Fediverso, Mastodon or Solid, a fashion trend or a revolution in the network?

Phenomena with the closure of Google +, after recognizing a security flaw that left exposed the data of half a million users , or the constant suspicions about the use that Facebook makes of the information, have cleared the way for those who are committed to decentralization of social networks and the Internet. Fediverso , to which initiatives such as Mastodon belong; o Solid, the project of the internet creator, Tim Berners-Lee , wants to return power to the network to users, snatching it from large companies and betting on decentralized and open source platforms.It is if we are still in time to escape the control of Google, Facebook or Twitter and, further, if there is a real interest among the users of these platforms to escape this control.

solid and power over data

Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the internet, believes that the web has become an engine of inequality and division; influenced by powerful forces that use it for their own agendas."I think we have reached a critical inflection point, and that powerful change to improve is possible, and necessary.This is the reason why In recent years, I have been working with some people at MIT and elsewhere to develop Solid, an open source project to restore the power of individuals on the web , "says Berners-Read.

Related Solid, which will be launched through the Inrupt company, will allow users to store their data in a kind of virtual USB called POD (Personal Online Data) from which you can access applications and programs controlling the information you can use.

In a statement distributed in his presentation, Berners-Lee was optimistic about Solid's future."There is a wave of concern and related energy, desperate for change. People want to have a website in which You can trust.People want apps that help them do what they want and need to do, without spying on them. Apps that don't have a hidden motivation with proposals to buy this or that.People will pay for this kind of quality and security ».Segun Lee, we are moving towards an era in personal empowerment internet through data.

Fediverso, Mastodon or Solid, a fashion trend or a revolution in the network?

Condeferados in fediverso

As for Fediverso, it is an ecosystem of social networks developed by Internet user communities around the world, independent from large corporations to institutions. Each of its members can contribute their grain of sand to Boosting this revolution, from spreading the word to contributing to the development of its open source software.Fediverso networks are designed to be managed by their users, who can choose which network to join and who administer their data, even developing micro-networks for family members.and friends.

On the Fediverso website itself, the initiative is described as a feudal system in which power and data are decentralized and dispersed across multiple lands, while the main websites became kings (or tyrants ) of its own huge territory, surrounded by high fences.

"If you are not a fan of feudalism and the Middle Ages," they say, "trust this Fediverso, where you can meet well-informed nerds and friendly hackers, gay pirates and privacy advocates, altruistic activists and treacherous trolls, and many good friends."

In recent years, and increasingly fast, the "Free Facebook"-Friendi.ca-, the "free YouTube"-Peertube-, the "free Instagram"-PixelFed-, the "Free Facebook" have formed Free Blogger "-Plume-, a" Free Dropbox "-Nextcloud-or a" Free Spotify "-Funkwhale-.

Fediverso, Mastodon or Solid, a fashion trend or a revolution in the network?

Fediverso logo proposal

mastodon, the "free" twitter

Fediverso's masexito service is Mastodon, known as the "free Twitter", which already has about two million people registered.Mastodon is a free and open source social network server . A decentralized alternative to commercial platforms, "that avoids the risk of a single company monopolizing your communication".

According to its creators, Mastodon is not a commercial network. "No advertising, no data mining, no landscaped gardens.There is no central authority" .In practical terms: imagine that you follow an Instagram user from your Twitter account and can comment on their photos without leaving your account.If Twitter and Instagram were federated services, that would be possible.

Toni, 48 years old and from Girona, has been in Mastodon since December 2016 and since January 2015 in GNUSocial, the predecessor of this network, with which it is federated so that the respective users can talk to each other.Salto explains that in this network he is happy «because there is no censorship and the decentralization of the network makes it resistant to attacks:" You can hang a node, two, three...but it will continue to work ".Toni says that" everything Well, I've met him here, I even deleted my Windows and started using GNULinux with the help of this magnificent community."

Mastodon uses decentralized servers called " instances " (totaling 1,500 worldwide) and that are maintained by own users. "We work hard to preserve decentralization, security and privacy in cyberspace, and to move towards a horizontal and non-hierarchical mutual society, where technology is made by people for people and not by corporations to control people, "they say in one of these instances, called Hispagatos.Space.

Fediverso, Mastodon or Solid, a fashion trend or a revolution in the network?

Decentralization according to Mastodon.From left to right: centralized, federated and distributed networks.

This "free" alternative to Twitter has recently become famous for the arrival of thousands of Spanish users of the bluebird network fleeing from its new and hardened standards of conduct.However, time will tell if we are facing a timely protest movement or what may be the beginning of a tendency to move to decentralized social networks where the user has control.

There will be attentive to see if the torch of the revolution of decentralization and open source converts ashes "the rods" that today hold power on the internet.

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