fosdem2026

I had the opportunity to attend FOSDEM 2026 virtually, and I spent almost all of my time in the [Social Web]<a href="(https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/social-web/)" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/social-web/)"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track</span><span class="invisible">/social-web/)</span></a> track.A few themes kept coming up across talks. Some were explicit, some were between the lines. Either way, they prompted a bunch of thoughts I wanted to capture.DISCLAIMER: AI was used to help me organize and improve the flow of this post. Ideas and thoughts expressed are my own. ## Hosting is hardIn [*Building a sustainable Italian Fediverse: overcoming technical, adoption and moderation challenges*]<a href="(https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/VKHGXT-building_a_sustainable_italian_fediverse_overcoming_technical_adoption_and_moder/)," rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/VKHGXT-building_a_sustainable_italian_fediverse_overcoming_technical_adoption_and_moder/),"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event</span><span class="invisible">/VKHGXT-building_a_sustainable_italian_fediverse_overcoming_technical_adoption_and_moder/),</span></a> there was a moment (not the main focus of the talk) where hosting came up in a way that really stuck with me. I’m paraphrasing, so apologies if I misrepresent anything, but the gist was:- Hosting Mastodon is hard, so we simplify with hosting services like Masto.Host- Hosting PixelFed and PeerTube is easier thanks to appliances like YunoHostBased on my own experience, that rings true, with some nuance.Getting Mastodon running isn’t actually the hardest part. The self-hosting docs are good enough in my opinion, and that’s how I originally stood up my instance at [toot.lqdev.tech]<a href="(https://toot.lqdev.tech/@lqdev)." rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">(https://</span>toot.lqdev.tech/@lqdev).</a> I even maintain guides for [cleanup]<a href="(https://lqdev.me/resources/wiki/mastodon-server-cleanup/)" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="lqdev.me/resources/wiki/mastodon-server-cleanup/)"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">lqdev.me/resources/wiki/mastod</span><span class="invisible">on-server-cleanup/)</span></a> and [upgrades](/resources/wiki/mastodon-server-upgrades/) that largely mirror the official Mastodon documentation and release notes.The harder part is everything after provisioning.Mastodon (especially with federation enabled) can be resource-intensive, and that cost shows up fast even on a single-user instance. If I’m not staying on top of maintenance, disk fills up. Every few weeks, my instance will go down because I’ve run out of storage. Add database migrations, which can be error-prone, and you end up with a setup that’s straightforward to launch but expensive to operate. You pay in money for a big enough server, and you pay in time for ongoing maintenace.I still want to participate in the Fediverse, but I don’t want to keep paying the maintenance tax for Mastodon. That’s one of the reasons [I implemented ActivityPub on my static site](/notes/website-now-natively-posts-to-the-fediverse-2026-01-22/) instead.On the PixelFed side, I did try to self-host it once, and I couldn’t get it working cleanly from scratch. Some of that is on me (I’m not familiar with PHP), but either way, YunoHost was a lifesaver. With YunoHost, I had PixelFed up and running quickly, and what that ecosystem provides is genuinely impressive.That said, I also learned the “operations” lesson there too. During an upgrade, something went wrong with the database, it got corrupted, and I couldn’t restore from backup. I ultimately took the instance down. I’m willing to attribute that to user error, but it still reinforces the bigger point.The promise of federation and decentralization is that you can stand up your own node for yourself, your family, a school, a company, a city, even a government. In practice, that’s still too hard for most people unless they use appliances like YunoHost or managed hosting like Masto.Host.And yes, those options mean giving up some control. But even with that tradeoff, I’d argue it’s still better than centralized platforms.As someone fairly technical and a little extreme about owning the whole stack (I implemented my own static site generator, Webmentions service, and now ActivityPub), I still find this hard. I can’t imagine how unapproachable it feels if you’re not technical. I just wish it were simpler and more cost-effective to run these services without needing either deep system administration knowledge or active ongoing maintenance.## One identity, many post typesIn the talk, [*How to level up the Fediverse*]<a href="(https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/HVJRNV-how_to_level_up_the_fediverse/)," rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/HVJRNV-how_to_level_up_the_fediverse/),"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event</span><span class="invisible">/HVJRNV-how_to_level_up_the_fediverse/),</span></a> Christine and Jessica talked about ActivityPub implementations and touched on something that really resonated with me.The idea (again, paraphrasing) was that splitting content types by app (video goes to PeerTube, images go to PixelFed, microblogging goes to Mastodon) might not be the right long-term model. Instead, they suggested something closer to one place to publish and follow people, with rich post types handled in one identity and one experience.That immediately made me think about Tumblr.When I first heard [Tumblr was planning