Let’s regain ground on the toxic web ! – Framasoft’s 2023 report
A year ago, we launched our 2022-2025 roadmap, « Collectivising the Internet, Convivialising the Internet ». The aim: to encourage the adoption of user-friendly web tools by groups that share the values of Free/Libre culture.
🦆 VS 😈: Let’s take back some ground from the tech giants!
As we wrote last year on this blog, the goal remains the same: to ensure that there are more and more bubbles of ethical web, in order to regain ground on the toxic digital world occupied by the tech giants.
Framaspace, solidarity collectives get to grips with this convivial cloud
We said it back in 2022: Framaspace is our most ambitious project in this new roadmap. By the end of 2025, we aim to provide up to 10,000 collaborative cloud spaces based on Nextcloud software for small groups of people to work together.
We’ll be covering Framaspace news in detail during the week of Nov. 21st:
Push back Demondrive by supporting Framasoft – Illustration CC-By David Revoy
The first year of Framaspace
A high demand, already almost 700 Framaspaces open;
…and even more if you ask here for one for your (French-speaking only) collective;
Lessons learned from this beta release;
the first needs expressed by the beneficiaries;
technical improvements, updates, maintenance, etc.
In the pipeline for next year(s)
Preparation of tools to make it easier for newcomers to use the system;
Ideas for « tutorials where you are the hero » (or « schemes where you are the heroine »?);
future explorations: the possibility of publishing websites, or even managing members and accounts?
We’ve been developing this software for six years, and once it’s installed on a server, it can be used to create an ethical alternative to YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo and so on.
The technical possibilities offered by PeerTube all serve the same purpose: to allow you to host and distribute your videos and live streams, even (and especially) if you don’t have the money of Google or the server farms of Amazon.
The features that we will describe in detail during the week of Nov. 28th have been selected from your ideas:
Click to support us and push Videoraptor away – Illustration CC-By David Revoy
Version 5.1 (March 2023)
Moderation of account requests;
Back to live.
Version 5.2 (June 2023)
Major work on transcoding that can be offloaded to a remote server;
Replay visibility;
RSS feed adapted for podcasts.
Version 6 (end of November 2023)
Improved accessibility;
Image preview in progress bar;
Videos chapters;
Uploading a new version of a video;
Password protection for videos;
Live load & stress tests (report to be published later).
After 4 years of development, we feel we’ve completed our vision for Mobilizon. Once this v4 is released, we hope that your groups will have the features they need to organise themselves around their events, and emancipate themselves from Facebook or Meetup.
That’s why during the week of Dec. 5th, we’ll be talking in detail about:
Click to support us and push Face Ghoûl away – Illustration CC-By David Revoy
Version 3.1 (March 2023)
Ability to enter an unlisted address;
Anti-spam tools.
Version 4 (December 2023)
Import events from other platforms (MeetUp, Facebook, etc.);
Message from organisers to participants.
The future
We will provide security updates;
We will maintain the French-speaking instance Mobilizon.fr;
Other groups already have plans to develop Mobilizon with new ambitions…
PeerTube (yes, again! but…) in 2024: we’re betting big on its success
The toxicity of YouTube, Twitch and the like is becoming increasingly visible… More and more groups, institutions and content creators discover and use PeerTube. In 2023, we’ve been working hard internally to better support this burgeoning success and give PeerTube every chance to succeed.
That’s why, during the week of Dec. 12th, we’ll be talking specifically about:
Click to support us and push Yetube away – Illustration CC-By David Revoy
The roadmap to PeerTube v7 (end 2024)
Export and import tool for your account;
Accessibility audit and recommendations integration;
Comment moderation tool (for admins and video-makers);
Keyword list moderation tool;
Separation of audio and video streams (opens up future possibilities);
Addition of « zero pixel » resolution (receive audio only);
Recategorisation of sensitive content (more detailed than SFW/NSFW);
Redesign of the video management area;
Redesigning the interface following a user experience (UX) audit.
Investing even more in PeerTube to give it a better chance of growing its audience, starting in 2024
Promote the PeerTube ecosystem (newsletter, social media, etc.);
Work on a « showcase » instance of PeerTube;
Hire a second developer (from September 2023);
Threefold goal: master 270,000 lines of code, encourage contributions, but above all…
…Official PeerTube mobile application (end of 2024)
Based on design work (survey, mock-ups, etc.);
For Android, iOS (🤞)… and ideally AndroidTV;
First version: discover and watch videos (search, playlists, subscriptions, notifications).
Émancip’Asso: professional training, MOOC, website…
Conceived in partnership with Animafac, the Émancip’Asso project aims to train service providers to understand and support associations in their transition to ethical web tools.
A lot of work has already been done this year and we’ll be talking about it during the week of Dec. 19th:
Click to support us and push Toxicloud away – Illustration CC-By David Revoy
Publication of the MOOC « Developing a range of services to support associations in their ethical digital transition », the extended version of the face-to-face professional training course, aimed at anyone wishing to start or improve their support skills.
MOOC with free and independent participation;
Understand the non-profit sector and its digital applications;
To master the support methods used by non-profit organisations;
Design and promote a range of services tailored to this ecosystem;
Not forgetting networking in order to work together more effectively.
« Coin-Coin VS Datavöre » – Illustration CC-By David Revoy
Seven weeks to balance our budget for 2024
If Framasoft is able to employ not 10 but 11 people, to rent nearly 57 servers, to travel all over France (and beyond), and to finance everything it does in the digital commons… It is all thanks to your donations.
Your donations are and will remain our main source of funding, allowing us to act freely and in complete independence.
This year again, we need you, your support, your sharing, to help us regain ground on the toxic GAFAM web, and multiply ethical digital spaces.
So we’ve asked David Revoy to help us present this off on our « Support Framasoft » page, which we invite you to visit (because it’s beautiful) and above all to share as widely as possible:
Click to support us – Illustration CC-By David Revoy
If we want to complete our budget for 2024, we have seven weeks left to raise 200 000 €: we won’t make it without your help!
TLDR (too long, I didn’t read it): It was just too much fun! You can feel that the bonds between participants are getting stronger, and that the methods of popular/permanent/active/new education (place the term of your choice before education) are bearing fruit!
That week, from June 12 to 17, 2023, Brussels was bathed in sunshine.
A crosswalk in LGBT+ colors leading to parliament.
We were two Framasoft members: Fred and Booteille.
In ECHO Network meetings, Mondays and Fridays are dedicated to travel, since the various people are more or less far from the meeting place.
But our Belgian pals had planned a debate evening for Monday evening, so we had to arrive not too late.
Luckily, we both had trains that allowed us to arrive around noon, so we met up at the Gare du… Midi and set off together to explore the city center of the European capital in search of our hotel.
Smurf ceiling in Brussels. Comics are everywhere.
Once we’d packed up, we took a quick stroll to find a place to eat.
Brussels is a great city, where you can go from an upmarket district to a working-class one just by crossing the street. I’m sure that’s true elsewhere, but it struck us. Fred’s tip: if you want to be offered something to smoke, walk around with a guy who looks like Bob Marley.
After that, Fred wandered off while Booteille recuperated from his three nights of 3-4h in a row (he’d just come from another association’s AGM and a few parties).
So we met up directly at the DK workshop, a very nice association bar, where we were going to discuss what Framasoft is with a few dozen members of the public. The invitation had been extended by Tactic (which supports and hosts ethical digital services) and Neutrinet (a Belgian non-profit ISP); Tactic being one of the Belgian partners who co-organized some of the activities during our stay in Brussels.
The time, the people and the place were really nice. We were made to feel very welcome, and it was a pleasure to be with so many allies we didn’t know.
A journalist was at the party for a documentary he’s preparing on privacy. He wants to sell it to RTBF. He took video captures of the discussion.
Gerben, who works for NLnet, was there. NLNet is a foundation that funds a lot of digital projects that contribute to improving our society. PeerTube is one of these projects.
