Brief Project Description
The Social Web, aka Fediverse, is a federation of independent social networks connected with the ActivityPub open standard. We are studying the social and economic structure of the Fediverse, with a focus on identifying interventions can that support and grow the network. We're researching the economics of networks, to the business model for creators, to the role of cooperative. Finally, we're providing one intervention: grants for creator/developer teams to improve the creator experience.
Project Update
Our progress so far has been about data collection. We've run a Web survey, followed by email questionnaires and videochat interviews, with hundreds of Fediverse server operators. We asked what motivated them to run servers, what their costs were, what their risks were, and how they kept things running.
We also used data analysis of the social graph to identify over 85,000 servers that have connected with another server on the Fediverse. We then queried all of the servers, and only 40% were still available -- showing a large number of decommissioned servers.
One of the challenges of this part of the project has been survivor bias. It's much easier to contact, survey, and interview current operators of Fediverse servers than to find people who've tried to run servers and failed.
We've also been running, in parallel, an interview process with content creators on the Internet. We're not only focusing on Fediverse creators -- we're trying to learn about the processes and social and technical infrastructure that creators use to express themselves and make money on other platforms.
This has been harder than expected. Among other things, creators are subject to extreme levels of parasocial behaviour from their fans -- ranging from the strongly interested to stalker level. We've had to work with creators to anonymize and aggregate their experience so their software providers, coworking spaces, and other vendors aren't flooded with fan attention.
Finally, we've structured a grant program for supporting creators and developers in exploring technology options on the Fediverse. We know from creators already that business models are hard to find on the Fediverse, so we are encouraging them with seed funding to start their Fediverse presence, and to work with experienced developers to get the software tools to the level that they're used to from other platforms.
Project Impact & Target Audience(s)
Our intended impact is to make it sustainable for communities to run their own social platforms, and for creators to maintain a presence on the inter-network that connects those platforms.
This impact affects communities in different ways. For some, especially LGBTQ+ communities, running their own servers provides a way to encourage user safety without depending on trust and safety teams that "balance" their needs against those of abusers and harassers. Keeping these servers running is a key goal of this project.
We also are targeting creators that are underserved by traditional platforms, where their work may be controversial. Some have their content demonetized, or deemphasized by algorithmic feeds. Others have their accounts cancelled without warning. Creators working on open platforms get the choice to move their accounts between servers without losing their hard-won audience.
Both Fediverse creators and administrators can have a first-class presence in the global majority. Rather than depending on services run from North America or Europe, people across the global can run their own servers and operate as equal peers.
Progress on Objectives, Key Activities
Our four main objectives are showing progress:
- Our server sustainability research is almost complete, and we've started a first draft of the report.
- Our creator interviews have started and are continuing.
- We've completed the call for proposals for our creator/developer grants, and are now going through almost 50 applications to identify our 4 grantee teams.
- We have not started our work on cooperative social media.
Communications and Marketing
Our primary outreach has been through our blog and on the Fediverse itself.
- We started our sustainability survey (with followups)
- We announced our grant program (and made followups)
Other outreach has been private -- we have a network of advisors and supporters that we used to source creator contacts for interviews, for example.
What’s Next?
Most of our deliverables are heading into their final phase.
- Our sustainability report will be circulated within our advisory ecosystem, and a paper will be coming out soon after.
- We will continue our interviews on the creator economy, with a separate paper developed.
- We will choose from our proposals 4 grantees, and help them be successful in their projects.
The deliverable that will be primarily in the second half our of project period is our work on cooperative social media. For this, we're hosting an unconference of platform cooperative participants to identify key pain points and opportunities. We'll be providing another report, and also a resources Web site for social media cooperatives.
Community Support
Our big needs today are:
- Identifying more creators to interview. We're especially trying to reach creators from underserved communities, from the global majority, and with original or unusual strategies for reaching their audience.
- Cooperatives! We are hooked into several cooperative networks, but we're especially interested in cooperatives in Europe and other parts of the world.
Additional Comments
We've learned a lot just from working on this process -- it's been exciting to develop and revise our research techniques as the project developed.
Please leave us questions and comments -- we're excited to discuss at the next level.
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