to implement ActivityPub]<a href="(https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps/)," rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumblr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps/),"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">techcrunch.com/2022/11/21/tumb</span><span class="invisible">lr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps/),</span></a> I was excited because Tumblr is already “that kind of app.” You can publish videos, photos, polls, longer posts, and everything in between, all in one place. There was also talk about [moving Tumblr to WordPress]<a href="(https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/28/tumblr-to-move-its-half-a-billion-blogs-to-wordpress/)," rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="techcrunch.com/2024/08/28/tumblr-to-move-its-half-a-billion-blogs-to-wordpress/),"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">techcrunch.com/2024/08/28/tumb</span><span class="invisible">lr-to-move-its-half-a-billion-blogs-to-wordpress/),</span></a> which (in theory) could make ActivityPub integration even more powerful. But as of now, [Tumblr’s ActivityPub work seems to be paused]<a href="(https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/automattic-puts-tumblr-migration-to-wordpress-on-hold/).The" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/automattic-puts-tumblr-migration-to-wordpress-on-hold/).The"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/auto</span><span class="invisible">mattic-puts-tumblr-migration-to-wordpress-on-hold/).The</span></a> more I think about it, the more this model makes sense, especially because the most important part isn’t the “single app.” It’s the single identity.You should have one account where your content originates. Then people can consume it from different experiences. Maybe that is a video-focused client, maybe it is an image-first view, maybe it is a Mastodon-like timeline. The key is that you do not need separate accounts everywhere.That’s essentially how I think about my website.My site is my digital home and my identity. I post different content types which align with [IndieWeb post types]<a href="(https://indieweb.org/posts#Types_of_Posts):-" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="indieweb.org/posts#Types_of_Posts):-"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">indieweb.org/posts#Types_of_Po</span><span class="invisible">sts):-</span></a> Articles- Notes- Responses (reposts, replies, likes)- Bookmarks- Media (photos and videos)- RSVPsPeople can follow via RSS. And more recently, I implemented my own ActivityPub support so my posts generate native ActivityPub activities. That means Mastodon and other clients can follow and interact with my site directly.What I like about this is that it decouples publishing from consumption.I choose where I publish (my site). Others choose how they consume (their client). The protocols handle the translation.## The web is already social and decentralizedIn Social Web conversations, sometimes the tone implies the &quot;social web&quot; is separate from &quot;the web&quot;.I don&#x27;t really buy that.The web is social because people are on it. People use it to learn, create, find community, do commerce, argue, collaborate, share memes, and everything else. The web is also decentralized by default. That&#x27;s the baseline architecture.Dave Winer recently wrote about software being [&quot;of the web&quot;]<a href="(http://scripting.com/2025/11/24/141418.html)." rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="scripting.com/2025/11/24/141418.html)."><span class="invisible">(http://</span><span class="ellipsis">scripting.com/2025/11/24/14141</span><span class="invisible">8.html).</span></a> Software that&#x27;s built to share data, accept input, produce output, and let users move their data. Not locked into silos.This is why I&#x27;m so bullish on a different architectural approach: **start as a website, add social capabilities as components.**People are already using WordPress, Ghost, and Micro.blog to build sites. With an ActivityPub plugin, your existing web presence becomes followable and interactive in the Fediverse. The site remains a site. It just gets socially interoperable.Bridgy Fed reinforces this. It takes what already exists on the web and helps it participate in social protocols, without forcing you to rebuild as a native social app first.That&#x27;s also my own setup. My website worked as a publishing platform and people could follow via RSS. When I implemented ActivityPub, it became progressively enhanced. Same posts, new social vocabulary. I didn&#x27;t have to abandon my site. I just made it speak the social language.## Modular and extensible feels like the right directionThis is the architectural vision I took away from Bonfire: [Building Modular, Consentful, and Federated Social Networks]<a href="(https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/3QHALR-bonfire_building_modular_consentful_and_federated_social_networks/).The" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/3QHALR-bonfire_building_modular_consentful_and_federated_social_networks/).The"><span class="invisible">(https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event</span><span class="invisible">/3QHALR-bonfire_building_modular_consentful_and_federated_social_networks/).The</span></a> &quot;opt-in pieces&quot; approach is about choosing which parts you want, evolving your experience based on what you enable. It echoes [small pieces loosely joined]<a href="(http://scripting.com/2026/01/30/140150.html)." rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="scripting.com/2026/01/30/140150.html)."