On the first evening, we had a meal downtown with the ECHO partners. For Booteille, who was bursting with fatigue, it was particularly difficult to start exchanging in English that evening.
On Tuesday, we kicked off the first day of activities at Maxima, a very nice third-party association.
Everyone had arrived, despite a few people’s transport problems. There were members of Solidar Foundation, CÉMÉA Italy, CÉMÉA France, Willi Eichler Akademy, La Ligue des Familles in Belgium, Tactic, Framasoft…
It’s important to note that the theme of the week was « active education practices to raise awareness of ethical tools ».
So we started by doing some activities to get us into the spirit of the week, to start building links between participants, based – as will be the case for almost all activities – on active/permanent/popular/new education methods; choose your favorite term among these. While not everyone agreed on the name (and some didn’t necessarily mean the same thing as others), everyone validated their interest, and that’s the important thing!
Next, we got into groups to discuss what we thought active education and popular education were and were not. We had to draw our interpretations on panels. In a few years’ time, our work may be found again, and the world may mistake it for a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Expect the foundations of what we call « art » to change after that. There will have been a before and an after. 🙂
After the small-group discussions, we watched a video on Joseph Jacotot, « Peut-on enseigner sans savoir? » (Can we teach without knowing?).
We then presented our panels and had a large-group discussion.
In the afternoon, we did an activity based on key digital figures: money, quantity of data, pollution, place the figures given opposite the right question. Not an easy task, even for geeks. Quite a few people made corrections to the figures given after the activity, as the cards were three or four years old. This highlighted the speed at which digital technology is evolving, which is quite staggering.
Then we had a meeting with people from Code du Numérique. An ultra-cool project. They are working to build coherent legislative proposals to put to elected representatives – particularly on issues of inclusion. These proposals are developed through workshops with a wide range of people, both those who are comfortable with digital technology and those who are not. You don’t like legal issues: go and talk to these people!
There are some great videos on their website, which we recommend!
We also suggested that they be interviewed on the Framablog, because we were so enthusiastic about it.
The day ended with a review of the activities carried out. As always with popular education, you get the impression that the hours have just flown by and that you haven’t made any effort, but when you look back you realise how rich the exchanges have been and how much work has been done.
We then went for a drink and a bite to eat with some of the group. And to answer the question on your lips, yes, some people had chips!
The next day, we had a date at another venue, the PianoFabriek, in Saint-Gilles.
We had a beautiful (dance) hall with an outdoor area.
In the morning, Cécile and Annie, from the Ligue des Familles, suggested « the hidden side of clicking » as a theme, where we would discuss the attention economy.
But before that, we played a little presentation game, where each pair had to find something in common that the others didn’t have. Contrary to what you might think, many people have been on roadtrips to Spain and would like to listen to opera.
Annie and Cécile then asked us to answer 12 yes or no questions. These 12 statements are designed to help identify an addiction (see an example here) and have been adapted for use with smartphones. For example: « I feel nervous or anxious if I’ve left my smartphone at home ».
Several people in the group were a little « shocked » by the results of their answers.
Answering two (2!) of the statements with « yes » underlines addictive behaviour. Suffice it to say that the geeks have hit the roof.
In Belgium, Fred’s addiction to Speculoos is reawakening.
We then watched the Dopamine episode on Facebook, which many people were just discovering, and discussed it with our respective small groups.
The next activity was cognitive bias bingo. The names of several biases and their descriptions were posted around the room, and a randomly selected pair of us were asked to write down the name of the bias for each description on an index card.
After this activity, we discovered Ardoino’s grid in which we had to place, first on our own and then with our groups, solutions to the problems raised by digital technology.
Were these solutions of an individual, interpersonal, group, organizational or institutional nature? Let’s think about it!
The aim was to highlight the fact that many impactful actions are not just individual matters (you know, peeing, showering, etc.).
We ended our activities at PianoFabriek with a moving debate.
Individually, we wrote answers to « For me, active pedagogy is… » and « For me, active pedagogy is not… » on sticky notes.
After which, Alain, from CÉMÉA Belgium (who co-hosted most of the week with Sarah, also from CÉMÉA Belgium), chose a few answers and had us move around the space to indicate « I agree » or « I disagree ».
Once positioned, we were able to speak up and discuss the reasons for our position. At any moment, we could change our position, physically showing the evolution of our thinking.
We really enjoyed this form of debate.
Incidentally, we haven’t noted it yet, but it’s important to know that we mainly exchanged ideas in English, and translated into English what people who spoke in French were saying. Most people seemed to understand enough English not to translate systematically from English into French, and would indicate when there was a need for translation in that direction.
The translation work was a considerable effort, but for the people in charge of the animation, it was even more exhausting. At the ECHO Network session in Paris, those able to express themselves in English had formed a group which spent the whole week exchanging in that language. In Brussels, this was not possible. European project, European constraints!
After the PianoFabriek, we joined members of EDRI and Technopolice Brussels for an exploratory walk in public spaces (notably the Gare du Midi) in search of CCTV cameras.
These two people helped us to better understand the thinking behind the installation of cameras: « Which locations with which lenses? » In the Gare du Midi, for example, each door is necessarily equipped with a dedicated camera. There’s also a camera in front of every staircase leading up to the platforms, so that faces can be clearly identified. Not to mention the store, where a camera is also pointed… at the cashier’s hands!
We noticed that there are far more cameras in the poorer neighborhoods (including Molenbeek-Saint-Jean) than in the richer ones. One fact that impressed us: a camera was located in front of a subway station in a working-class neighborhood. Residents didn’t like it, and it was damaged. Another camera was placed much further down the street, but it monitored the same subway exit. These cameras have an impressive zoom capability.
The cost of installing a camera is estimated at €20,000, and cities are installing hundreds of them, although their effectiveness in combating crime has not been proven in the slightest.
The premises of the Belgian Cyber Security Center are packed with surveillance cameras. No, nothing. All is well.
Ha, I think it’s time to ask this but… HOW IS IT THAT IN BRUSSELS YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR BOTTLED WATER IN ALL RESTAURANTS! NO FREE TAP WATER! JUST WATER! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! LET’S BURN CAPITALISM!
A poster « Are you a communist? Join us! » we came across while wandering around Brussels.
Sorry for the outburst, it’s okay now.
For the last day, we were back at Maxima, where a number of digital, image (video) and radio players presented their projects to us, including RadioPanik, a free radio station (which makes fascinating impossible programs) and ZinTV, an organization close to social movements.
After the presentation of their projects, we had a large-group discussion on the difficulties of migrating to open-source solutions for certain structures.
During the day, we had to join either ZinTV to learn how to make video recordings, or RadioPanik to learn how to make radio.
We learned how an ultra-light portable radio transmitter works, or how to use OBS to broadcast live TV.
At the end of the day, there was a PeerTube presentation from someone who learned a little late that she had to do it, poor thing. Luckily, Booteille was on hand to answer any questions.
After that, the ECHO Network core group and I took stock of the week.
The results were really positive. The partners who didn’t really see the value of popular education methods during the first session in Paris are now convinced. The links between the different members and structures were further strengthened.
We had the feeling that we were really starting to form a body, a real group, and that we were all really moving in the same direction, which for a pan-European project like this is really motivating.
In the evening, before dinner, we attended a conference on Tyler Reigeluth‘s book, « The Intelligence of Cities, Critique of Endless Transparency ».
Before the conference, Booteille spoke on behalf of Framasoft alongside Morgane (co-organizer of the ECHO project, member of CÉMÉA France), Sarah (who was co-organizing the trip to Belgium) and Célo (member of Tactic and Neutrinet, who played an important part in organizing the activities), into the microphone of RadioPanik, which was broadcasting live.
We gave a brief presentation of our structures and the ECHO Network project.
