant market power - from certain actions which are completely permissible in a small company. My feeling from the Santa Clara Principles is that it feels like the relevant companies want to demonstrate to legislators that they are doing enough of the right thing that the government doesn't need to step in with oversight. > maybe we should have an actually-public digital town square. I've never lived in a place with this much-trumpeted mythology of the town square open to all points of view. It feels like a fake glorification of something that never existed. I mean, restraining orders still apply in public squares. Time/place/manner restrictions definitely exist. People may need permits, if only to prevent scheduling conflicts. People definitely risk ostracization for speaking. And I strongly suspect blacks were not welcome in most public squares - and until living memory could face official state oppression for speaking out. So it's not like the historical "town square" was what the myth seems to suggest. > is that it at least implies that organizations or companies have human rights responsibilities Then use the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, linked to from the "The History of the Santa Clara Principles" section of the web site: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrincipl... . Or, as I pointed out at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16838828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16838828 , compare Eric Schmidt's "How Google Works" with "the HP Way". The latter had the objective: To meet the obligations of good citizenship by making contributions to the community and to the institutions in our society which generate the environment in which we operate Google's way does not include social obligations.