><span class="invisible">(http://</span><span class="ellipsis">scripting.com/2026/01/30/14015</span><span class="invisible">0.html).</span></a> It&#x27;s a practical model for a federated future:- Start with the basic web- Add social capabilities as components- Get progressively more powerful as you opt inYour site still works normally. When you speak the lingua franca of protocols like ActivityPub, you can express social intent in a way other systems understand.So it&#x27;s not &quot;the web vs the social web.&quot; It&#x27;s the web, with richer native social vocabulary.## ConclusionThis probably reads like I’m nitpicking, but I’m genuinely bullish on federated and decentralized networks. That’s why I’m still participating.What stood out to me at FOSDEM this year is momentum. Last year, the Social Web track was a half day. This year, it expanded to a full day. That signals to me that there are a lot of smart, passionate people working across protocol design, UX, moderation, policy, community, activism, and implementation, trying to build real alternatives to entrenched silos.And the plurality of implementations is a strength. It encourages exploration, competition, and innovation.My hope is that the “end state” isn’t a separate social web you have to join. It’s a web that continues to work as expected, but gets progressively enhanced when you opt into interoperable social protocols.Ultimately, there isn’t “the web” and “the social web.” There&#x27;s just the web, and social vocabularies that participants can adopt without thinking about it. <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://www.lqdev.me/posts/fosdem-2026-social-web-thoughts">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p>Next week is <a href="https://opensourceweek.eu" rel="nofollow">European Open Source Week</a> in Brussels, culminating in <a href="https://fosdem.org/2026/" rel="nofollow">FOSDEM 2026</a> on the weekend. There are several important ways to stay connected to the Fediverse while you’re visiting this week!</p><p><a href="https://joinmastodon.org/" rel="nofollow">Mastodon</a> maintains a booth at FOSDEM throughout the weekend. It’s a great place to get Mastodon merch or take a selfie with the Mastodon team.<br>The <a href="https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/social-web/" rel="nofollow">Social Web Dev Room</a> is a day-long event on Jan 31 in room H.2215 with loads of talks about Fediverse software and Fediverse organizing.<br>There will be a loose mingling of Fediverse people at the <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4480414658" rel="nofollow">À La Mort Subite</a> bar in Brussels on Friday Jan 30 after 8PM. Wear a <a href="https://symbol.fediverse.info/en" rel="nofollow">Fediverse symbol</a> on a nametag or some other creative way so people can find you. Find your own table and then start mingling. There’s no organized activities or special space; just a node in space-time where you’re more likely to run into Fediverse people than normal.</p><p>As always, watch the <a href="/tags/fosdem/" rel="tag">#FOSDEM</a> and <a href="/tags/socialwebfosdem/" rel="tag">#socialwebfosdem</a> and <a href="/tags/fosdem2026/" rel="tag">#FOSDEM2026</a> hashtags for news and updates.<br><br>If you’re not travelling to Brussels, watch for <a href="https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/room/h2215/" rel="nofollow">streaming video from room H.2215</a> . There are also Fediverse events happening throughout the world throughout the year; Fediforum keeps <a href="https://fediforum.org/events/" rel="nofollow">a great list</a> of the most prominent.</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/2026/01/25/staying-connected-to-the-fediverse-at-fosdem/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p>Hey, all. One thing that’s different this year about the <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/10/31/fosdem-2026-social-web-devroom-call-for-participation/" rel="nofollow">Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2026</a> is that we’re going to include talks about the organizational and social aspects of rolling out Open Source Fediverse software for individuals and communities. Last year, we focused pretty heavily on technical talks from the principle developers of FLOSS packages. This year, we want to make sure the other aspects of Fediverse growth and improvement are covered, too.</p><p>Consequently, <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/2024/11/27/how-to-make-a-great-social-web-devroom-presentation/" rel="nofollow">the guidance for last year’s event</a>, which was focused on how to make a great technical presentation, might seem a little outdated. But on reviewing it, I’ve found that it still has good advice for social and organizational talks. Just like software developers, community builders see problems and construct solutions for them. The solutions aren’t just about writing code, though; more often they involve bringing people together, assembling off-the-shelf tools, and making processes and rules for interaction.</p><p>Talks about Open Source software to implement ActivityPub and build the social web are still welcome, of course. We’re just expanding a bit to cover the human aspects of the Fediverse as well.</p><p>I’m looking forward to having the interesting discussions about bringing people together to make the Social Web. If you haven’t already, please consider submitting a talk to <a href="https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026/cfp" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026/cfp"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026</span><span class="invisible">/cfp</span></a>. Select “Social Web” from the “Track” dropdown, and include the length of your talk (8/25/50) in the submission notes. The deadline is December 1, 2025, so get them in as soon as possible!