The conference then got under way, and to be honest, we weren’t very good at it. Our ECHO Network accomplices, who had learned how to make radio and TV that very afternoon, were broadcasting the conference over the airwaves, and we couldn’t help but give them a helping hand. The PeerTube streaming of the rebroadcast had a problem, and Booteille had to get his hands dirty (Booteille’s note: In truth, they managed just fine without me, haha!).
Right after the conference, we went out to eat, drink and chat until late.
Antonio, our Croatian colleague (from Center for Peace Studies), hosted the evening. He’ll be part of the host team in Zagreb, and he’s quite a character!
Ce graffiti « Montrez-moi le budget » près de la Gare du Midi est la preuve indiscutable que pyg est passé à Bruxelles.
This « Show Me The Budget » graffiti near the Gare du Midi is indisputable proof that pyg has been to Brussels.
Berlin, March 2023 : Diary of the first ECHO Network study visit
From 27 to 31 March 2023, the first study visit of the European project ECHO Network took place in Berlin. This report looks back on this week of exchange on the theme of « Young people, social networks and political education« , organised by the Willi Eichler Academy.
In order to promote the values of the Ethical, Commons, Humans, Open-Source Network project, the Framasoft participants wanted to travel to Berlin by train. So Monday and Friday of this exchange week were dedicated to transport.
The day of departure was a national strike day in Germany (where a rail strike = no trains running!). As a result, only 3 of the 4 Framasoft members who had planned to take part in the project were able to make it.
When you think of trains, you think of time, where transport is an integral part of the journey. In fact, it takes 9 hours by train from Paris, or even 13 hours from Nantes… And you should add 1 or 2 hours (or even half a day) for « contingency management » (delays, cancellations, changes of train). Travelling to Germany by train was an adventure in itself (and the feeling seems to be shared!).
Tuesday 28 March: Discoveries and visits off the beaten track
After a brief meeting with the first participants the day before, Tuesday will continue with the aim of getting to know each other (arrivals will continue throughout the day due to changes in the itinerary caused by the strike the day before).
Tuesday morning will begin with a visit to the Jewish Cemetery of Berlin-Weißensee, the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. Nature takes over in this historic place.
Weißensee Jewish cemetery, between nature and history
In the afternoon we visit a former Stasi prison, Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. This visit made a particularly strong impression on us: the site was created by former prisoners, the prison wasn’t closed until 1990, and many of the people who tortured prisoners were never brought to justice. In short, a dark page of history, but one that needs to be shared (we recommend the visit!)…
The day will end with a convivial meal in a traditional restaurant.
Wednesday 29 March: young, old and social networks
The chandelier in the entrance hall of the cookery school is just right!
Discussion: What do we think about social networks in our organisations?
The first workshop was a round-table discussion in which each participant shared his or her use of and views on social networks, and in particular TikTok, the medium that will be used in the following workshop.
To summarise:
There is little use of social media from a personal point of view in the group.
On the other hand, the majority of the group use social media to promote their organisation’s activities (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon).
No one in the group uses TikTok, which poses a problem for understanding this social media.
As part of their organisation’s activities, the majority of the group would like to reach out more to young people and it seems interesting to find them where they are, i.e. on social media.
The group fully agreed that social media are not neutral tools and try to monopolise the attention of their users.
This time of exchange therefore allowed us to see that we share the same values, difficulties and desires when it comes to social media. However, we felt that the ‘one at a time’ format lacked some dynamism in the exchanges and the opportunity for several people to discuss.
Feedback from a student workshop: raising awareness of social issues in a TikTok video
Alongside our morning discussions on social media, 2 groups of students from the Brillat-Savarin school worked on a video project. They had to produce a TikTok video (one per group) to show the impact of the European Union (1st group) and climate change (2nd group) on their work as chefs. The videos were shown to us (incredible quality in 2 hours of work!) and then we exchanged views on the topic.
What we took away from this workshop:
The students were between 18 and 22 years old and did not use TikTok. According to the students, this social network is aimed at people younger than them (« young » is too broad a term!). However, they had mastered the codes of the platform as they were regularly exposed to TikTok content on other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.
In any case, they wouldn’t necessarily want to use a social network to watch political content, preferring a more recreational use of the network (like watching videos of kittens!), even if they claim to be political.
They found it particularly interesting to get a message across in videos and to question themselves on issues that directly affect them.
It was an interesting experiment, even if the plenary discussions did not allow everyone to participate.
Photo of the ECHO Network group and some of the school’s students
Thursday 30th March: Politics and Open Source
Reflect EU&US: the Willi Eichler Academy project
Funded to the tune of €500,000 by Marshall Plan leftovers, Reflect EU&US is a 2-year project (2022-2024) by the Willi Eichler Academy. Its aim? To organise discussions between students outside the university environment, remotely and anonymously.
Reflect EU&US project logo
Points to remember:
The project involves 60 students (30 from the United States and 30 from Germany), with a physical meeting planned at the very end of the project to lift the masks.
Topics covered include justice, racism, gender and politics.
Following the discussions, a library of documents will be created, which will allow the various sources (texts, articles, videos, podcasts, etc.) to be validated (or not).
Anonymity makes it easier to accept contradictory opinions.
The management of the groups can be complicated by anonymity, but it is an integral part of the project.
From a technical point of view, the platform is based on the OpenTalk tool and was chosen to provide this space for free exchange, with the creation of coloured cards as avatars, making it possible to guarantee the anonymity of the participants. The choice of open source technologies was made specifically with the aim of reassuring participants so that they could exchange in complete peace of mind. This was followed by a live test of the platform with the students (in German, which didn’t allow us to understand everything!).
Open source meets politics
The afternoon continued with a talk by Peer Heinlein, director of OpenTalk, on « True digital independence and sovereignty are impossible without open source ». You can imagine that we at Framasoft have an opinion on this, even if we don’t feel strongly about it… Discussions with the audience followed on open source software, privacy and data encryption.
The next speaker was Maik Außendorf, representative of the Green Party in the European Parliament. Among other things, we discussed how digital technology can help the ecological transition. We learnt that German parliamentarians do not have a choice when it comes to using digital tools, and that national coherence is difficult to achieve with the decentralised organisation of Germany into Länder.
The study visit ended in a restaurant, where we had the opportunity to talk with a SeaWatch activist, highlighting the common values and reflections of the different organisations (precariousness of associations, the need to propose alternatives to the capitalist world, the need for free and emancipatory digital technologies).
This chandelier will have inspired⋅es (can you see the artistic side too?).
An intense week!
We were particularly surprised and excited by the common visions shared by the participants and organisations, whether it be about emancipatory digital, the desire to move towards a world that is more like us, where cooperation and contribution move forward, and the question of how to share our messages while remaining coherent with what we defend.
Although the majority of the week was built around plenary workshops, which did not always encourage exchange between participants or spontaneous speaking, the informal times (meals, coffee breaks, walks) made it possible to create these essential moments.
What next for the ECHO network? The second study visit took place in Brussels from 12 to 16 June. A summary article will follow on the Framablog (but as always, we’ll take our time!).
We couldn’t go to Berlin without visiting the murals on the Berlin Wall: here’s a photo of the trip to round off this article.
Feedback on the ECHO Network opening seminar, January 2023, Paris
From January 14 to 16, 2023, the Ceméa France and Framasoft held the opening seminar of the ECHO Network project. Here is a report of this weekend of international exchanges and discoveries.
Ethical, Commons, Humans, Open-Source Network is a project, but also an associative network on a European scale. Led by the new education association Ceméa France, this network is composed of 7 structures from 5 European countries:
These structures share an intent to accompany citizens (via popular education, news, activism, etc.), and to exchange on the digital uses specific to their country, their culture, their language.
Study trips are therefore planned in 2023 in each of the countries to facilitate these exchanges and the understanding of the context of each one, so that in 2024 we can produce commons that can be used by other associations in Europe.
The first meeting with all the actors took place from Saturday 13 to Monday 16 January in Saint Ouen, north of Paris, France.
