About This Project
This is a research project to better understand the contexts and possibilities for long-form publishing on the Fediverse1. We start from the hypothesis that the contexts for short form social media and long-form social media are different enough that techniques and assumptions from one are not helpful guides for the other.
Our research so far has only scratched the surface, but we found some interesting threads to pull in future research, which we call emerging themes. If independent long-form publishing is something you find important and you think we can help you, please get in touch! We are currently fundraising for follow-up research.
Who are we?
Brendan Howell (he/him) is an artist and a reluctant engineer currently doing research as a “Reinvent Social Platforms” Fellow at the Media-Lab Bayern / SWR X Lab. He is very into tools, plants, cargo bikes and discourse systems. He lives in Berlin, Germany but can often be found walking in wooded areas of Northern Europe or enjoying pastoral life in Hacksneck, Virginia, USA or Kvam, Norway with his extended family. You can find him on the Fediverse at post.lurk.org.
Roel Roscam Abbing (he/him) is a practice-based researcher in arts and design. He is interested in sociotechnical systems, DIY, self-organization and alternative technological trajectories. Currently he is a doctoral student in Interaction Design at Malmö University where he is researching the configuration of on-line federation in alternative social media. You can find him on the Fediverse at post.lurk.org.
Both Brendan and Roel have been involved in the Fediverse for quite a while and are co-hosting an instance as part of lurk.org.
Support
This research was supported, in part, by the Reinvent Social Platforms Fellowship of SWR X Lab and Media Lab Bayern
- For a longer elucidation of the meaning and context of the term “Long-Form”, please read this introductory post. ↩︎