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Interesting facts about Automattic:

1. The FTC doesn't fine them
2. Congress doesn't demand answers from their CEO
3. No one wants to break them up
4. No Netflix documentaries have been made about them
5. No one has held them responsible for the destruction of society

They are so scandal-free, the average Joe doesn't even know they exist.

There's a few things Automattic does differently than Big Social:

1. They open source their flag ship product
2. They allow easy self-hosting
3. They allow easy customizations
4. Their core monetization isn't based on ads
5. They don't build abusive algorithmic feeds to maximize engagement

For the most part, Automattic is a good citizen.

So how well is Automattic doing compared to Meta and Twitter?

Well, there's no doubt that—at one time, Meta and Twitter had bigger valuations than Automattic.

But the flipside: Automattic will probably exist next year. Can we say the same about Meta and Twitter?

Big Social might have lots of capital, but I doubt they have Automattic's stability, sustainability, and survivability.

Why do I compare Automattic to Big Social? Because Automattic:

1. Builds social media products
2. Has achieved significant market share
3. Makes money

Whenever people ask me about a potential model for the Fediverse, I point to Automattic.

They're no flash in the pan. They've existed for ~20 years.

Most questions about the Fediverse's long term sustainability and survivability can be answered by looking at Automattic.

1. Does it scale? Yes.
2. Can it be extended and customized? Yes.
3. Can the non-technical average Joe be comfortable enough to self-host? Yes.
4. Can institutions embrace it? Yes.
5. Can an ecosystem be built around it? Yes.

The operating model has already been built and been proven long ago.

I get a lot of developers and entrepreneurs asking me for advice on a potential social media product.

Usually -- almost always -- I ask them: would you rather be Meta or Automattic?

At first, most of them think they want to be Meta. But then when I show them the stats on Automattic, many of them reconsider.

Sure, Meta attracts the Press.

Yet Automattic attracts good will and sustainability -- something Meta doesn't have.

Now to the question of, "How will this Fediverse thing make money?" -- because that's always the question.

Again, there's an easy answer:

1. Consulting
2. Customizations
3. Hosting
4. Support

In fact, there already is a few people making a living off the Fediverse as we speak.

And if Automattic can do it, so can WordPress, Pixelfed, Peertube, Lemmy -- all the projects and developers actively working on the Fediverse.

Another question regarding the Fediverse: "Would politicians, press, higher learning, celebrities actually ever be bothered to self-host an instance and pay someone to maintain it?"

Again, Automattic answers that question.

What do all those institutions use for their websites? Self-hosted WordPress sites.

Who runs it? Someone they pay.

Self-hosting and maintenance can not only be normalized -- people would probably be happy to do it.

Yesterday, I asked, "Is the Fediverse destined to be hijacked by a VC-driven Silicon Valley startup that re-hashes Big Social all over again?"

Nope -- it's not inevitable.

Again, Automattic has shown us that not only do alternative models exist, they're probably more sustainable.

To beat Big Social, we don't have to become Big Social.

It's entirely possible -- nay, probable -- to build the "WordPress of Social Media".

/END

@jlrevilla @atomicpoet ugh.. I hate it when people casually namedrop a note taking app that I hadn’t heard of. Now I have to go and look it up and probably try and test it. I will obviously start fretting about whether it should replace my current toolset etc etc

@pascal

Also check out #DayOne. Automattic owns that app too, and it's a really nice option.

https://dayoneapp.com ( link edited to a better one for anyone who is interested in this awesome app)

@jlrevilla @atomicpoet

@pascal @atomicpoet @pauljacobson this looks interesting

@mistergibson Look up WordPress.

@brouhaha Don't know. Everything I'm saying is based on real world experiences. But if it's used by CNN and Microsoft, it can probably scale.

@lakelady @atomicpoet It depends on whether it’s really money-making or simply sustenance we’re talking about?

@sef @atomicpoet People who work at non-profits can be well paid. It doesn't have to be mere "sustenance". Successful non-profits are well run businesses.

@lakelady @atomicpoet Yeah, perhaps I misuse the term. We mean the same thing.

@JoseMarichal I'll re-iterate, follow Automattic's model

1. Open source
2. Self-host
3. Build an eco-system for consulting, customizations, hosting and support

That's the recipe.

@atomicpoet @JoseMarichal I largely agree with everything said here, but self-hosting is currently not easy enough: relatively pricey if you go with a dedicated host, plus most ordinary people already sit on shared hosting spaces. Setting up WP through 1-click installers on shared hosts is trivial but no such thing for masto (yet).
Until we lower the barrier to entry, self-hosting will remain low, I suspect.

@eLearningTechie @atomicpoet @JoseMarichal Agreed. I spent an hour trying to install it and the components directly and flatly failed, went with the docker compose file and that still took some time and I had to learn how to setup postfix. It's nowhere near public-friendly for hosting yet

@chance @atomicpoet @JoseMarichal That was my impression, too, when I looked into it.

@atomicpoet @JoseMarichal I didn't. Thanks for sharing.

@ketmorco Hmm.. you've given me food for thought. Federation as a political concept is associated with both strengthening and weakening nation states. Weakening by taking power from the center (like Articles of Confederation vs. Federalism in the US). But strengthening by requiring coordination of activity rather than going solo, like Hayek arguing for the EU as a way to weaken the power of nation states... but in this case we're moving from centralized to "coordinated decentralization"....