After many years living in Germany, yesterday I was able to donate blood for the first time! I was trying to find a place in Berlin where I could donate having basic German. I heard from one place I called, with the humor of German bureaucrats, "Sie müssen sehr gut deutsch sprechen!!!" Obviously, I gave up on this place. So, spontaneously, I decided to go to Alexa Shopping and test my German. I was able to answer basic questions at reception, such as when I ate, how much I drank that day and so on. The receptionist said my German was good enough and gave me some forms to fill in. There were several medical terms I didn't know, so I used Google Translate, which worked well. I could speak in English with the doctor, although I also tried a bit of German. With the nurse, I could only speak in German, but that was fine too. I just can't understand why such an essential service can't have forms in English. The costs would be very low and many more people would be able to donate. And I've just received a leaflet explaining the importance of blood donation and the low level of some blood types in blood banks. My type, O+, for instance, is low at the moment and can be used by people of four different blood types. Come on, Germany, you're better than that. #Germany #blood #berlin #donations #redcross

O governo brasileiro poderia seguir o exemplo dos Países Baixos ao invés de ficar com discurso vazio de soberania nacional. "O governo holandês anuncia que disponibilizará o Mastodon para todas as camadas de todo o governo holandês, como um serviço compartilhado do governo, a partir de 2025! O piloto do Mastodon do governo comemora seu aniversário de um ano hoje e, como parte da avaliação, eles declararam que o piloto do Mastodon "fortalece a autonomia digital e [cria] um fornecimento de informações seguro e confiável"."

Mastodon

Connected Places (@fediversereport@mastodon.social)

Dutch government announces that they'll make Mastodon available to all layers of the entire Dutch government, as a shared service of the government...

P. S. A conta no Threads continua fechada para quem usa plataformas compatíveis com Activity Pub: (arroba) lulaoficial (arroba) threads.net. #Brasil #SoberaniaDigital #Lula #Fediverso #Mastodon #ActivityPub #Threads #X #privacidadededados #fediverse

I'm intrigued by some posts I've seen saying that Mastodon, or more generally the Fediverse, has the same problem with minorities that we find widely on traditional social media platforms, especially the big tech ones like x and meta. I disagree if you compare it to the cases where constantly outrageous posts appear on your timeline harming minorities. How could technology solve a problem that is inherently caused by human beings? If, at the moment, this federated social media is still not a safe space for minorities, isn't this a good time and a great opportunity to solve the moderation problems while we still have far fewer people active here? Offenders will not cease to exist, and technology can only mitigate the damage they can cause. We have a big challenge if this is really going to scale. #fediverse #minorities #ContentModeration #FediModeration #Mastodon

I started using the @Flipboard app a few days ago. I could find a profile of the Aeon Magazine (aeon.co) and the Psyche Magazine (psyche.co), digital magazines I usually like. After a few likes and articles I've read, I've liked some suggestions I've received so far. I don't know what their algorithm is, but I like the interface and to get some reading suggestions based on my preferences. I could also easily find other digital media I didn't know about. This is something I believe we could do better in apps like Mastodon and the like, but it seems that just the idea of an algorithm is daunting, I suppose due to the abuse of other platforms whose main goal is to profit via people's addiction to the screen. A well-designed and transparent machine learning algorithm could be used to show us some potential benefits we can have, not only the harm several of us know and want to keep at bay. #MachineLearning #news #journalism #SocialMedia #Mastodon #Flipboard

You know what would be optimal in terms of an interoperable and decentralized web? That I could start following and interacting with a profile on a platform that uses a protocol different from Activity Pub. In simple terms, I just want to follow some Brazilian tribes that went massively to Bluesky, and interact with them. Just click a like button, login with my Mastodon account and that's it. I know there's a bridge possibility, but that's just a workaround. Would it be possible to have different protocols that communicate to each other? Maybe not at this stage, but could different protocols be adapted for that? I just asked my partner to follow @ap.brid.gy on Bluesky more than 1,5 hour ago, but I still cannot see her profile here. I see my bridged profile even has a few followers on Bluesky, but only my original posts and posts from those who use this bridge are replicated there. #Interoperability #decentralization #fediverse #BlueSky #Mastodon #atprotocol #activitypub