At OpenTech(AUC) we like to rant about what makes the existing digital worlds we live in terrible. But it’s not all bad. Healthier alternatives exist! In this post we would like to introduce the world of Mastodon. Mastodon is a decentralized, open source, non-corporate alternative to Twitter. It is part of a larger group of apps and platforms that offer a different digital social world, called “The Fediverse”, where people can take back control over the spaces where they digitally meet.

Normally, when you feel you’re getting the short end of a stick, for example when the supermarket sells you expensive mushy cauliflowers, or when the organization you volunteer at treats you disrespectfully, you go and find what you need somewhere else. This ability to “defect” to an alternative when you feel you’re not getting a good deal, is an important “power” that helps you get reasonable deals.1 When it comes to the way we relate to each other digitally, arguably one of the main ways in which we relate these days, we do not have that luxury.