I went to FediCon 2025!
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending FediCon 2025, a local conference for "decentralized social networks and the social web", held here in Vancouver, Canada.
I learned about FediCon a while ago through my Mastodon feed, and I signed up for it right away (I didn't have to think much about it, given that the conference chose a venue just a few minutes from home!).
Even though I've gravitated mostly towards Bluesky in recent months, my journey through decentralized and federated social networks started with Mastodon and ActivityPub, so it's got a soft spot in my heart.
And what a great experience it was! I got to learn from some amazing speakers and prominent personalities in the Fediverse space, including one of ActivityPub's co-creators (Evan Prodmorou).
Contrary to what I originally expected, the conference didn't just focus on ActivityPub (although the protocol took a central role in most talks); one of the speakers was Anuj Ahoooja, who spoke about bridging decentralized platforms based on his experience working on Brid.gy, as well as an amazing survey of unique, innovative and creative ATProto applications that go beyond just microblogging by our local star, Boris Mann.
Another highlight for me was hearing first-hand experiences on how ActivityPub and the Fediverse are being used in local contexts for community building, data sovereignty and digital self-determination, with talks on how CoSocial and SocialBC (two Mastodon instances tailor-made for Canadians on a provincial and federal level) came to be and are managed, and even a non-technical talk about the Fediverse as a digital third space that can enable "community (re)connection".
These talks, as well as the rest, were all refreshing and inspiring, with a mix of historical background around the Fediverse, and projections towards the future by looking at a lot of creative uses of the Fediverse in order to empower communities and individuals.
I left the conference with a lot of ideas and motivation to keep exploring how to build and contribute to a decentralized and social web, no matter the underlying platform or protocol (or, more specifically, not limited by them).
You can watch all the recorded sessions on FediCon's official Spectra Video (PeerTube) channel.
Looking forward to FediCon 2026!
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