The IT Blog

Tag: fediverse

  • PeerTube and Platform Control

    I didn’t even plan to blog something today, but a couple of things came together around PeerTube that convinced me to drop a post today. But, maybe before we start … PeerWHAT? you might ask.

    Interlude: What is PeerTube?

    TL;DR: An open source / self hosted YouTube

    PeerTube is a video platform that works a bit differently from sites like YouTube. Instead of one company running it, PeerTube is made up of many small, connected servers – so there’s no central control. You can watch, upload, and share videos just like you’re used to, but without ads or tracking. PeerTube also connects with other platforms like Mastodon, so videos can reach more people across the Fediverse. It’s a privacy-friendly option for discovering and sharing content on your terms.

    A more technical description can be found on Wikipedia: PeerTube – Wikipedia

    So what happened …

    (more…)

  • Take Back the Stream: Support PeerTube’s Mobile App

    Big Tech dominates online video. Algorithms, Ads, and tracking define what we see and who gets heard. PeerTube offers a real alternative – decentralized, open-source, and powered by its users, not corporations.

    Now, PeerTube is taking a critical next step: building its first official mobile app. Framasoft, the nonprofit behind the project, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to make it happen.

    (more…)
    Fediverse Reactions

  • I found my replacement for LinkedIn!

    If you’ve followed me, you might have noticed that I had pulled back my activities on LinkedIn gradually: I posted less, stopped interacting and deleted my content.

    But I kept returning – only to feel the same mix of disappointment and annoyance every time. Eventually, I asked myself: Why did I keep coming back – even though it never felt useful?

    (more…)
    Fediverse Reactions

  • Myown #UnplugTrump to more digital sovereignty / digital independence

    If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’m gradually moving away from “classical” Big Tech social media, focusing more on Mastodon and my own homepage.

    On Mastodon, I came across Elena Rossini and followed her journey toward greater digital sovereignty. Inspired by her example, I decided to give up my YouTube channel in favor of a self-hosted PeerTube instance.

    (more…)
    Fediverse Reactions

  • Recommended talk: Digital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer Status

    This week I came across a post recommending the talk from Molly White (@molly0xff) at SXSW, talking about “Digital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer Status“.

    The abstract of the talk is: “The real power move for creators is ownership and control of their work and livelihoods. This freedom is actually closer for more people than ever before! Learn from two fediverse futurists how decentralized social media facilitates better publishing, community, and business models. These speakers will cover the theoretical and the practical, including how the landscape is evolving in 2025, where creators should focus their energies, and how they might thrive with or without “walled garden” social platforms.”

    It’s an interesting talk, where she’s talking about how (and WHY) she keeps her content mainly on her website and federates it to some social networks for discovery.

  • How to selfhost Peertube

    I’ve been thinking about selfhosting my videos for quite a while now. Sure, Youtube is the de-facto-standard. But honestly, I don’t perform on ANY platform that is steered by an algorithm, and I simply dislike the way those monopolies can “dictate” what is seen and can be seen. Elena Rossini recently wrote a nice post about it, that nails it quite well. I know: I don’t pay for it, so what should I expect …

    Anyways! I hesitated for quite a while to rent a VPS, install Peertube, maybe according databases, redirect a subdomain, keep it maintained … ah well … or maybe just not.

    But – also thank you to Elena Rossini (@_elena@mastodon.social) – I got aware of YunoHost:

    YunoHost is an operating system aiming to simplify server administration and therefore democratize self-hosting while making sure it stays reliable, secure, ethical and lightweight. It is a copylefted libre software project maintained exclusively by volunteers. Technically, it can be seen as a distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux and can be installed on many kinds of hardware.

    And I must admit that I really liked the setup procedure! It’s well described in the Yunohost Documentation and worked like a charm.

    If you are afraid of self-hosting any application listed in the YunoHost App-Store … DON’T be afraid. VPCs/VPSs are really cheap to get as well … I chose a tiny VPC from Strato for example.

    See the result on https://video.franzgraf.de/

    Give it a try! Self-hosting might be easier than you think.

    Fediverse Reactions

  • Is it worth joining Mastodon?

    These days I just hit the mark of 1500 followers on my photography account @hikingdude@mastodon.social on Mastodon.

    That’s really – great, satisfying, surprising. Choose whatever you want. For an influencer on other platforms (the Entertainment media) this might not be a lot. But.. Wait…

    (more…)

  • Brasil’s Twitter/X ban shows once more an over centralized system

    If you haven’t heard about it, on August 31st 2024 Brasil banned Twitter/X nationwide (see BBC, NYTimes, TheVerge).

    There are numerous debates about the whys etc. But for this post I don’t care. My point here is: it once more shows the massive downside of such a centralized system.

    (more…)

  • “Death to the Algorithm” a recommended read

    I just came across Jeffrey’s post “Death to the Algorithm | Jeffrey Inscho” and I so resonate with it!

    (more…)

  • Social Media Platforms vs Entertainment Platforms?

    I often like to listen / read when someone tells about his or her experience on different social media platforms. And when it comes to Mastodon, I’ve noticed a recurring theme: Many users describe how other social networks fill their timelines with entertaining or funny content and that they were missing this in the beginning of their “Mastodon-experience”.

    And at some point I thought by myself: “Wait wait wait – Are we still talking about social networks?” Is it the purpose of a social network to keep me entertained? I mean – this isn’t the expectation from my real-world-social-network, is it?

    (more…)