Post #785110

2022-11-10 14:28 UTC

It occurs to me that academic institutions could set up Mastadon servers as a communication conduit at the service of their constituents. In doing so, they would likely give a significant boost to ongoing efforts that aim for a decentralized scholarly communication ecology by familiarizing users with the possibility and benefits of decentralized approaches.

Replies (7)

@hvdsomp@w3c.social 2022-11-10 14:40

In the olden days, people in charge of institutional IT probably would have just gone ahead, give it a try, see what happens. In today’s “professionalized” IT setups, that likely requires a feasibility assessment, a user requirement study, a policy draft, a multi-year budget prognosis, and endless meetings (probably forgetting some) before the first stone can be laid. By which time Microsoft 365 offers Mastadon instances, which defeats the whole centralization idea. Apologies for the sarcasm.

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@koutropoulos@scholar.social 2022-11-10 15:25

@hvdsomp not everyone has a positive (or perhaps constructive) relationship with their institution. Some relationships are transactional in nature due to inherent power imbalances within institutional walls - just putting that out there.

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@thesiswhisperer@aus.social 2022-11-10 19:21

@hvdsomp yeah, at first I was super keen on the idea....Then I thought about every university marketing departments obsession with brand .... and the difficulty HR has in helping people get along when they aren't in a server together.... then that one guy in Yammer who was such a pain in the ass we all left...and ... nah

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@sam@w3c.social 2022-11-10 21:46

@hvdsomp NGO's, Newspapers etc etc. Do SSO tied into your existing authentication system?

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@timelfen@assemblag.es 2022-11-10 22:40

@hvdsomp Here’s a conversation from yesterday on whether a particular scholarly association should run an instance. https://mastodon.social/@acorsin/109313911505546681

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@peterwebster@mastodon.social 2022-11-11 09:45

@hvdsomp yes, this is certainly something we should be talking about. FWIW, I had some thoughts earlier this week on why learned societies might do the same. https://websterresearchconsulting.com/2022/11/08/first-thoughts-on-the-fediverse/

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@SylviaKMiller@zirk.us 2022-11-11 15:21

@hvdsomp Yes, I was thinking the same thing.

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