Re: [lp-ca-on] Microblogs for Software Freedom Day

[Blaise Alleyne]

On 01/08/15 05:19 PM, Bob Jonkman wrote:
> Hi Everyone: I've set up a couple of microblog accounts for Software
> Freedom Day Toronto. They're not directly associated with LibrePlanet
> Ontario, but since it's the same people in both groups the overlap is
> inevitable.
> 
> Twitter: @SFDToronto https://twitter.com/sfdtoronto
> Fediverse: @address@hidden http://sn.jonkman.ca/sfdtoronto
> 

Thanks, Bob!


> There is a one-way Twitterbridge -- anything posted to the Fediverse
> account should show up on the Twitter account, but not from Twitter to
> Fediverse.
> 
> 
> I know there are some philosophical objections to using a proprietary
> silo like Twitter for Libreplanet business.  Let's discuss this on
> this mailing list, and we can decide how to proceed based on consensus.
> 


I'm not outright opposed to using an account on a proprietary network that can
be managed from a free software client (like Twitter) as a sort of kiosk for
reaching other people, *if* we can...

(a) avoid scandal (in the Thomistic sense: a word or action that becomes a moral
cause of another's "sin");

(b) actually find real benefit in reaching people through this medium who
wouldn't be otherwise reachable through the web, email or GNU Social or other
methods, or even *personal* Twitter accounts (rather than an official
LP-CA-ON-run account), etc.


I'm also not opposed to LibrePlanet adopting a policy against this, if we think
it would better suit our goals.


Regarding avoiding scandal, I think that could depend heavily on the way in
which Twitter was used, and there might be some things we could do to mitigate
any falsely implied endorsement... e.g.

- Pin a message at the top of the account like the FSF does: 
https://twitter.com/fsf

- Include a message on the cover banner, like my attempt on my personal Facebook
account to encourage people to contact me *elsewhere* (my cover photo just says
"Find me *off* Facebook // blaise.ca/contact" )

- Keep our presence minimal, e.g. just using the GNU Social Twitterbridge so
that copies of messages or posted for Twitter uses to see

- To be careful not to promote Twitter accounts, or not to give it equal
promotion (e.g. if we're plugging something at the end of a presentation, "Find
us on GNU Social at ..." with no equal airtime to Twitter, but if people ask we
could say "We have a minimal presence on Twitter as well to reach users who
haven't switched to a libre network service yet")

- I don't think the GNU Social Twitterbridge does this, but it could be nice if
every Twitter post ended with a canonical link back to the GNU Social post,
POSSE style ( http://indiewebcamp.com/posse )


I just think... if we can use Twitter without directly using proprietary
software, it's not inherently wrong (even if it may be unwise). But it might not
be unwise if our goal is not just to preach to the converted, but to actually
reach people who are *new* to free software -- as long as we can reach them
through a service like Twitter in a way that doesn't undermine our call to avoid
services like Twitter.

That is... the presence on Twitter has to have a "come join us on a free
network" feel, as opposed to a "hey, isn't it fun here?" kind of feel...


That said, I'm open to adopting a policy against using Twitter or other
proprietary services as a group if we think it's unwise.


> I'm also open to moving the SFDToronto Fediverse account to another
> server.  As sysadmin for jonkman.ca I know how fragile and
> bandwidth-challenged my servers are.  But they're Free-as-in-Gratis
> (and FAIF too!), so there's that.
> 

Thanks for offering your servers, Bob! Makes sense to me, certainly for now, if
you're okay with it.


> I don't believe there are any microblog accounts for LibrePlanet
> Ontario specifically. Is a @LibrePlanetON account necessary, or a
> !LibrePlanetON group? (or a LibrePlanetON.ca server!)
> 

My feeling is an account make sense in the future, though I'm not sure if there
would be enough to post about right now? *shrugs*

Sergio had discussed hosting a server before, as LibrePlanet BR runs a GNU
Social instance:
http://social.libreplanetbr.org/