Robert W. Gehl

Robert W. Gehl's avatar
Robert W. Gehl
🛡️ rwg_at_aoir.social@momostr.pink
npub1jhf0...35pm
Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice, York University. Currently writing a book, "Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Ethical Social Media" for Oxford University Press. Been on the fediverse since 2017. I'm now helping set up AoIR.social he/him Trans rights are human rights. I boost [#BlackMastodon](https://aoir.social/tags/BlackMastodon) and [#MutualAid](https://aoir.social/tags/MutualAid) posts. I also call for alt text for accessibility.
Latest FOSS Academic post is -- you guessed it -- a 2025 year in review post. Thrill to the fact that I'm using much of the same FOSS to do my work as I always have! Feel the chills as I talk about #generativeAI and how terrible it is! Above all, join me in living the FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream!
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Happy solstice! The shortest day of the year is a fine day to think back on another time
 Replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog thanks to the magic of #ActivityPub! #FOSSacademic
Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon
Federated social media is a radical departure from corporate social media. While big companies like Google and Microsoft produce email servers that can intercommunicate with hundreds of other providers, in the world of social media, cross-company communication is largely unheard of....
Move Slowly and Build Bridges, by Robert W. Gehl
 #MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot
Hey, #admins! Along with a grad student, I am working on a paper the surveys Mastodon (and forks -- Hometown, Glitch) servers that have some connection to #Canada. We have done a lot of digging and have found ~40 instances that have some connection to Canada. We presented our work recently:
Mapping Canadian Social Media: News Sharing on Canadian Mastodon Instances
 But! Maybe we're missing some. If you are willing to share, please let me know if your Mastodon/fork instance meets this criteria. Boosts appreciated!
Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon
In addition to content moderation concerns, those who sign the #fedipact or otherwise pledge to block Meta cite many other reasons for doing so. vanta’s fedipact site sums up several: “that time they helped facilitate a genocide. that time they helped try to rig an election....
Move Slowly and Build Bridges, by Robert W. Gehl
 #MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot
This kind of came a bit unexpectedly today, but I have a new article out:
Fediverse Blocklists: Moderation in Noncapitalist Social Media | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society
 It focuses on those most controversial moderation tools on the #fediverse: #blocklists. I consider the philosophy and practice of listing to argue that those who run blocklist services work hard to mitigate their problems. I also make a case that we simply need more scholarship on content moderation on #noncentralized, noncommercial social media. #alternativeSocialMedia