After three years of (semi) regular existence, wherein we have touched on topics ranging from Terms of Service, Smart Cities and Immateriality, it is now high-time that the Pervasive Labour Union zine <http://ilu.servus.at/> takes a very close and serious look at the universe of the alternatives. Alternatives to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube: you name it.
What do these alternatives look like? Sure, plenty of services advertise themselves as "The alternative", but are they really all they claim to be? What are the requirements of a 'true' alternative? The Pervasive Labour Union zine already broached some of these topics on its Special Issue with the Homebrewserver Club on XMPP - "Have you considered the alternative?" <http://ilu.servus.at/issue9.html>. To follow the HBSC’s strategy, a premium should be put on alternative approaches, not on any specific alternative apps. We need federated social networking solutions based on open standards that are able to communicate among themselves, regardless of the platform being used. Looking forward, what the new issue intends to achieve is a broader, more in-depth look at the field of The Free Network, which, according to Sean Tilley's article on the topic <https://medium.com/we-distribute/a-quick-guide-to-the-free-network-c069309f334> [ https://medium.com/we-distribute/a-quick-guide-to-the-free-network-c069309f334], includes both The Fediverse and The Federation networks. These networks are comprised of projects such as Diaspora, Mastodon, GNU Social, etc. Which protocols can and are being developed to achieve interoperability between the different alternatives? How do scale and trust influence the field? What are the forces at play within this realm and how to engage with them? With this issue, we propose not only to collect a field guide of sorts, but also to open up the discussion on the alternatives and how to tackle the challenges posed by network effects, scalability and financial viability. As always, we welcome: - Texts (max. 1000 words). Texts can range from satire, theory, poetry, propaganda, educational etc. to personal rants; - Images (illustration, photo montage, photography, etc.); - Any other creative interventions that you might consider fit with the theme. DEADLINE: February 5th You can submit your contribution to li...@majesticmoo.se, lidia....@gmail.com or nikos...@gmail.com
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