fediverse

<p>Bridging the fediverse</p> <p>A couple of years ago I started <a href="https://koldfront.dk/git/illuminant/about/" rel="nofollow">making an ActivityPub server</a> to make it easy for me to access <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse" rel="nofollow">the fediverse</a> over <a href="/just_call_me_mr_nntp_1871" rel="nofollow">nntp</a>.</p> <p>One of the challenges - at least in the way I built my server - is that every server it talks to speaks a slightly different dialect of ActivityPub. <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/" rel="nofollow">Mastodon</a> generates JSON with one structure, <a href="https://pleroma.social/" rel="nofollow">Pleroma</a> might include a field that others don&#x27;t, <a href="https://gotosocial.org/" rel="nofollow">GotoSocial</a> might leave one out, etc. etc.</p> <p>Around a month ago <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/klaus.seistrup.dk" rel="nofollow">Klaus</a> lured me into trying the Bluesky↔Fediverse bridge <a href="https://fed.brid.gy/" rel="nofollow">Bridgy Fed</a>. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/05/bluesky-and-mastodon-users-can-now-talk-to-each-other-with-bridgy-fed/" rel="nofollow">TechCrunch had a nice introduction</a> on how to bridge your account, which I followed.</p> <p>And then I had to adjust my ActivityPub server to the quirks of the bridge. Usually it&#x27;s stuff like &quot;this field I have only ever encountered having a string as the value, but now it&#x27;s a dictionary, or a list&quot;, and it takes me a while to handle all of them.</p> <p>Had I implemented the spec rather than just building something and trying it against other servers, I would probably have fewer of these surprises. But, hey, I was (and still am) building <a href="https://illuminant.asjo.org/" rel="nofollow">Illuminant</a> for fun, so I was happy to implement just enough to interact.</p> <p>One thing that in hindsight is sort of expected and also sort of a downer is that boosts and parent blueskidoos only show up if the sender&#x27;s account is bridged. So rather than being a useful expanse of the fediverse, this bridging turns out - to me, anyway - to be more of a curiosity than anything else.</p>

<div class="article-body"> <p>It’s not easy to quickly summarise award-winning Ugandan Dilman Dila’s work: he’s made Nepalese documentaries like <a href="https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/51068/the-sound-of-one-leg-dancing" rel="nofollow">The Sound of One Leg Dancing</a>, published a short story collection <a href="http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/reviews/a-killing-in-the-sun-by-dilman-dila/" rel="nofollow">A Killing in the Sun</a> and <a href="https://www.dilmandila.com/books" rel="nofollow">acclaimed novels</a>, made hit YouTube shorts like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZnpN86hPzo" rel="nofollow">What Happened in Room 13</a>, shot an African Academy Award-nominated feature the <a href="https://www.dilstories.com/felistas-fable/" rel="nofollow">Felista’s Fable</a>, and thru his production company Dil Stories, produced multiple TV series for DStv (pan-African Satellite TV channel). He blogs and advocates extensively, and has made the Fediverse his home at <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mograph.social/@dilmandila" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>dilmandila</span></a></span> &amp; on <a href="https://video.ploud.jp/a/dilmandila/video-channels" rel="nofollow">PeerTube</a> and, like Netribution@25, turned his WordPres blogs into a subscribeble social media node. His next film is the Night Dancer – about a deadly dance-off, with crowdfunding invited <a href="https://www.dilmandila.com/crowdfund-for-the-night-dancer-short-film" rel="nofollow">here</a> – on his own site because Kickstarter and IndieGogo disallow projects from much of Africa (unlike Patreon), which he discusses <a href="https://www.dilmandila.com/the-plight-of-african-filmmakers-seeking-film-funds" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p><p></p><p>How I quit my job to become a full-time artist</p><p>“It started with Maisha Film Lab. When I was selected in 2006, I got the green light I had been searching for all my life. Before that, I stumbled about blindly, not knowing if my writing was any good, not knowing if I had that something that makes you a good artist. I did not have confidence to even think of becoming a full-time artist, so I snuggled comfortably in my salaried job. In Maisha I met people like Steve Cohen (RIP), who thought I had something. He took me under his wings taught me screenwriting, by helping develop The Felistas Fable, over a four year period. That was my film school. Then there was Musarait, the then Program Coordinator of Maisha, who pulled me aside one day and asked, ‘Have you ever thought about directing?’” <a href="https://www.dilmandila.com/2019/01/how-i-quit-my-job-to-become-a-full-time-artist.html" rel="nofollow">Continued…</a></p><p>The inequality facing African filmmakers seeking film funding</p><p>I did not want to rant, but as I researched crowdfunding options for my next feature film, <a href="https://www.dilstories.com/big-tree/" rel="nofollow">Big Tree</a>, it pissed me off to discover that all major platforms, including kickstarter, backerkit, and indiegogo, allow creators only from certain countries to set up campaigns. Yet, anyone anywhere can give them money? Funny.” <a href="https://www.dilmandila.com/the-plight-of-african-filmmakers-seeking-film-funds" rel="nofollow">Continued…</a></p><p>Why my film crew is full of women</p><p>“There’s something you are doing right,’ a male Ugandan film director told me, as we discussed the crew of this TV series I created, <a href="https://youtu.be/PPvpkBlHgYA" rel="nofollow">Mama and Me</a>. ‘Do you follow some kind of feminist agenda? Why is your crew so full of women?’ I’d just told him that I was the only male in the writer’s room, and that most heads of department were female. ‘It wasn’t a conscious decision,’ I replied. ‘It somehow just happened.’ And he said, ‘Well, if you can put together a film crew that is sixty percent female, then you are surely doing something right.’ I got similar remarks about <a href="http://dilstories.com/her-broken-shadow" rel="nofollow">Her Broken Shadow</a>, with some critics saying it as feminist, and lauding me for having an all-female cast.” <a href="https://www.dilmandila.com/why-my-film-crew-is-full-of-women" rel="nofollow">Continued</a><a href="https://www.dilmandila.com/2019/01/how-i-quit-my-job-to-become-a-full-time-artist.html" rel="nofollow">…</a></p><a href="https://www.dilmandila.com" rel="nofollow">DillmanDella.com</a><a href="https://www.dilstories.com" rel="nofollow">DilStories.com</a><a href="https://mograph.social/@dilmandila" rel="nofollow">@dilmandilia@mograph.social</a><a href="https://video.ploud.jp/a/dilmandila" rel="nofollow">video.ploud.jp/a/dilmandila</a><p>Fediverse Reactions</p> </div>