This opening seminar was co-organized by Ceméa France and Framasoft. While we didn’t hesitate to get involved and contribute as much as we could, we have to admit that members of the Ceméa have a precious experience in setting up these events, and that they did a great job overall on organizing this seminar.
In addition to the thirty or so participants representing the partners of the ECHO Network project, we were able to invite more than twenty people from networks interested in new education, digital mediation, the commons and free software to contribute to these first discussions on ethical digital support for citizens.
Thus, this opening seminar was designed to find out how to talk about the same thing when we don’t speak the same languages, even though our contexts are different and our digital cultures varied.
Imagine a large room, about twenty people are sitting on chairs in tight rows. In front of them, a person seems to give them instructions. That’s what it looked like.
Understanding each other through « new education »
These three days were conceived beforehand using the methods of « new education » dear to the Ceméa.
The 55 people were divided into 3 reference groups, in order to share knowledge together. The concept was simple: rather than having poor interactions with 55 people, spend more quality time with a smaller group of 15 of them.
These groups were led by a team of three people (2 members of Ceméa, 1 member of Framasoft). Some periods were also reserved to be spent in micro groups (of 2-4 people) and to realize « mini projects ». Of course, all the participants gathered for the meals and conviviality times in the canteen.
Let’s take a moment to greet and thank the team managing the place, Mains d’œuvres, in Saint-Ouen, for their wonderful welcome and their delicious food. This space dedicated to culture and integrated into the life of the neighborhood was ideal to discover the flavor of Paris that’s lived by the locals. https://www.mainsdoeuvres.org/
The three days were divided into six half-days: the first one to meet each other, then 4 half-days dedicated to exchange on the notion of Ethics, Commons, Humanization and Openness in the digital world (yes, these are the words of the ECHO acronym ;)).
The last half-day of Monday afternoon allowed each group to present to the others a report of the exchanges, to put all this together and to say goodbye.
Conviviality as a political tool
The objective was to meet and to understand what brings us together in our political actions (which aim at organizing the society in a different way), and for that, the Ceméa and Framasoft relied on conviviality and exchange.
The participants had different sensitivities about digital uses. Most of them knew Mastodon but not all of them. Most of them had an idea of what free software is but not all of them. The activities allowed them to share their knowledge of the different themes.
The workshops took several very imaginative formats, such as:
inventing one’s own social network (with its codes, terms of use, and functioning), and imagining how one would moderate the posts of other communities
imagining what would be acceptable or unthinkable to put or remove in a « lifephone », a low-tech phone that everyone would keep all their life
Use the Métacartes Numérique Éthique to explore one to three topics in a small group and then present these topics to the rest of the group and facilitate the discussion
a moving debate where you position yourself in the room (near the « agree » wall or on the other side near the « disagree » wall) around assertions concerning ethics and digital technology
During the time devoted to these mini-projects, we were able to observe some beautiful initiatives:
Imagining an adaptation of the « Métacartes Numérique Éthique » to make them more accessible to a young audience
A writing workshop on what a desirable digital world could look like. You can read the results on Chosto’s blog (FR), from the Picasoft association
Digging into the question of digital support for associations with a turnkey kit
Laying down the principles that would help to create an ethical and collaborative video game
Chatting about how to introduce the societal issues of digital technology in higher technical education.
In short, collective intelligence has shown again, during these three days, its wonderful power.
Recipe cards, a tool idea that makes you drool!
Study visits to follow
If we already know that these will not necessarily resemble this seminar (where we have chosen new education methods as a tool for meeting and exchange), the next study visits have already been scheduled. In fact, as we finish writing these lines, all the partners are in Berlin for another meeting.
The main themes for those visits are, in our opinion, quite attractive:
Germany (March 2023) – Centralized social networks among young people, a tool for emancipation or alienation?
Belgium (June 2023) – New Education practices to raise awareness on ethical tools
Italy (September 2023) – Between face-to-face and distance learning, which use of digital technology?
Croatia (December 2023) – Inclusivity and accessibility in the Digital world
Of course, we will continue to report here about our experiences within these meetings and this project. All the articles can be found in the ECHO Network category on the Framablog… To be continued, then!
The picture is blurry, but you can see the main thing: the « Star Trek » room we used during the plenary sessions.
PeerTube v5 : the result of 5 years’ handcrafting
Late 2017, we announced our desire to create a free, decentralised and federated alternative to YouTube.
Five years later, we are releasing PeerTube v5, a tool used by hundreds of thousands people on a thousand interconnected platforms to share over 850,000 videos.
« Collectivise Internet / Convivialise Internet 🦆🦆 »
Our new 3-year roadmap is funded by your donations.
You will find a short presentation of this roadmap on our Support Framasoft website.
For the past 5 years, our only developer dedicated to PeerTube (and to other tasks in Framasoft) has released one new major version per year:
PeerTube v1 (Oct. 2018) allows you to create a video platform with federation, peer-to-peer streaming, redundancy, search tools and multilingual interface.
PeerTube v2 (Nov 2019) brings notifications, playlists and plugins.
PeerTube v3 (Jan. 2021) adds federated search, live and peer-to-peer streaming.
PeerTube v4 (Dec. 2021) allows to customise each platform’s homepage, to sort and filter displayed videos, and to manage them more easily.
Throughout these years, this developer has taken care to improve moderation and federation tools, the video player, the interface, the code and the accessibility and also to fix bugs while answering community questions and needs.
PeerTube ecosytem
PeerTube is an artisanal work, in the noble sense of the word. It is a handcrafted tool that now serves a large alternative ecosystem for online video.
Once again, we would like to remind you that our small non-profit creates and maintains all this with only one developer on the project, helped by:
Framasoft employees and volunteers for communication, strategy, administration;
PeerTube community which regularly contributes to code, plugins, translations, suggestions, sharing and donations (thanks and lots of datalove to you <3);
Service providers in specialized areas (UX or UI design, accessibility, creation of mobile applications, etc.).
However PeerTube is only one of dozens of projects we maintain at Framasoft, even though it is one of the largest.
Like every thing we do, PeerTube is mainly funded by your donations (and donations from foundations like NLnet).
Since the beginning of 2022, we have been working on PeerTube to make it easier and easier to use for videomakers and their communities.
In February, version 4.1 brings several expected improvements: of the interface, of the video player on mobile devices, of the plugin system, of the search filters or of the instance customization.
In June, version 4.2 introduces two major new features: the Studio, for light video editing directly from PeerTube; and replay publication for « Twitch-like » live streams. Other new features include detailed video statistics, latency management for live streaming and subtitle editing directly from the interface.
In September, with version 4.3, you can now automate video import from a YouTube (or Vimeo) channel. We have also completely reworked the interface for creating a PeerTube account and improved the live streams display on external website.
PeerTube Studio
PeerTube v5: improving and securing to empower yourself better
The file system has been redesigned to secure internal and private videos. This was a fairly complex work that lays a basis for some much asked future features.
Another very emancipating technical improvement is the possibility of storing live streams in the cloud, with « object storage » system. This means that PeerTube platforms hosted on a server with limited disk storage and bandwidth are no longer limited in their ability to offer live streams.
It is now possible to use two-factor authentication to connect to a PeerTube platform. We use the OTP (One Time Password) method which allows, via an external application, to generate a unique code to validate the connection to its account.
This new version also comes with a lot of bug fixes and improvements. For example, we have added more possibilities to the API, so that PeerTube contributors can develop even more powerful plugins.
Also, the PeerTube interface has received many changes. For example, in the My Videos menu now displays channels, and a mention of the playlist in which a video has been added to.
Finally, we have now a detailed OpenTelemetry documentation (feature released in version 4.2) which brings advanced statistics and observability.
Support, intern, technical challenges and questions on our horizon
Right now, we only have a clear vision for the near future of PeerTube.
In early 2023, we plan to work on a rather technical but very exciting feature, which should reduce the servers’ load and thus to lower the power needed to create a PeerTube platform: we’ll tell you more as soon as we’ve made progress.
