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> Decentralized ones, by contrast, can be a mess but they democratize innovation well that's an interesting take. granting that the fediverse is decentralized,

> Decentralized ones, by contrast, can be a mess but they democratize innovation well that's an interesting take. granting that the fediverse is decentralized, is it democratic? my instinct would be to say "no: i don't need to hold a referendum and get a majority vote in favor before bridging my site to the network: i just do it and each other site either federates with me or doesn't." that sounds more anarchic than democratic. on the other hand, the vast majority of the network has all settled on ActivityPub as a protocol. one could say that users and developers "voted with their feet (or their actions)", coalescing around that protocol and now it's effectively legislated (in the sense that a democracy would legislate English to be the official language, or for Pacific Time to be the regional timezone). but AP could still be displaced/improved without any appeal to authority. Misskey added all sorts of wacky protocol extensions and it didn't need to ask permission from anyone else on the network: whatever useful features it adds sort of disperse outward. i wouldn't describe that as "democratic". if someone really wanted to use a political metaphor, i guess you could say that decentralized networks federalize innovation? still feels like the wrong class of metaphor though.

RobotToaster 4y ago
Democracy doesn't automatically mean liberal democracy. Fundamentally anything that returns power from an "aristocracy" to the common people is democratisation.
- colinsane 4y ago
  thanks for that perspective. i’ve been interpreting the “democratize X” phrase in a fairly literal sense. it hadn’t occurred to me to think of it as an axis with “aristocracy” (or bureaucracy, etc) at one point and “democracy” at some point to the left and the author simply means “we’re moving things leftward along this axis”.
mxuribe 4y ago
Would that not be considered a meritocracy, then? That is: maybe not the best approach, but the best approach that most agrred to go along with...? As much of a fan as i am of the fediverse and especially ActivityPub, i'm sure there could have been other, better protocosl....but at the time, it was the best that most agreed to go along with. I think that's called meritocractic, no? Or, maybe there's a better word?
- coldacid 4y ago
  There definitely could be better protocols. I've seen plenty of complaints about AP from various corners regarding the protocol itself. But it's better than the OStatus protocol it supplanted, and one day someone will come around with something better that various fediverse instances will adopt.

RobotToaster 4y ago

Democracy doesn't automatically mean liberal democracy. Fundamentally anything that returns power from an "aristocracy" to the common people is democratisation.

colinsane 4y ago
thanks for that perspective. i’ve been interpreting the “democratize X” phrase in a fairly literal sense. it hadn’t occurred to me to think of it as an axis with “aristocracy” (or bureaucracy, etc) at one point and “democracy” at some point to the left and the author simply means “we’re moving things leftward along this axis”.

mxuribe 4y ago

Would that not be considered a meritocracy, then? That is: maybe not the best approach, but the best approach that most agrred to go along with...? As much of a fan as i am of the fediverse and especially ActivityPub, i'm sure there could have been other, better protocosl....but at the time, it was the best that most agreed to go along with. I think that's called meritocractic, no? Or, maybe there's a better word?

coldacid 4y ago
There definitely could be better protocols. I've seen plenty of complaints about AP from various corners regarding the protocol itself. But it's better than the OStatus protocol it supplanted, and one day someone will come around with something better that various fediverse instances will adopt.