Welcome to Ken Talks Tech
A Tech-Surfers.com publication
1. Why this, why now
Hosting a global social media infrastructure like Facebook is expensive. This is why your feed is filled with advertisements. Something has to pay the bills. We are allowed to use Facebook “at no additional expense” in return for an endless stream of advertisements - and ad revenue is only the most obvious revenue source for Facebook. Perhaps the most lucrative and insidious revenue generator at Facebook’s disposal is the wealth of personal data collected and sold about all users.
After the 2024 election and the demonstrated enthusiasm of Mark Zuckerberg and other “titans of tech” to fall in line with President Trump there are many who are seeking an alternative social platform that provides as much of the same functionality as Facebook as possible. Fortunately for us the open source community offers alternatives.
I’m starting this publication to provide guideposts and reference material for individuals who want alternatives to Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and even YouTube. I will start with background and how-to guides that explain options and help you make the transition away from social media that is funded by selling data about you and marketing to you based on all the datapoints that the platform has gathered about you. I plan to move to other topics as well. Fediverse apps may be my gateway but I will offer significant content to those who want to learn more about the Internet and how the technologies that power the Internet work.
2. Social Media alternatives are only the beginning
I am a retired technologist that remained largely hands-on with technology even after I transitioned to leadership roles. Over time I will cover topics that are more technical than how to choose and use alternative social media. Perhaps you are curious. Perhaps you are a student who might benefit from an alternative voice on topics such as virtualization or networking. Perhaps you are someone who would like to feel more confident in the security of your home network. All those topics are fair game for the future.
My current plan is that most if not all of the more advanced content as well as many of the how-to guides will be behind a paywall. I do this because I plan to fund the hosting of a Friendica instance (an open source Facebook alternative) via the revenue from paid subscriptions. Hosting is expensive. The same day I started this article I learned that the Mastodon instance (Mastodon is an alternative to X / Twitter) that I have been using will be shutting down because the individuals running the instance can no longer afford the hosting costs. I know that my retirement budget does not include the costs of hosting a social media platform at scale and I do not want this endeavor to fall victim to the same demise. If you value control over your own personally identifying information and are looking for a venue to remain connected to friends and family and are willing to help offset the costs of providing this service then this is one way that you can fuel an ecosystem that ensures that you and only you control your data — and it will provide a place where you can focus on the causes and people who are important to you are the focus. You will not be distracted by advertising and there is no algorithm determining what you see next. What you see is based on the interests you declare in the app and likes are merely positive feedback to the person who posted the content.
3. What can you expect here?
I have performed an initial deployment of a friendica node. Friendica is an open source alternative to FaceBook. I have deployed this instance on a VPS in the public cloud to enhance reliability and to minimize the effort required to add more compute, network, and storage resources to the server. If you become a paid subscriber you will receive an invitation to join this friendica instance. You will also get a resource that will explain to whatever level of detail you care to have the meaning of the words in bold in this paragraph. You will also gain access to chat where you can request topics to be covered in future posts. My goal is to explain these technical topics in a way that begins with common language and paradigms and goes deeply enough to provide useful information and guidance to those who may be interested in venturing out on their own — or even simply being more effective securing their personal devices (phones, laptops), personal information, and / or their home network.