Also in 2023, we will welcome a developer intern. We want more and more people to become familiar with PeerTube core code. We want to expermient with temporarily expanding the team working on it.
Finally, the day after this article is published, we will answer all your questions on reddit. Join us on December 14th at 4pm (CEST) on r/opensource for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) about PeerTube and Framasoft!
These few points aside… we have no idea what the PeerTube roadmap will be in 2023. We need you to help us define it!
Please go to Let’s Improve PeerTube and publish your ideas (and vote for the ones you’re excited about). We want to know what the PeerTube community needs and wants, especially the « non-geek » audience who doesn’ t care about words like « server » or « instance » and just want to watch and share videos.
More than 90 ideas have been already published on Let’s improve Peertube
In early 2023, we will go through the most popular suggestions and select those that fit our vision for PeerTube and our development capabilities, in order to build the PeerTube v6 roadmap.
So it’s up to you to tell us what future you want for PeerTube!
An international tool…
This year, we were lucky enough to have two development contracts that helped us to fund some of our work on PeerTube.
The French Ministry of Education funded the Studio (a tool for editing videos) to be implemented on its platform apps.education.fr (a free-libre service platform provided by the Ministry to all teachers and staff).
Howlround, a Boston-based open platform for theatremakers worldwide, funded detailed video and live stats, but also replay feature for permanent lives.
Finally, we received an exceptional grant from the Dutch foundation NLnet to work on PeerTube v5.
…funded by French-speaking donations
Put together, these amounts represent a small half of our annual budget dedicated to PeerTube (which we estimate at 70 000 €). The other part comes from Framasoft’s budget, i.e. from the donations that our non profit receives from its mainly French-speaking community. To us, it seems almost unfair that it is mainly French speakers who finance a tool that has a truly international scope…
But here’s the thing: we’re already not very good at « selling ourselves », promoting our work and getting donations, so if we have to do international marketing, we’re not out of the woods!
We don’t have a marketing department: we only have you.
So we need your help. Spread the word about our donation campaign around you, especially outside the French-speaking world.
Do not hesitate to share the address support.joinpeertube.org around you, on your PeerTube platforms, in your communities that benefit from this alternative.
At the time of publishing, we are still missing 115 000 € to finance our yearly budget and make everything we want to do in 2023 happen.
If you can (especially in these hard times) and if you want to, thanks for supporting our non-profit and our actions.
Framasoft 2022 : a casserole cooked up thanks to you, thanks to your donations
Did you know that 98% of Framasoft’s budget is based on donations (86% of which are from individuals). It is therefore thanks to you and your support (thank you!) that all our actions are possible. So we wanted to give you a summary of what we have done in 2022. A look back at 12 months of popular education on the challenges of digital and cultural commons, which we wanted to be rich in flavours to please your (and our!) taste buds.
« Collectivise Internet / Convivialise Internet🦆🦆 » The actions of our new roadmap are funded by your donations, You will find a short presentation of this roadmap on our Support Framasoft website.
Behind this little feast, who is there? A small group of 38 people: 28 volunteers and 10 employees, convinced that a world where digital technology allows us to gain freedom is possible! We tell you here what we did, thought about and moved forward in the kitchens. And the ovens are still hot!
Sharing our values, intentions and actions loud and clear
After 3 years of work, workshops guided by Marie-Cécile Godwin and fine-tuning by the association, we published our manifesto in November. This long work made us think a lot and allowed us to highlight very simply the political dimension of our associative project: we want to change the current world for a better one, where the Commons are favoured, where social justice is a fundamental value and where our liberties are preserved.
The second part of this important work was to make sure that our manifesto intentions are understood as soon as they arrive on framasoft.org. We have therefore completely redesigned our main websiteto make our associative project clear, fluid and easily understandable.
Collectivise Internet / Convivialise Internet: our new roadmap 2023-2025
After 5 years on course with Contributopia, we needed to refine our compass and review our direction: where do we want to continue our exploration for the next few years? This is how the new roadmap Collectivise Internet / Convivialise Internet (code name: COIN / COIN – quack in french) was created: we want to address more directly the collectives and associations committed to a better world (without putting aside the thousands of people who use our tools!).
4 projects have been unveiled and will be progressively improved as the months go by thanks to the beneficiaries’ feedback, with the idea of creating more links between the tools and the people:
Frama.space: offering liberated cloud to small activist collectives
Peer.tube: to promote the PeerTube for which we are working
Emancip’Asso: to promote the digital emancipation of the associative world
ECHO Network: to understand the needs of popular education in different European countries.
Seeing each other again and seeing you again: it’s a real boost!
This year 2022 will also have been marked by a more intense resumption of shared moments, in the flesh (with good airing!): GAs, Framacamp, events, fairs, conferences, festivals, film screenings, round tables… Because as much as we love doing all this, seeing you and us motivates us, boosts us and encourages us to continue testing new, ambitious, wacky and funny projects (Remember Proutify? The extension has just been updated by one of our volunteers)… it’s so important to have fun doing all this!
Without you, everything we do would not be possible: 98% of the association’s resources come from donations. Do you think that our reflections are going in the right direction? If you have the means, if you have the desire, we thank you in advance for your support.
For us, popular education is the basis for a better world: everyone can share their knowledge and access it, in all simplicity. We present here the different popular education actions carried out this year.
Sharing knowledge and points of view
To begin with, Framasoft intervened, in person or remotely, in various spaces, to talk about digital emancipation, alternative digital, or how to be free online. Our members have made more than 70 interventions, for different structures, associations or groups, in different regions of France. You can watch some of these interventions on our Framatube channel.
Then, Framasoft keeps the pen active on the Framablog. More than 100 articles have been published this year, between presentations of our different actions, translations of Framalang, weekly press review, guest keyboards, interviews of various emancipatory projects, audio articles… The Framablog is a space where we express ourselves without limits.
We also intervened about twenty times in the media when we were asked to share our points of view on digital issues: video interviews, podcasts, articles… You will find the different links accessible on this page.
Des Livres en Communs: the publishing house that breaks the rules
Our publishing house, Des Livres en Communs (formerly Framabook), is turning the publishing codes upside down by offering a grant to authors upstream of the writing process, as well as the publication of the work under a free licence, in digital form only.
Following the first call for publication launched in January: « Towards a more contributive, more united, more ethical and more free world: how to equip and organise ourselves together », the project « L’amour en Commun », by Margaux Lallemant and Timothé Allanche was selected. The objective of this publication is to question how the commonality of love, as a means of organisation and a motor of commitment, allows us to build an alternative to capitalist society.
The book is currently being created, between fieldwork and immersions, while being accompanied by our publishing committee.
The Free, Open, Autonomous and Decentralised Popular University (UPLOAD: standing for Université Populaire Libre, Ouverte, Autonome, et Décentralisée in french) is a large popular education project initiated and coordinated by Framasoft (for the moment), in a decentralised and networked logic. The objective is to contribute (on our scale) to making society more just and our world more liveable, by focusing on the training of citizens by citizens.
This project is largely formed by the LibreCourses, online courses allowing access to different knowledge and skills. Stéph offered us a conference (in french) to present the topic during the Free Software Days.
This year’s Librecourses will have been punctuated by the theme « Low-tech and digital »: a first session between April and June and a second between November and January 2023. Do you also find the exponential growth of digital technology problematic? Are you interested in reducing the technical footprint of a tool? You can find the videos of the courses here.
Peer.tube: a showcase for PeerTube that looks like us
With Peer.tube, we want to create a showcase for PeerTube, with quality content selected in advance. It’s our answer to a question we’re often asked: « But where do I find interesting content on PeerTube? The Peer.tube site is already available with a first selection of channels and videos, but the project will only really move forward next year.
Has our popular education buffet piqued your curiosity? Do you think our contributions are going in the right direction? Then we’d like to reiterate that all this was made possible thanks to you and your donations – thank you!
