Hello, my name is Andrew and I’m the newest member of the Immers Space team. I’ve been working in software development for the past decade and hosting digital services for the past couple decades. I have been obsessed with free software since childhood. I am so excited to be a part of this team working on creating communities based on open source software. Over the past several years we’ve witnessed tech companies shift from growing user bases to trying to monetize them to terrible effect. The content found on these platforms has become increasingly untrustworthy as they spread false information that drives engagement and additional advertisement impressions. Especially as people become more isolated in their real world communities, it is crucially important that healthy well moderated communities exist online.
I am looking forward to working with Immers Space to create a realistic alternative for digital communities. Individuals and organizations need to be able to provide their own decentralized digital spaces instead of depending on extractive businesses. Hosting our own communities gives us a chance to create spaces where organizers and participants can be aligned. We still have a ton of open questions and work to do. Hosting and developing software costs money, monetization is obviously still required, how can we balance cost, our own well being, and the needs of the people that depend on digital spaces. We are hopeful that models such as open governance and cooperatives can offer viable alternatives to services hosted by corporate monopolies.
Before joining Immers Space I had been migrating into digital spaces like Mastodon, Lemmy, and PhotoPrism. The Fediverse has so much potential. Existing applications do most of what we depend on and are only poised to get better. I am writing this post to test out `wordpress-activitypub`. So if you don’t mind, go ahead and consider boosting us on a.gup.pe or following us through virtual reality in Immers Space or from anywhere you might be in the Fediverse at @blog.