Today I am wearing my Get Federated t-shirt as my attire as a guest on an Open Education Week panel on “Where are OER conversations happening anymore?” I sing of a Bridge over some kind of waters:
Oh, social media gets broken
Alan’s rewording of for satirical purposes only, ain’t it obvious of lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Waters
And followers just can’t be found
Like a bridgy over federated networks
I will connect me over
Like a bridgy over federated networks
I will connect me over
I take on my role as an outlier as I maintain there is no “place” we should need to be settled in, that the internet has always been from is, by design, a decentralized space. Connected, federated.
So I know I am “missing out” on all the action in Bluesky, the “great party in a sealed building with no fire exits”. I am not here to criticize or barb the people who choose that path, I choose my own paths. Technically I do have a Bluesky account, it just says nothing. Weirdly it gets mentions and a few followers. Sorry, nothing here to see.
Rather than relying on the Great Benevolent Providers To Hand Us The Town Hall (winking at you, Martin Weller), my route is to build my own (with help) bridge — err bridgy between. It’s as much the different of rather then saying “being connected by a community” to “connecting to a community.” Thats the voice of my once PhD advisor Sue to always write and act in the active voice.
What I share here is my thin knowledge and guessing of a nifty tool that Jon Udell (the master tool builder) shared, the use of Bridgy a free and open source building with all the fire escapes used long for doing the IndieWeb POSSE approach of publishing stuff from home (like a “blog”) sprating outward to social spaces. Actually it is a related but different bridge, Bridgy Fed
Bridgy Fed connects web sites, the fediverse, and Bluesky. You can use it to make your profile on one visible in another, follow people, see their posts, and reply and like and repost them. Interactions work in both directions as much as possible. See the docs for more info.
https://fed.brid.gy/
What I take this as meaning is I can make noise at that loud party without having to put myself in the sealed building with no fire escapes. And people at the party can yell back at me.
Bridgy Fed provides a service to connect say your posts made in Mastodon so someone in Bluesky can choose to follow, and if they do, replies are relayed back to Masodon. And it works the other way too.
The subtle difference, it is you, the individual who creates this bridge (active voice) it is not done for you by the owner of the sealed building.
Wha Jon built (working off of the approach of others) is his Fediverse-Bluesky Interactive Cheat Sheet. It is freaking brilliant.
So for me, bridging from Mastodon to Bluesky, I am on the left side. To get going, in step 1 I start by following @bsky.brid.gy. Right away I get a private reply aka DM confirming, with a link to where in Bluesky my stuff will go.
In step 2 I can follow people in BlueSky I want bring in to my fediverse flow. I miss hearing from Maha Bali, so I add her bluesky handle. the sheet provides a one click copy of the bridge of Maha’s Bluesky… but I cannot find her! Why? I can only bridge if she has done the first step on the right (I think). This means she makes choices of how her Bluesky is federated, the choices are not made for her.
In the end my Masodon is not spraying everything I write to Bluesky and its profile clearly indicates what it is (which anyone can see, you do not need to slip a 20 to the musky smelled door dude)
This is mostly what I have inferred from trying.
Indeed, it is a few steps you have to take, yourself, it is no done for you by your landlord. But you can make noise at the party yet not be trapped in its sealed building.
This is the internet worth dreaming of. Built by people using bridges and hammers and sweat.
Featured Image: A real foot bridge I worked with others to build over a creek near Pine Arizona. It Looks Like a Bridge! flickr photo by cogdogblog shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
I’ve seen folks bridging the divide for Silent Sunday, but didn’t know how they were doing it.
(Cue Led Zep: Where is that confounded bridge?)
But, I feel as if shouting from one space to another (particularly if it is one you don’t use) makes little sense to me. I always hope (often disappointingly) that if I post somewhere, there might be some engagement or comment. I’m not saying I am the most regular commenter, either.
Can’t the bridge just become another automated Ghost Machine?
That said, I appreciate the sharing of the tools on getting it done.
Kevin
I’m with you Kevin. I respect and some understanding of the POSSE approach but it seems like just spraying your stuff everywhere. I’d rather craft the messages for the space I’m in. I did this more just as a proof of concept that the two spaces are bridgeable.
Guess who got home from the CESI conference tonight to discover her packet had been released from customs jail and delivered? Me that’s who. Gorgeous cotton baseball sleeved Get Federated tee. Will take picture tomoro.
I saw the pic! Gotta love the baseball style, gonna get me one too.