In response to @potus enabling federation via #Threads the other day, a number of people asked: why can't the White House self-host their own Mastodon server?
Our writer @deadsuperhero dives in with some thoughts on the current hurdles
But even here, the fediverse struggles to get adopted by officials, because they "have to" be on Threads anyway and on paper the numbers in the fediverse are just smaller.
As soon as social media managers understand, that they can get meaningful reach and interaction here, this might change.
@hello@deadsuperhero@potus that’s an excellent question. It seems pretty logical that all organizations should host their #fediverse instances. I wonder also why they use threads? Maybe for privacy? I read your article and finding seems to be a very reasonable concern
@janettespeyer I think it’s under appreciated that there are a TON of practical issues when it comes to how to be on fediverse, issues ranging from internal editorial processes through marketing matters through legal matters.
The hosting of one’s own instance falls into those issues.
@janettespeyer@hello@potus Probably a combination of price, ease of use, industry support, and ease of management.
Running a server is pretty straightforward for me personally, but there's a lot of domain specific knowledge that's required to be successful. I don't think we're really at a point where training materials exist, or US vendors that specialize in this kind of thing while catering to government departments.
I think it could become more common in the future, there's just a lot of unknowns for now.
@hello @deadsuperhero I keep seeing @ mentions that link to a parody account whenever this topic is discussed - in this post and many others. Are people doing this intentionally? I thought at first it was some kind of satire but now I am not so sure.
Or is this some quirk of how the Fediverse resolves identities, and the people posting the mentions think they are linking to a genuine account?
@hello@deadsuperhero I know you are aware about the efforts of the EU here. In Germany, our data protection officer operates a Mastodon server (https://social.bund.de/directory) on which several accounts of federal authorities are located. Could be interesting to reach out for an interview. Would love to read about their efforts and challenges.
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