Enabling citizens to become digitally empowered and free their practices is the core of our actions. But what is this good pan made of? Liberated ingredients, quality, and a good pinch of love. We tell you all about it.
Online services to do without the digital giants
Our online services are often the reason why people know us: more than 9 out of 10 people told us so during our survey « What you think of Framasoft » launched at the end of May. And to tell the truth, we were not very surprised. To give you some figures, we count more than 50 million visits on all our sites since the beginning of the year, more than 350 surveys are created every day on Framadate, nearly 15,000 forms are created every month on Framaforms, nearly 110,000 collaborative writing pads are active on Framapad. We still find this incredible!
Between 2014 and 2019, our little association has made around 40 free and trusted online services available to Internet users (yes, 40!). For many reasons, this was too much, and we have gradually closed, between 2019 and 2022, a part of these services, while proposing alternatives. This period of closure is now over: our 16 online services are available to anyone who wants to use tools that respect our freedoms. We have therefore decided to update and redesign the degooglisons-internet.org website to make it an easily accessible gateway, to make it reflect our image and above all to reassure our users.
Keeping these services up to date, managing the machines that run them or answering your questions about support, is a daily job, and we try to put our best efforts into it!
PeerTube: freeing your videos and channels is getting easier
PeerTube is the software we develop (well, one of our employees, yes, one!) to offer an alternative to video platforms. And 2022 will have been a year rich in evolutions, where we now count more than 1000 active PeerTube platforms.
Let’s go to V5!
To begin with, version 4.1 was released in February, bringing interface improvements, new mobile features, an improved plugin system, new search filters and new instance customization possibilities for admins.
In June, we released version 4.2, which brought a great new feature: the Studio, or the possibility to edit videos directly from the web interface. This version also brought more detailed viewing statistics, the possibility to adjust the latency during a broadcast or the direct editing of subtitles (thanks Lutangar!)
In September, version 4.3 was released, allowing the automatic import of videos from a remote channel (thanks to Florent, one of the administrators of the PeerTube Skeptikón instance) and new improvements to the interface and the integration of live videos (a collaborative effort with a designer from la Coopérative des Internets).
And we can already tell you that the new major version, v5, will be released in a few days with (exclusive information!) two-factor authentication or the possibility to send live files to the cloud for admins…
Do you create content on PeerTube? Do you enjoy watching videos on PeerTube? In July, we launched the ideas.joinpeertube.org tool (in english) to collect your needs for the software and help us identifynew features to develop to make PeerTube more enjoyable to use.
Please feel free to take a look around, to vote for one of the features already proposed or to propose a new one. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to share their opinion!
joinpeertube.org: easier access to PeerTube
joinpeertube.org is THE site that introduces PeerTube, THE gateway to information about this alternative to centralized video platforms, and we want to leave it wide open!
The previous version of joinpeertube.org was mainly focused on the technical features of PeerTube, and therefore addressed to technical profiles. However, now that there are more than 1,000 PeerTube platforms, we felt that it was necessary to promote the software to a wider audience who may be less digitally literate.
After an audit of the site via user tests carried out by La Coopérative des Internets, the web agency proposed improvements to allow a better understanding of PeerTube. You will find all the details of this version on this article of the Framablog: and we hope that this redesign will be useful and will facilitate the use of PeerTube!
Mobilizon is the software that Framasoft is developing (well, one of our employees⋅es and not even full time!) to offer an alternative to Facebook events and groups.
Mobilizon Search Index, a search engine in the fediverse
As we did before with Sepia Search (our search engine for discovering content published on PeerTube), we want to offer a gateway to Mobilizon to show its emancipatory potential.
Mobilizon Search Index references the events and server groups that we have approved on instances.joinmobilizon.org (currently a little over 80 instances, and we hope the list will grow!). The search engine then allows you to explore the events and groups of all these servers, and in different ways: search bar (well, it’s rather classic), by categories (interesting, isn’t it?) or even by geolocating yourself to find events nearby (crazy!).
The source code is free-libre : anyone (with some computer skills, anyway…!) can install a Mobilizon Search Index, and adapt it to their needs.
So, does this make you want to test it?
A v3 focused on research
We released the 3rd major version of Mobilizon in November. The software has reached the maturity we wanted it to have, and that is very motivating!
In the new features: many elements of the software have been modified to avoid accumulating technical debt, the design of the homepage has evolved in design, and the search results page has also been revised (hello Mobilizon Search Index!). Increasing the possibilities of discovering events and groups to make the diversity of content published on Mobilizon more visible was also the goal of this v3.
This v3 was able to evolve thanks to the various contributions (thanks to the community!), was partly financed by a grant from NLNet (thanks to them!), and of course by you, and your donations (again a big thank you).
Frama.space: emancipating small associations and activist collectives
Frama.space is a new service (in french) that we offer to small associations and activist collectives, to allow them to match their strong internal values (of social justice and emancipation) with digital tools in the same direction (free and non-monopolistic tools). We want to empower associations and activist collectives by opening digital spaces for sharing, working and organising (up to 50 accounts per collective, based on the free software Nextcloud with: office suite, 40 GB of storage, synchronisation of diaries and contacts, video tools, etc.).
Announced on 15 October when our roadmap Collectivisons / Convivialisons Internet was released, pre-registration has been open since 18 November. Currently, applications are being reviewed (by real⋅es human⋅es!) to open 250 first spaces by the end of the year. Our ultimate goal (a tad ambitious, yes!) being to make 10,000 Frama.space spaces available by the end of 2025.
Do you want to read more about the political aim of the project? We invite you to read this article or to watch this conference, which provides all the important details.
Do you find our actions to empower citizens through digital technology interesting? Do you think we are going in the right direction? All this was possible thanks to you and your donations. Thank you!
For dessert: farandole of a better world (to share!)
Because a good meal is always better when shared. And because it’s by sharing our know-how that we can go further. We act with other structures, which, like independent islands, bathe in the common waters of the same archipelago (can you also imagine floating islands with a good custard?): we keep our independence while sharing values of social justice. Acting together is obvious!
From the kittens’ side
The CHATONS (kittens in french) collective is a bit like a network of online service CSA(Community Supported Agriculture). Where Google, Facebook or Microsoft would represent the agri-food industry, the members of CHATONS would be computer farmers offering organic online services without GMOs, pesticides, aggressive marketing, in short: without a « race for purchasing power ».
At the end of this year, after already 14 litters of kittens, we count 97 members in the collective, i.e. 97 alternative hosts working in the same direction: resisting the gafamisation of the Internet and proposing alternatives respectful of our private lives.
The collective was present on different events during the year (Free Software Days, Digital Accessibility Workshop, Geek Faeries, Freedom Not Fear, Fête de l’Huma, Capitole du Libre), to present its actions. The second CHATONS camp took place this summer, a great time to meet and to relaunch great collective dynamics. Different working groups were created, in particular the group « An association for the CHATONS collective » aiming at an autonomization of the collective with the aim that we (Framasoft) leave little by little the coordination of the collective to the collective itself.
Emancip’Asso: promoting the digital emancipation of the associative world
The aim of Emancip’Asso is to help associations to find support to help their digital practices evolve towards more ethical practices. Designed in partnership with Animafac, 2022 will have been a year of… paperwork (yes, this is often the beginning of ambitious projects!).
The first funding allowed us to work on the first stage of the project: a training course for ethical hosts to help them accompany associations in their digital transition. Search for speakers, preparation of the programme and logistics: the training (it’s full!) will take place in Paris, from 16 to 20 January 2023 (the programme in detail is here).
Finally, at the end of this year, we applied to different student programs to set up two working groups: one on the graphic identity of Emancip’Asso (in progress!), and a second one on the realization of the emancipasso.org website (to come).
