From Feminist Servers to Feminist Federation

Authors

  • nate wessalowski University of Münster
  • Mara Karagianni

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/aprja.v12i1.140450

Keywords:

Feminist servers, federation, techno-politics,, PeerTube, Fediverse, video platform,, affective infrastructures, open protocols, ActivityPub, alternative social media, technofeminism, FLOSS, decentralized social media, agency

Abstract

Situated within the technofeminist care practices of feminist servers, this text explores the possibilities of feminist federation. Speaking from our collective practice of system administration, we start by introducing Systerserver, laying out the feminist pedagogies that inform our practice of learning and doing together with technologies and the politics of maintenance and care. We then revisit the identity politics of feminist servers as more than safe/r spaces in the cis-male-dominated domain of free/libre and open source software communities. Finally, we reflect on our experiences of building and federating a feminist video platform with the PeerTube software on Systerserver. Facing the techno-social challenges around the protocol of federation and adapting the software alongside our federating practice, we focus on sustainable and care-oriented alternatives to ‘scaling up’ the affective infrastructures of our feminist servers.

Author Biographies

nate wessalowski, University of Münster

nate wessalowski is a PhD student and technofeminist researcher at the University of Münster working on alternative data practices in collaboration with feminist server collectives. Based on a background in cultural studies and digital cultures (Universities of Hildesheim and Lüneburg), their work focuses on the epistemologies of datafication, the history and futures of online commons and, most recently, a feminist critique of cybersecurity.

Mara Karagianni

Mara Karagianni is an artist, software developer and system administrator. Their work involves computational and analogue media for publishing, python programming, making technical user manuals & drawings, and writing about the internet, FOSS and feminism.

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Published

2023-09-07

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2023): Minor Tech

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 nate wessalowski, Mara Karagianni

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