On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 12:46 AM, Leinonen Teemu teemu.leinonen@aalto.fi wrote:
I have been looking for social networking service that would be fair: not abusing personal data, funded by community, respecting privacy, accepting anonymity, free/libre/ open source etc. Haven’t found many. The Diaspora* Project[1] is not moving forward very fast and the Mastodon[2] is more a microblogging service rather than a social network service.
Wikimedia projects are social networks, but they are purpose-driven social networks [1] where participants are more strongly connected through their overlapping interests than through pre-existing social connections. To the extent that Wikimedia should develop better social networking tools, they should IMO be along the lines of the ideas being prototyped by WikiProject X [2][3]. Improving other social tools routinely used in connection with Wikimedia work, such as IRC and mailing lists, likely would also have near term benefit.
I don't think that you can make a compelling argument that building general purpose social networking software (as in, share cat+baby pictures with friends) is in scope of Wikimedia's mission. But Wikimedia organizations do use general purpose social networks like Twitter and Facebook for outreach. I do think, given the Wikimedia's strong orientation towards open source and open standards, that_participating_ in open, decentralized communities like Mastodon would be an appropriate way to extend that presence on existing platforms. I personally think Diaspora can be safely ignored at this point, and am hoping a better open FB alternative will emerge.
Erik
[1] https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_purpose-driven_soci... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_X [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CollaborationKit