ECHO Network: understanding the digital needs of popular education, here and elsewhere
2022 will also have been the year of the development of the European project « Ethical, Commons, Humans, Open-Source Network » (ECHO Network, it’s a bit easier to remember…). Led by the popular education movement CEMÉA France, the project brings together 7 structures from 5 European countries (France, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy). What do they have in common? The support, each at its own level, of the public in their autonomy and emancipation.
The objective of the project is to exchange on the difficulties, opportunities and ways to accompany the public that our associations serve towards a digital transition. And the background: how to accompany this emancipation in (or even by) a digital world centralised by the web giants?
The first meeting of the exchange will take place in Paris from 14 to 17 January 2023. This opening seminar will allow us to unpack the general theme: supporting the digital transition of associations that train citizens. Read more here.
With Hubikoop (territorial hub of the New Aquitaine region for an inclusive digital environment) we started in September the animation of the course « Accompaniment to the discovery of ethical digital services » : 8 workshops for the actors of the digital mediation in New Aquitaine. This partnership is starting to give rise to new ideas, which we will tell you about next year!
In the framework of the PENSA project with Aix-Marseille University, we intervened in June for a training of trainers on the theme « Free software and services for the digital emancipation of citizens ». The final objective is to enable teachers to develop their skills for a critical use of digital technology in education.
We have also carried out various actions in connection with AFPA and more specifically the people in charge of the training of Digital Mediation Space Managers, to transmit more knowledge on ethical digital.
Framasoft also became a member of the MedNum. Our ambitions behind this? To raise awareness of free tools among digital mediation actors, to train digital mediators in ethical alternatives and to equip the cooperative itself with free tools.
The L.A. Coalition (of which Framasoft is a member) took a position in April on the Republican Commitment Contract: the collective denounced it as a potential source of litigation and abusive sanctions by the administration or public authorities to the detriment of associations and foundations.
Following the announcement of its very difficult financial situation this summer, we supported the media NextINpact (very qualitative digital watch) by buying « suspended » subscriptions that we drew at random.
We also supported affordance.info (qualitative content on digital and relevant social issues) by migrating its blog from a non-free tool (Typepad) to a free tool (WordPress), all hosted by us.
We proposed a Signal proxy (free messaging) following a call from the structure informing of the blocking of its application by the Iranian regime in the face of the current revolts.
Did you like our shared dessert? You think that these actions carried out with other islands of our archipelago are to be encouraged? Know that they are also only possible thanks to you and your donations. Thank you again!
Framasoft, today, is more than 50 000 € of expenses per month. We closed the 2021 accounting year with a deficit of €60,000 (which donations – more generous during the 2020 confinements – fortunately allowed us to absorb).
At the time of writing, we estimate that we are €127,500 short of our annual budget and can confidently launch our actions in 2023. If you can (yes, at the moment it is particularly complicated), and if you want to, please support the actions of our association.
To understand and get started with PeerTube, check out the new Joinpeertube.org
2022 is definitely the year of our websites’ redesign: after the evolution of our services homepages, degooglisons-internet.org website and recently framasoft.org, it is now time for joinpeertube.org to get a makeover.
« Collectivise Internet / Convivialise Internet 🦆🦆 » Our new 3-year roadmap is funded by your donations.
You will find a short presentation of this roadmap on our Support Framasoft website.
This website was launched on 28 February 2018 and redesigned once at the end of 2019. Its aim is to help those who have heard of PeerTube discover more about it and understand what it is. Indeed, it is not always easy for Internet users used to the web giants centralised video platforms to understand PeerTube specifics. The 2019 version of this website made possible to understand what PeerTube is for people with a good digital literacy. But we felt that was not always the case for a larger majority of Internet users.
In order to confirm this impression, we worked with the web agency La Coopérative des Internets, which conducted an audit of the website via user tests and suggested ways of improving it. The JoinPeerTube you are accessing today is the result of this collaborative work.
Let see what changed…
Less information, easier to understand
User testing revealed the homepage was too long and contained too much information, and that some informations were too technical. To give you an example, the tagline « free software to take back control of your videos » was not well understood. By using it, we assumed that people arriving on the website were familiar with the fact that software can provide online service (Software as a service mode). This is obviously not true for a large number of Internet users.
We have therefore simplified the wording: you will no longer find a mention of « software », PeerTube is now a tool that allows the creation of a video platform (and not an « instance », a term that only those in the know understood).
We have also simplified the texts so that they contain fewer explanations. This has greatly reduced the length of the homepage! And for those who would like to know more, we have added a section at the bottom of each page inviting you to consult the F.A.Q. (frequently asked questions). Very thorough and easy to use, the F.A.Q. is now directly accessible from the menu.
On the left, the old JoinPeerTube homepage, on the right the new one.
A new menu to differentiate use cases
On this updated JoinPeerTube, new pages have been created, others have been deleted or modified. The aim of this restructuring is to provide more support for users in their specific use cases (e.g. not offering information about publishing content to someone who just wants to watch videos).
On the left, the old JoinPeerTube menu, on the right the new one.
The new homepage is now called What is PeerTube? because we have limited the information on it to the essentials. Useful for everyone, this page presents, in a few lines (and hopefully!), what PeerTube is. The section What do we find on PeerTube? encourages you to discover our own selection of quality content. By offering two different selections (one recommending PeerTube platforms, the other videos hosted on different platforms), we hope to provide a better understanding of the tool.
The new section presenting our content selections (platforms and videos)
The new Browse Content page allows you to search through the 600,000 videos and 1,000 platforms in the PeerTube network.This integrated search engine uses SepiaSearch, the search engine we have been maintaining since September 2020. The results are now displayed according to their type (among videos, channels and playlists), which is really convenient.
The Publish videos page is intended for video makers. After explaining in a few lines the interest of distributing your videos via PeerTube when you are a content creator, we present the two ways to join PeerTube:
by creating an account on an existing PeerTube platform
by creating your own PeerTube platform
The first proposal takes you to the Find a PeerTube Platform page which displays a list of platforms based on several criteria: profile type (the videomaker profile only offers platforms open to registration), topic(s), sensitive videos mode and language.
The second proposal takes you to the PeerTube technical documentation site where those with technical skills will find everything they need to start hosting their own PeerTube platform.
The PeerTube news page is still accessible from the menu. If you want to know about the features of the latest versions, and suscribe to the PeerTube newsletter, it is just one click away!
Expanding Contribution
As you know, PeerTube is a free-libre tool to which you can contribute in many ways. The PeerTube community is already very active, whether it be suggesting new features or improvements, submitting bug reports, creating plugins and themes, translating interfaces, improving documentation, creating tutorials, or responding to those who have difficulty using the tool.
By clicking on the Contribute orange button in the menu, you can discover three easy ways to contribute to the project.
First way: suggest an idea or improvement on Let’s Improve PeerTube!, launched last July. We want to know what content creators, video-lovers and non-tech-savvy people miss from PeerTube or what changes/new experiences they would like to have. If you are not necessarily inspired, you can always vote for one of the 90+ ideas already posted. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who made these proposals and all those who voted.
Second way: participate in the funding of PeerTube. As you probably already know, PeerTube is a project financed by Framasoft, so funded by donations from our (mostly French and French-speaking) supporters. Framasoft is in charge of the financial management and the development of the project, among other things. The growing success of PeerTube means that we have to do more and more work to maintain and respond to the people who use it. Do you think we are going in the right direction? Then, if you have the desire and the means, we invite you to make a donation.
Third way: participate in PeerTube development. Whether you have programming skills or not, there will always be something to contribute. We have listed on a dedicated page how you can help. Don’t hesitate!
Making PeerTube easier to use
JoinPeerTube first versions highlighted how PeerTube is a great technical tool and allowed us to promote it to people with technical skills. Now that there are over 1000 PeerTube platforms, our new focus is to reach a wider, less digitally savvy audience to make it easy for them to understand what PeerTube is all about. We hope that this new version of the site will be useful and make PeerTube easier to use.