</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/11/30/social-and-organizational-talks-at-fosdem-2026/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p>The schedule for the <a href="https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/room/h2215/" rel="nofollow">Social Web Developer Room at FOSDEM 2026</a> is starting to be populated as the speakers confirm their availability. We had a tonne of great submissions for this year’s track, and even with double the time from last year, we still had to leave some great talks on the cutting room floor. But we still managed to fit in 24 great talks, large and small. We’re going to see some additional events happening as FOSDEM 2026 gets nearer. Watch the <a href="/tags/socialwebfosdem/" rel="tag">#SOCIALWEBFOSDEM</a> hashtag for more news and events. </p></p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/12/13/schedule-for-social-web-developer-room-at-fosdem-2026/">See Original Article</a> </small>

<p><a href="https://tags.pub/" rel="nofollow">tags.pub</a> is a new service under development by the Social Web Foundation. It is a global hashtag server — it lets you follow a hashtag across the Fediverse. There’s lots of information on the <a href="https://tags.pub/" rel="nofollow">tags.pub home page</a>, and I (Evan) did <a href="https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/WNDQUQ-tags-pub/" rel="nofollow">a talk about tags.pub</a> at FOSDEM 2026. This blog post answers some basics about tags.pub.</p><p>To follow a hashtag globally, search for a user with that name at tags.pub, like <span class="h-card"><a href="{&#x27;type&#x27;: &#x27;Link&#x27;, &#x27;href&#x27;: &#x27;https://tags.pub/profile/example&#x27;, &#x27;mediaType&#x27;: &#x27;text/html&#x27;}" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>example</span></a></span> for the <a href="/tags/example/" rel="tag">#example</a> hashtag. Follow that account, and it will share all the content it sees with that hashtag to you. If you unfollow the account, it should stop sharing to you. The usernames only have letters and numbers in them, and they only go up to 64 characters.<br>To share your content with tags.pub, search for and follow the <span class="h-card"><a href="{&#x27;type&#x27;: &#x27;Link&#x27;, &#x27;href&#x27;: &#x27;https://tags.pub/profile/_followback&#x27;, &#x27;mediaType&#x27;: &#x27;text/html&#x27;}" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>_followback</span></a></span> account. It will follow you back (thus the name) and your public posts will be shared by the hashtag accounts on tags.pub. If you unfollow the follow back account, it will unfollow you back, and your content will no longer be shared.<br>You can connect a whole server to tags.pub by using the <a href="https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/ae0c/fep-ae0c.md" rel="nofollow">relay interface</a>. Add <a href="https://tags.pub/user/_____relay_____/inbox" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="tags.pub/user/_____relay_____/inbox"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">tags.pub/user/_____relay_____/</span><span class="invisible">inbox</span></a> (Mastodon) or <a href="https://tags.pub/user/_____relay_____" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>tags.pub/user/_____relay_____</a> (Pleroma) to your server relays. This is a one-way pipe — your server will send public posts to tags.pub, but tags.pub won’t send all its public data back to you. Instead, your users should follow hashtag accounts to get specific feeds.<br>We respect your agency. If your server is connected to tags.pub and you don’t want it to boost your content, add <a href="/tags/notagspub/" rel="tag">#NoTagsPub</a> to your bio. If you already have <a href="/tags/nobots/" rel="tag">#NoBots</a>, that should be plenty. You’ll still be able to follow tags.pub hashtag accounts. If you don’t want to see or be seen by tags.pub at all, you can block the domain ‘tags.pub’ entirely.<br>Becoming the ‘global’ hashtag server is a goal. We are still ramping up, and there are a lot of people and servers that are not yet connected.<br>tags.pub will not share your content with accounts or servers that you have blocked. It only shares the link to your content, so your block will be respected.<br>tags.pub is developed and operated by <a href="https://tags.pub/" rel="nofollow">Social Web Foundation</a>. We are a US non-profit. The servers are located in Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada in a data centre run by <a href="https://www.ovhcloud.com/" rel="nofollow">OVHCloud</a>, a French corporation. We try to keep the data storage to the absolute minimum necessary to provide the hashtag sharing service. There is no search index, and we don’t archive your content. The <a href="https://github.com/social-web-foundation/tags.pub" rel="nofollow">code</a> is Free and Open Source software under the AGPL-v3.<br>If you have a feature request, or a bug report, please add a <a href="https://github.com/social-web-foundation/tags.pub/issues" rel="nofollow">GitHub issue</a>. If you have a private comment or question, please <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/contact/" rel="nofollow">use our contact form</a>.</p> <small class="notice" x-post-type-data="type=&#x27;Article&#x27; attributed_to=None"> Takahe has limited support for this type: <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/2026/03/17/introducing-tags-pub/">See Original Article</a> </small>