Robert W. Gehl

Robert W. Gehl's avatar
Robert W. Gehl
npub1jhf0...35pm
Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice, York University. My latest book, "Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media" was published by Oxford University Press this year. Been on the fediverse since 2017. I'm now helping set up AoIR.social he/him Trans rights are human rights. I boost #BlackMastodon and #MutualAid posts. I also call for alt text for accessibility. Book: Move Slowly and Build Bridges: https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com Book: Social Engineering: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543453/ Book: Dark Web: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262038263/weaving-the-dark-web/ Blog: FOSS Academic: https://fossacademic.tech
Latest FOSS Academic post is -- you guessed it -- a 2025 year in review post. Thrill to the fact that I'm using much of the same FOSS to do my work as I always have! Feel the chills as I talk about #generativeAI and how terrible it is! Above all, join me in living the FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream! Replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog thanks to the magic of #ActivityPub! #FOSSacademic
Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon
Federated social media is a radical departure from corporate social media. While big companies like Google and Microsoft produce email servers that can intercommunicate with hundreds of other providers, in the world of social media, cross-company communication is largely unheard of.... #MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot
Hey, #admins! Along with a grad student, I am working on a paper the surveys Mastodon (and forks -- Hometown, Glitch) servers that have some connection to #Canada. We have done a lot of digging and have found ~40 instances that have some connection to Canada. We presented our work recently: But! Maybe we're missing some. If you are willing to share, please let me know if your Mastodon/fork instance meets this criteria. Boosts appreciated!