FediForum | Growing the Open Social Web un-workshop, 2026/03/02

The Launch of the European Social Association

Social media’s impact on society and citizens clearly shows the need for change. European social media companies and civil society are joining forces to move away from large monopolistic platforms to establish a diverse and resilient infrastructure for information and social connection in Europe, keeping more jobs and revenue generated with social media circulating in Europe. For the first time, the organisations and people building Europe’s open social technologies have aligned behind one declaration, backed by 12 Founding Signatories, 100+ organisations and 600+ individuals. On 4 November the coalition becomes an organisation: the European Social Association, a charitable association based in Germany, and led by civil society. At the launch event, we will lay out European Social´s path towards common projects on moderation, bridging and other infrastructure elements, policy approaches, advocacy and fundraising based on common values and principles that shape the Open Social Web. Curious and interested to support? Please join in. **Schedule** 10.00 **Check-In and Get-Together** 10.30 **The launch of the European Social Association** with founding members Michael Foster (Newsmast Foundation), Sophie Bloemen (Commons Network), Jantien Borsboom (PublicSpaces), Björn Staschen (Save Social – Networks For Democracy), Felix Hlatky (Mastodon), Sebastian Vogelsang(Eurosky), Cathleen Berger (Co-Initiator Open Social Web Alliance) 11.00 **The platforms: The state of the Open Social Web** Panel discussion with Felix Hlatky (Mastodon), Sebastian Vogelsang (Eurosky) Moderation: Björn Staschen (Save Social) 11.30 **Civil Society: The need for an Open Social Web** Panel discussion with Sophie Bloemen (Commons Network), Jantien Borsboom (PublicSpaces), Cathleen Berger (Co-Initiator Open Social Web Alliance) Moderation: Michael Foster (Newsmast Foundation) 12.00 - 12.30 Coffee, Tea & Soft Drinks **Location:** Room "Mosaik" at Wikimedia Deutschland (thanks for hosting us!) **→ Please let us know if you can attend, places are limited:** https://savesocial.eu/eulaunch

Briefing_Building a New Social Web-20260218.pdf

Bridging Social Movements and the New Social Web (working draft) - Variable Context with @CaptainCalliope.blue

On connecting movements, media, and new protocol ecosystems to rebuild the civic, cultural, and technical foundations of a freer, more self-determining society.

Framing to Grow the Open Social Web and Serve Democratic Freedoms – Position Paper / Richard Reisman

Framing to Grow the Open Social Web and Serve Democratic Freedoms – Position Paper Richard Reisman (Discussion Draft 2/13/26) For FediForum Un-Workshop March 2, 2026 Growing the usage and functionality of the social web to meet the needs of humanity requires a broadened framing of the task and ...

Social Media and Tech Solidarity.pdf

A Plan for Social Media - Rethinking Federation

<p>This is part of a series of posts about the current state of Social Media. I talked about <a href="/a-plan-for-social-media-intro">Mozilla&rsquo;s failed str

mai ishikawa sutton

My work lies at the intersection of technology and the solidarity economy. I’m passionate about strengthening the digital commons, in which people control and steward communication technologies as collective goods.

Governing Together: Toward Infrastructure for Community-Run Social Media

Decentralizing the governance of social computing systems to communities promises to empower them to make independent decisions, with nuance and in accordance with their values. Yet, communities do not govern in isolation. Many problems communities face are common, or move across their boundaries. We therefore propose designing for "inter-community governance:" mechanisms that support relationships and interactions between communities to coordinate on governance issues. Drawing from workshops with 24 individuals on decentralized, community-run social media, we present six challenges in designing for inter-community governance surfaced through ideas proposed in workshops. Together, these ideas come together as an ecosystem of resources, infrastructures, and tools that highlight three key principles for designing for inter-community governance: modularity, forkability, and polycentricity. We end with a discussion of how the ideas proposed in workshops might be implemented in future work aiming to support community governance in social computing systems broadly.

a federated autonomous zone

cozy anarchist social media for the coming days