In Fall 2024, CoSocial members formed a reading group with Social.coop to read Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi’s Governance on Fediverse Microblogging Servers report (August 2024). Over four calls we unpacked the report and reflected on connections between its findings and our cooperatives. We concluded with a Q&A with Erin Kissane, where we could step back and think about the future of an open social media ecosystem driven by solidarity.
Below we’ve shared our takeaways and highlights as we gear up for future collective readings.
What should we read together this Fall? Let us know on this thread:
What we read
The report answers the question: what are the most effective governance and administration models of medium-to-large sized Fediverse servers. To do so, it explores governance, moderation, and community dynamics on the Fediverse. It also identifies the human and digital infrastructural gaps that persist. Cooperative governance was considered throughout. Kissane and Kazemi conclude: “we don’t think that the Fediverse is likely to realize the potential benefits [of thoughtfully governed, medium-sized Fediverse servers] without ongoing and intentional emphasis on—and funding for—addressing the cultural, financial, legal, and technical governance needs and gaps highlighted by our research participants.”
Discussion highlights
Our discussions were wide-ranging and covered many topics which you can find in our notes. Here are the themes we returned to frequently:
How (or does) the cooperative structure suit governing the social web
While the cooperative model offers an established framework for democratic decision-making and shared responsibility, it also has challenges. In the context of governing digital infrastructures those challenges include: ensuring active participation, limited time, lack of tools and funding to support democratic goals, and communicating ownership. There is no easy and direct translation from owning a share to a shared sense of ownership over the direction of a platform.
Challenges to sustainability and growth of the fediverse
Server admin burnout and instances disappearing due to unsustainable financing or the limits of volunteer-run operations were identified. We did not have an answer that easily addressed strain on existing resources. It also wasn’t clear that any single governance model had a significant advantage in overcoming challenges.
Tensions and opportunities around participation and ownership of digital infrastructure
We recognized a participation gap in volunteer cooperatives. Some members are active running the service or setting strategic direction. Others see the cooperative as a service provider. To the degree we need to address this gap, we discussed ways to support other forms of digital participation: new engagement pathways, member education on the model (typical in cooperatives), and deliberative and collaborative tools.
Solidarity as an approach to inter-server “diplomacy”
A key section on the report focused on the lack of tools to manage inter-server governance and moderation issues. Cooperatives often are motivated by the value of solidarity, which offers a framework for forms of “server diplomacy” versus a competitive approach. Solidarity could guide collaborations with other instances including collaborative moderation and defederation.
Balancing day-to-day moderation against high-level governance themes
In the report, the emphasis on governance focused on moderation as one of the key sites where governance happened. However in formally incorporated cooperatives, there are many other areas where governance can occur. Further, there is a “meta” conversation on governance: What governance happens via technology affordances and interfaces? What parts of a framework need to be known in advance (or guided by specific values)? What parts of governance need to be written processes or culture?
Q&A with Erin Kissane
After we finished reading the report we were lucky to have Erin join us and answer our questions. We wondered whether on-server communities are being intentionally cultivated anywhere. Also we were curious why (other) people chose cooperatives or chose not to formalize their governance structure. We pitched the idea of solidarity as a framing for server diplomacy. And all ended affirming the role of libraries as institutions, spaces, and social infrastructures that support social relations.
Key takeaways
Here are the ideas we left with:
- Appreciate the validation of shared challenges and case studies
- Desire for more tools to support cooperative and collaborative governance. In particular for moderation, authentication, and shared decision-making. Recognizing we are not in the position to take on leading development, is there a role for us as early adopters?
- Continue taking those first steps toward solidarity. Even having this reading group as a social.coop and cosocial.ca joint series felt important. Are there future member education events we could be doing in tandem? Connections we should make to other social media cooperatives?
What are your thoughts on governance of social media and digital infrastructures? Who else covers the topic that we should read? Chat with us using the hashtag #CoSocialReads.