I'd like to follow more academics from Central and South America. I can read Spanish (and I really ought to practice writing in it), and I also want to learn more from academics in that area. If that's you, please follow me and I will follow back! (boosts appreciated)

It's a long road to write a book, but I got word that, assuming the production goes as planned, Move Slowly and Build Bridges, my book about Mastodon and the ActivityPub-based fediverse, will be out from Oxford UP around August of next year! Still a lot of work to do behind the scenes: editing, proofing, indexing. But I'm already giving book talks and would be happy to do so if you want me to visit your class/university to talk about the fediverse! @bookstodon group #Mastodon #Fediverse #books

A lot of folks at #AoIR2024 are a bit peeved that more AoIR members aren't using Mastodon/the fedi instead of X. "We as a community have produced a great deal of criticism of corporate platforms," they say, "so why aren't more people switching?" I've been studying alternative social media for a long time now. To cite Stuart Hall, there are no guarantees: you do this sort of work, trying to make something better, but knowing that it's a struggle and it may fail.

The latest FOSS Academic blog post is a doozy. I took the text of a presentation I gave about my academic career and turned it into a (probably too long) post, titled "From reverse engineering to building bridges: adventures in alternative social media."

FOSS Academic

Blog

I recently gave a presentation to the Cultural Studies PhD program at George Mason University. That

I reflect on my career studying alternative social media, from my time as a PhD student to the present. [replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog] #FOSSAcademic #alternativeSocialMedia

Hey, fellow profs! I am sure I'm not the only one who's noticed the response rates for teaching evaluations has plummeted in the past 5 years. At first I thought it was specific to where I worked (the U of Utah) but I've now seen it at two other universities. My question is: what gives? Is there a general move away from using evaluations? (If so, I'm not arguing -- I don't think they're very good tools. And yet, they are still used in promotion and tenure...) @npub15vfm...kgqc @npub1vuzf...esa4

I wonder if Mastodon is to Meta what Firefox is to Google. A little thing for a big company to gesture towards whenever a regulator starts mumbling something about monopolies.

someone I am close to just went to a presentation about nursing, where the head of a nursing education program was touting the fact that, in the future, nursing will all be done remotely, and actual in-person care will be done by robots two weeks ago, someone else I am close to told me the hospital they worked for was hacked by a ransomware crew the future's so bright

It's happening! My book about Mastodon and the fediverse is now entering the production phase! My editor at Oxford is asking what sort of cover image I would like. Any suggestions? Boosts appreciated! More about the book here: https://fossacademic.tech/2024/02/11/Move-Slowy-Preview.html #fediverse #mastodon #bookstodon

@npub1sacl...kcpe and @npub1fd2l...f2f9 have published a major new report about governance on the fediverse:

Findings Report: Governance on Fediverse Microblogging Servers

I had the pleasure of seeing an early draft -- the final result is even stronger! It's going to be a key document for fedi admins and moderators. #governance #fediverse