This is Noah Sushi in Pescadero. The best sushi I have ever tasted, and I’ve had good sushi, even in Japan. It’s on a dirt road, with no signage, and no fancy tables inside. People come from hundreds of kilometres around to enjoy it.
Baja is wild.
Street names in Baja are wild, in that they barely exist. To prove my residence/address I need to show an electrical bill. So this street a few blocks from our house is hilariously named.
It’s named after a gardener who still lives in that street, and drinks multiple litres of alcohol a day. His nick name is “Litre” or in Spanish “Litro”. So a gringo who loves him had a street sign made, attached to the pole at the start of the street, now everyone calls it Litro Street.
In the future we won’t share our most intimate stories with, and through, the world’s biggest tech companies. Mastodon and blogs might not be the complete indieweb story, but it’s at least in the first or second chapter.
I’ll never forget today. The day that my 20 month old daughter, whilst holding a banana, screamed for another banana, but when she had two, realised she only wanted one.
The classic B1 and B2 dilemma.
A proposal: a social network owned by creators
Social networks have three assets: a network effect (so we can connect with people), content moderation (so we can actually enjoy using it), content (so we have something to enjoy/consume).
The content creators have always been at the bottom of the stack. Underpaid and under-appreciated," by the social network owners.
So what if we made a Twitter owned by us?
There’s a turning tide against Twitter and Meta towards Mastodon, and honestly Mastodon is pretty good. It’s decentralised in that you can sign up to any Mastodon server/instance and talk to other people on other instances, that’s called federation. It’s one of the tentpole features of Mastodon. Federation, or the fediverse, means you can sign up to, for example, the @mastodon.social instance and if I’m in @aus.social, we can talk to each other.
But if we’re both on the same instance there’s some nice ways of discovering other people and other content, in particular discovering people and content on the same server.
Plus the instance you choose to be on has a brand story. If you’re communicating how to find and follow you on Mastodon there’s a branding aspect. Imagine saying on a podcast “follow me at Josh at Mastodon dot social” as opposed to “follow me at Josh at cool name dot com.” It can’t be long until corporations and large brands take the opportunity to start their own instance.
So what if content creators got in early and had our own network?
That’s my proposal, to start a Mastodon instance owned and run by content creators. Podcasters, writers, newsletter writers, vloggers, video makers, photographers, personalities, broadcasters - creators. Because we’d own the network we’d reap the benefits, instead of sending them to VCs, corporations, or Elon Musk/Zuckerberg.
Because all the creators have existing networks - and products - we’d flex our influence to bring audiences to the new network. Also, in case it’s not obvious, nothing will be taken away from your existing work. What changes is that instead of providing Twitter and Meta with free content that upholds the network effect that feeds their shareholders/stakeholders, you’re providing free content to build and uphold your own network that operates like a co-op content farmers market.
I own the domain name ’theradio.au’ and I reckon it’d be kind of cool to say ‘follow me at Josh at theradio dot au’ in a video or a link o my profile being theradio.au/@josh … or insert your content brand in place of Josh.
I like the generic-ish name, and the idea of “I’m on the radio” as a term of phrase for using the social media platform, particularly as actually being on the FM/AM radio means so little.
I’m open to listening to ideas around how to start, run, and do this well. There are costs to running a Mastdon instance and because the benefits run to creators I’d look to creators to fund the project. With enough people it might be $50-100 a year, and I see the incentives run in the right direction if creators fund and own it. Other business models lend themselves to other incentives and next minute you’re owned by Elon Musk.
Weigh in on the social platform of your choice or email me at josh@withers.co.
Siri, one of the foremost artificial Intelligences, thinks I should call in to the Airbnb to check out. Thanks mate.
Apparently I don’t share my photography enough (sorry, Zac) so it’s mostly on Unsplash.
There you go ya filthy tech-news-lovin animals.
Gosh it irritates me when ‘down south’ writes the national news stories as if no-one from ‘up north’ reads it // @crikey_news @emmaels
My favourite thing about Mastodon actually has nothing to do with Mastodon. It’s the experience of embracing a completely new network with a handful of existing connections but then start following new people creating a whole new social graph whilst screaming “HELLO NEW FRIENDS!”
James Hennessy in The Terminal:
“His primary motivator at this point is the absolutely daunting mathematics of the deal he signed … saddled it with $13 billion in debt and about a billion dollars a year in interest payments alone.”
A few thoughts on Mastodon at the end of day one:
The network brand name is stupid and not sticky, as is “toot”.
Running your own instance is not the best, but it’s not like there’s a perfect instance to join.
Following people is too hard.
It’s a nice system and I like it.
Fish tacos, margaritas, a mariachi band, all on the beach. A perfect night on the Sea of Cortez.
Balandra
I could imagine this hanging on a wall somewhere, I’m really proud of it. On the left there you’ve got what the Mexicans say is there best beach, nationwide.
Playa Balandra (Balandra Beach).
Fifty shades of blue
I decided I was being a grumpy old man by not even trying Mastodon - I think it has a stupid name for a modern product, great for an extinct elephant - but I’ve signed up … @josh@withers.online is me. Who should I follow?
One of us, and I won’t say who, just fell off the bed and landed face first on the tiled floor
On the Sea of Cortez, near La Paz, today
I can handle my parents being disappointed in me, my wife, children and friends. All of your disappointments will come and go.
But man, letting Duolingo down, this cuts deep.
