On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 12:46 AM, Leinonen Teemu <teemu.leino...@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_social_network:_Supporting_WikiProjects_with_technology
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_X
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CollaborationKit

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