Building a sustainable italian fediverse: overcoming technical, adoption and moderation challenges
H.2215 (Ferrer) | Day 1 | 14:30 - 15:00 | Speakers: Fra - OpenForFuture, Filippo Della Bianca, Michele Agostinelli
Abstract
This talk will provide a concise introduction to Fedimedia Italia, a federation of projects run by Fediverse admins, hacktivists, and developers, and its mission to promote the Fediverse and free software across Italy and explores the experiences of Mastodon.uno and the Devol collective in advancing the federated social-web (the Fediverse) in Italy. Since its creation, Mastodon.uno has become one of the largest and most active Mastodon instances worldwide, and a central hub for the Italian-language Fediverse community. The talk also presents some projects in development, focusing on FediPress, a WordPress plugin that enhances the official ActivityPub with a mobile-friendly, messenger-like PWA.
Fedimedia Italia is a non-profit association promoting decentralized technologies, free software, and digital rights, aiming to build an ethical online ecosystem as an alternative to Big Tech platforms. Founded by a federation of hacktivists and developers committed to digital sovereignty, Fedimedia Italia is a key pillar of the Italian Fediverse, with members managing instances and contributing to projects such as Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Mobilizon and additional 9 federated services.
During the talk we will outline the technical challenges required to maintain a stable federated network: server infrastructure, moderation policies, interoperability, scalability issues.
Examine the social and adoption challenges: how to attract and retain users, trust building, and overcoming network-effect inertia compared to centralized Big Tech platforms.
Share the lessons learned by Fedimedia admins over 7 years of operation with mastodon.uno: successes, failures, tensions; and how they reflect the broader difficulties of establishing a truly distributed, privacy-centric alternative to corporate social media especially in a national/language-specific context.
By exposing both the technical backbone and the human/community challenges, the presentation aims to provide a helpful roadmap for those who want to create a federated social networks. It will be particularly relevant for: developers, sysadmins and open-source activists interested in decentralized social infrastructure, community governance, and the practical trade-offs of building a “free web.”
Links to mentioned projects:
Fedimedia: fedimedia.it
Mastodon.uno: mastodon.uno
Devol (services): servizi.devol.it
Devol (newsletter): newsletter.devol.it
OpenForFuture: openforfuture.org
Fedipress: openforfuture.org/fedipress
Speakers
Fra is a "climate hacktivist" with expertise in web development and design.
Founder of Open For Future, a project that promotes the use of open source technologies and decentralized solutions to tackle the climate crisis and accompany the transition to an ecosystemic society.
Founding member of Fedimedia Italia.
Passionate about technopolitics, digital ethics, and technological sovereignty, involved in:
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Promote open source tools, in particular the Fediverse, within the third sector.
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Developing tools that reduce dependence on Big Tech.
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Forming working groups and holding training courses on alternative tools.
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Participating as a speaker at meetings and events on technological ethics.
Developer of FediPress and FediBooster WordPress plugins (work in progress):
🗣️ FEDIPRESS brings a messenger-like, mobile-first experience to any WordPress site, extending the official ActivityPub plugin to make it easier to publish, moderate, and interact both on the website and across the Fediverse.
🚀 FEDIBOOSTER uses a separate Mastodon booster profile to automatically boost public posts from either a chosen Mastodon account or from the same WordPress site where it’s installed.
Filippo Della Bianca is an activist in the Italian fediverse community. He is President of Fedimedia Italia noprofit association and a founding member of the Devol collective. Filippo is best known for creating Mastodon.uno, Italy’s largest Fediverse instance, offering an ethical alternative to Twitter/X with privacy, linear timelines, and no manipulative algorithms. He also contributes to decentralized services like Pixelfed.uno, PeerTube.uno, Diggita.com, BookWyrm.it, promoting self-hosted, community-driven social networks. His work advocates digital sovereignty and free software alternatives to Big Tech platforms.
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