For those of you who are wondering where we are with PeerTube development, we remind you that a version 4.3 was released last September. You should also know that an RC (Release Candidate) version of V5 is now available. If all goes well, we will release the new major version of PeerTube within two or three weeks (time to fix the bugs that the RC will bring up). We will announce all the new features here very soon…
At the time of publishing, we are still missing 145 100 € to finance our yearly budget and make everything we want to do in 2023 happen. If you can (especially in these hard times) and if you want to, thanks for supporting our non-profit and our actions.
Mobilizon v3 : Find events and groups throughout the fediverse !
Mobilizon is the alternative we have been developing since 2019 so that everyone can emancipate their events and groups from Facebook. Except, unlike Facebook, Mobilizon is not a single platform. It is a software that specialists can install on a server to create multiple events and groups platforms (called « instances »), which can be linked together within a federation.
We do host Mobilizon.fr, but it is restricted to French speaking users (otherwise we wouldn’t be able to moderate). But we’ve got you covered : we propose a selection of other Mobilizon hosters on Mobilizon.org.
« Collectivise Internet / Convivialise Internet 🦆🦆 »Our new 3-year roadmap is funded by your donations. You will find a short presentation of this roadmap on our Support Framasoft website.
It has been just under a year since we published the second version (« v2 ») of Mobilizon. That release brings us updates (time zones adjustment, improvements on language display, etc.), new features (possibility to follow the public activities of a group without having to join, exporting the attendants list of my event, possibility to search among past events, etc.) and some small tweaks (emails design, cards presenting events or groups appearance, etc.).
As we announced at the time, we wanted to develop in 2022 features that would improve content discovery (events, groups, their public pages, public articles of these groups). This is the path we have followed (well, when we say « we », we mean mainly ONE paid developer who devotes a part of his time to the project).
Let’s look around and see what this new version brings us!
Mobilizon Search Index, a global search engine to explore events and groups
As we know it was not always easy to find events or groups on Mobilizon, we worked for most of the year on creating Mobilizon Search Index, a new gateway to Mobilizon.
The results will be the same for everyone, based only on your search (and your browser’s language), and absolutely not pre-sorted according to a profile (because there is no profiling, here!).
The results are presented in a clear and detailed way, to avoid the attention war leading to clickbait thumbnails and all caps over-the-top titles.
Search filters give you the power to sort the results out and display those you really want.
If you want to see in detail the content of an event or a group, Mobilizon Search Index will redirect you directly to the instance where it is hosted (since we have no interest in locking you into the search engine’s website). This is a way to help anyone experience and understand the notion of federation.
Let’s have a look at the new features of this search results page. First of all, you can choose the results display mode (list or map) by clicking on the top-right button.
results display in map mode
Then you can filter the results according to several criteria. Look at the left-hand column to see which filters are already active and change them if needed:
type of content (events, groups or both)
online events
event date
distance
categories
event status (confirme, tentative or cancelled)
language
You can also sort the results by using the top right button (only in the « List » mode display). If your results are events and groups, this feature does not apply, you must first filter by content type.
If your results are events, you can sort by 6 different criteria:
best match (only relevant when using the search bar)
event date (from earliest to latest)
most recently published
least recently published
with the most participants
If your results are groups, you can sort by 2 different criteria:
best match (only relevant when using the search bar)
number of members (from largest to smallest)
Our gateway to explore Mobilizon contents
We know that by offering a single gateway to the Mobilizon federation, the structure that holds the keys to that gate gets great powers. They get the power to decide what will be accepted (or rejected) in the search directory. They get the power to record who searched for what, when, from where. And they get the power to intervene in the order and display of the results.
It is on such power mechanisms that Facebook has built its monopoly. Obviously, at Framasoft, we do not seek to be in a position of power… and even less to follow Meta’s (bad) example ! Nevertheless, we want to show the emancipating potential of this software which allows to reclaim the means to gather.
As we already did with Sepia Search (our search engine to explore contents upload on PeerTube), we take the responsibility of opening Mobilizon Search Index, our gateway to Mobilizon.
Not all Mobilizon instances will be referenced on Mobilizon Search Index. This search engine will be based on the list of instances we maintain at https://instances.joinmobilizon.org. To date, this list consists of 83 instances, but we hope that more and more organizations will use Mobilizon.
This list is aligned with the policy for all of the services we offer:
Thus, if we are notified of an instance where contents explicitly condone terrorism or promote historical revisionism, we will remove it from the index (non-compliance with French laws, which we insist on in our TOS). Such removal will eliminate all events and groups hosted by that instance from the search results.
On the other hand, if one or more people come to abuse the time of our moderators with inappropriate and abusive reports, their words will be discredited and ignored (as indicated in our moderation policy (FR)).
However, we hope not to have to moderate this list too much in order to offer everyone the opportunity to discover the multitude of events and groups created on Mobilizon.
A public indexing tool, reproducible and adaptable to your conditions
The source code, the « recipe » of Mobilizon Search Index, is transparent. We publish it on our software forge and we provides an API that other software (including Mobilizon instances) can use.
So anyone is free to set and host their own instance list, indexing engine and search site, by copying and adapting what we have created. It is up to you to take the power (and responsibilities) by hosting your own Mobilizon search engine, set up and moderated according to your culture, your indexing policy and your values!
A V3 to improve content discovery
A new design for the homepage and the search results page
This is the main new feature of this V3, as it was obvious to us that we would implement all the work done on Mobilizon Search Index in Mobilizon software. This V3 offers you new homepage and the search results page design.
Homepage of our French-speaking instance, Mobilizon.fr
On this new homepage, in addition to a total makeover of the graphic interface (do you like it?), we have changed the order in which the different contents are displayed:
the search bar is now more visible and you can precise a localization
you have 3 categories cards displayed (we highlight those with the most events)
2 sections highlight events nearby and popular groups nearby your location (if you use the Geolocate me button or if you precise in your account’s preferences a city or region)
a new section is dedicated to upcoming online events
a section for the last published events on your instance and its federation
Our goal is to increase your chances of discovering events and groups that you never knew existed, to make the diversity of content published on Mobilizon more visible.
When you use the homepage search bar, Mobilizon displays a new search results page using Mobilizon Search Index design on which you can find all the features detailed above (map/list vue, filter system, sorting sytem). You even have one more critera in the left-hand column: you can choose results in your instance’s network or on the Fediverse.
If you are a Mobilizon instance’s administrator, you can choose and set up which search engine you want to use by default.
Also, the section « These events may interest you », placed at the bottom of events, uses new criteria (categories, event language and distance if the event has a physical address) in addition to tags to recommend you more relevant events.
During this year, we have modified many elements of Mobilizon in order not to build up technical debt (switch to VueJS 3, migration of the CSS framework from Bulma to Tailwind, etc.). Those changes are not visible when using Mobilizon but are necessary. They already give you the possibility of using a dark theme and they will make it easier for us to offer you more features (e.g. a theme system) in the future.
And we now offer administrators the possibility to use metrics tools (Matomo and Plausible) on their Mobilizon instance that allow them to have additional data (e.g. number of views on a page or number of views of an event) in addition to the stats provided by the software itself.
Mobilizon is still financed thanks to your donations
This v3 of Mobilizon has been partly financed on our 2022 budget, so directly thanks to the donations of the people who support Framasoft, and partly by the NLnet Foundation.
We don’t yet know exactly what we’re going to do on Mobilizon in 2023, but we know you’d love us to develop a feature for events import, ability for event organizers to privately contact attendees, and ability to fill in arbitrary contact information for event location.
Our new campaign Collectivize Internet / Convivialize Internet (in French) is going to require a lot of our energy, but be sure that we will hear your feedback to take them into account. So if you can (at the period we are aware that it is particularly complicated), and if you want to, please support the actions of our association.
At the time of publishing, we are still missing 178 200 € to finance our yearly budget and make everything we want to do in 2023 happen.
If you can (especially in these hard times) and if you want to, thanks for supporting our non-profit and our actions.
