Category: Mastodon

  • Leaving Twitter

    Leaving Twitter

    Afallen was set up in 2018 to keep money and skills in Wales, and to help organisations understand, and implement, Future Generations ways of working.

    We’re a small business, and in common with most other organisations in Wales, we adopted a range of social media platforms to help communicate with our audience.

    Twitter (X) was one of those platforms. Over the years we have built our following into a modest 922 followers. However we have recently been shifting our focus to other platforms that include Mastodon, Pixelfed and LinkedIn. Twitter (X) has been getting progressively worse, a process turbo-charged by Elon Musk who has enabled, empowered and enriched those who seek to divide and misinform. 

    We believe that our use of the platform has become an implicit endorsement of an emboldened far right in the public discourse, and is now incompatible with the Afallen values, and with the Future Generation Goals in Wales. We have therefore decided to stop using our account, effective immediately.

    Screenshot of the Afallen Twitter profile, showing text saying 'inactive account, find us at toot.wales or LinkedIn, and with the numbers of following and followers (684 and 922)
    The Afallen twitter profile when we stopped using it.

    One of our Afallen values is “empowering open digital solutions” which is why we are very happy to have a presence on the open source social media platforms of Mastodon and Pixelfed. If you would like to connect with us on our other platforms of communication, please head to:

  • Introducing; Mastodon for Organisations training

    Mastodon training details

    As Xitter continues to plumb the depths of free speech absolutism, empowering, enriching and emboldening far-right views, many people are starting to question whether the dominant forms of social media are appropriate for them or the organisations they work for.

    Afallen has long been a pioneer of open source technologies, and we are proud to have been active participants in Mastodon since 2019. We believe that open source social media platforms like Mastodon offer a more socially just, hate-free way of communicating and organising.

    We are delighted to offer a new training course; “Mastodon for Organisations”. Aimed at communication professionals or others who currently use social media within their working day, this 1-hour session will take you from ‘zero to hero’, and give you strategic insights into why and how you should use Mastodon.

    Our trainer for this programme is David Clubb, a pioneer in the practical application of open source solutions within organisations. He has developed and delivered digital strategies, and is an experienced trainer online. His personal experience with Mastodon stretches back to 2018; there are few people better placed to support your organisation in this brave and open new digital world.

    Open source social media is well-aligned with Wales’ Future Generations Goals and values. By joining Mastodon and the Fediverse, your organisation will be taking steps to a kinder, better-connected and more understanding world.

    Find out more about the training and book onto it on our training page.

  • Supporting Mastodon in Wales

    Supporting Mastodon in Wales

    One of Afallen’s values is championing the use of Creative Commons and open source solutions.

    This is because we believe – and the evidence supports our view – that a cooperative and co-production approach provides bigger overall benefits to society than a purely commercial economy.

    Our first White Paper outlined the potential for Wales that could accrue from supporting open source.

    In practising what we preach, we have embraced two open-source social media platforms; Mastodon (like an open-source version of Twitter), and Pixelfed (similar to Instagram but free and open source).

    Afallen Partner David Clubb has been a moderator on Toot.Wales, the Welsh instance of Mastodon, since 2018, and is now on the governing body.

    Toot.Wales is nearly five years old, and David recently gave an interview to S4C about his experiences with the platform – and why it’s been growing so quickly over the last year.

    If you would like to find out more about the benefits of an open-source approach to your organisation’s operations and communications, you can get in touch with David via email, or of course, via Mastodon on Toot.Wales!