Skip to main content


Now imagine if Mastodon didn’t exist and this was happening.…

Aren’t we lucky that some guy in Germany decided to spend his own time, money, and effort to build it?

Hopefully we’ll get lucky again…

Or, you know, maybe we can finally consider supporting tech that’s in the common good from the common purse. And fund organisations and long-term development, not just ad-hoc academic “projects” that get abandoned the moment the money is gone.

https://ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of-internet-regulation-at-the-european-parliament/

#funding #tech #eu #commons
in reply to Aral Balkan

the original project received funding from the EU. I think there should be a permanent fund for open source projects #EU
in reply to Danielle

Unless I’m mistaken, not until it was up and running. Please correct me if I’m wrong @Gargron. Did you receive any EU funding for Mastodon at the start and is there an ongoing/permanent funding stream from them that’s not based on implementing certain features/specific deliverables?

(Because there should be.)
This entry was edited (2 years ago)
in reply to Aral Balkan

I didn't receive any EU funding until 2022 through @NGIZero. No, there is no ongoing stream, it was based on a specific timeframe and a specific set of milestones. I started working on Mastodon in 2016 without any external funding.
in reply to Eugen Rochko

Thank you. So many voices have a place to be heard due to your thoughtfulness, hard work from years ago and ongoing.

#grateful
in reply to Eugen Rochko

@Gargron @violetathena @NGIZero

I encourage you to get more funding because you need to face growth, exponential growth. And all on AWS will not make it on the long run.
in reply to Eugen Rochko

@Gargron @violetathena @NGIZero Thanks, Eugen.

That’s exactly the issue I’ve raised twice at the European Parliament now. That we need funding for organisations not features and we need it at the start, not after it’s impossible to ignore that something works and is being used (because not everyone can or should have to undertake the burden of getting to that point by themselves. Some of us do, but if we require that as a rite of passage we’re going to limit the potential for alternatives.)

Lo, thar be cookies on this site to keep track of your login. By clicking 'okay', you are CONSENTING to this.