decentralized social networks: empowering user-centric coordination

[moul]

Social networks and messaging apps often fail to meet our evolving needs. Our vision is to prioritize user experience in decentralized social network apps, ensuring security and resilience in the Web3 era.

In the workshop, we will explore topics such as UX enhancements, simplifying crypto complexity, performance optimization, privacy, resilience, anti-censorship measures, reputation systems, overlay networks, specialized relay nodes, and off-grid communication. By focusing on UX design, streamlined crypto processes, optimized performance, privacy considerations, frictionless mobile interactions, and leveraging relay nodes, we can create a decentralized era that caters to non-tech users.

Let's organize a public workshop soon to discuss these topics together and shape a future where mobile phones serve as the primary device for seamless and frequent interactions with Web3.

cc @Ticojohnny @michelleellen

[jefft0]

I plan to participate. (I'm Jeff, a developer at Berty https://berty.tech, https://wesh.network.)

[Ticojohnny]

Hi @jefft0 @moul

Working on some brainstorming for this event.

The purpose:

Organize a community conversation on two important topics related to web3 - social networks and mobile functionality

The proposal

A weekly Twitter Space on Gno.land for the month of August, kicking things off on August 1st with World Wide Web Day. Every week, for the month of August, Jae, Johnny, Manfred and invitees will host a discussion on four key topics around the highlevel social networking and mobile based Web 3 initiative:

• General UX in social network and mobile - learning and discussing web2 to web3
• Privacy and avoiding censorship in social networks
• Mobile UX - wallets, socials, apps you name it
• To be determined

The idea would be to have the regular crew on the discussion and brainstorming space, while inviting one or two additional contributing members either from the community in Gno.land or who have dealt with this in web3 (example: Andrew Allan or others). While we can’t screen share in Twitter Spaces, we have built a “Brainstorming Miro Board” to kick things off and the main participants can build it during the chat and we invite other listeners to contribute to the conversation and Miro board.

Details

Starting date: August 1st is World Wide Web Day
Frequency: Once a week every Tuesday, 11am PST
Platform: Gno.land Twitter Space’s workshop
Title: "Shaping a mobile-friendly Web3 future”

Speakers:

• Jeff from Berty: social on mobile
• Dongwon from Onbloc: General translation of projects to mobile
• Antoine from Teritori: Social networks and learning platforms + mobile
• Manfred and Jae from Gno.land: General input on smart contract capabilities translating to social networks + mobile + privacy
• Decide upon other invitees and of course the community at large

Examples of existing "decentralized" social platforms that we can look at:

Mastodon
BlueSky
Posts
Nostr
Berty

Results/Deliverables:

Four community engaging brainstorming sessions and four referenceable Miro boards detailing out the discussion for community input and engagement.

[Ticojohnny]

Possible Twitter thread to pull people:

As the digital landscape evolves, it's clear that many existing platforms are lagging behind, lacking the innovation and advancements needed to meet the demands of the modern era. We'd like to encourage you to join us on a Twitter spaces workshop talking about what is needed for shaping a mobile-friendly Web3 future. We will first meet at 11am PST on August 1st which conveniently coincides with World Wide Web Day (August 1st) and further the dialogue with a call every Tuesday every week for the month of August.

We will be exploring ideas and solutions that cater to the everyday user, ensuring that the benefits of decentralization and security are accessible to all. It's a rare opportunity to shape the next era of social networking, where convenience and user experience go hand in hand with privacy and resilience.

As we delve into the workshop, we will cover a range of compelling topics. First and foremost, we will tackle the crucial aspect of User Experience (UX) in decentralized social network apps. Our aim is to make interfaces intuitive, simplifying complex cryptographic concepts, and ensuring a seamless onboarding experience for newcomers. By balancing convenience with decentralization, we can create a user-friendly environment that fosters real-time interactions and enhances discoverability.

Additionally, we will address the challenge of simplifying crypto complexity. Cryptographic terminology can often be daunting for non-technical users, so we will break down these concepts and make them easily understandable. Streamlining wallet integration and transactions will make managing cryptocurrencies a breeze, and exploring decentralized identity solutions will provide users with enhanced control over their personal data.

Performance optimization and degraded mode will also be on our agenda. We will strive to achieve fast performance under optimal conditions while designing fallback mechanisms for poor network scenarios. Leveraging content delivery networks (CDNs) and edge networking will contribute to a smoother user experience. Moreover, we will address the challenges of offline communication and data synchronization, ensuring that decentralization does not compromise connectivity.

Finding the right balance between public and private aspects is another crucial focus of our discussions. We will explore the potential of storing public data on blockchains for resilience and verifiability, while implementing privacy measures for private messages. Reputation systems will play a significant role in community moderation, and we will delve into encryption and anonymity solutions to enhance privacy. Companion apps like Berty and Mastodon will also be talked about, offering privacy-centric communication options.

Our exploration wouldn't be complete without considering overlay networks and off-grid communication. We will dive into the possibilities of overlay networks for decentralized social network apps and examine the benefits and challenges of internet-independent truth. Investigating off-grid communication protocols will allow us to explore scenarios where connectivity is limited or compromised. Trustless relay nodes, verified through physical means, will enable secure and reliable communication, especially in contexts like protests or local coordination efforts.

If you were able to grok all or some of this we would love to have you attend our online discussions. Let us know in the comments if you are up for speaking.

[michelleellen]

Fourth topic: User adoption and interop with other social networks

[moul]

The @gnolang/berty officially started their grant (#28).

Let's make sure to invite them.

[michelleellen]

Hi all,

I wanted to follow up on this GitHub thread and say that we will be moving forward on planning these external workshops with @costinberty and @Ticojohnny so that we can invite some of the potential external collaborators in the field of social apps and UX in addition to having a Miro board to accompany each workshop.

More to come!

[costinberty]

Great, let's do this! count me in!