"FediVariety: Scaling Social Media Alternatives for Public Institutions"

Our ScaleDem Piloting 2026 grant application embarks on a journey inspired by the electric atmosphere of the first FediVariety unconference in Amsterdam (19-20 March 2026). This pioneering event serves as our compass, guiding the transformative gatherings proposed in this application. Here follows a blueprint of our plans. If you know of other calls that could complement our route, please share them with us!

FediVariety: Scaling Social Media Alternatives for Public Institutions

The FediVariety project supports the adoption of social media alternatives by public institutions by organising unconferences that bring together representatives of public institutions with advocates, technologists, experts and other policy makers.

Insights from the unconferences support research on alternative social media adoption, which will be published in academic venues but also turned into a report with policy recommendations released at a webinar.

The Fediverse is a democratic innovation that presents a chance to reshape social media around core values like privacy, data protection, and transparency. Across Europe, public institutions are increasingly looking for alternatives to corporate social platforms. The Fediverse, particularly the microblogging platform Mastodon, is gaining traction as various governments and public agencies launch their own instances. At the same time, development and initiatives within Europe have been primarily driven by volunteers. The Fediverse’s technical stack has received some funding through the EU’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) under Horizon Europe Calls, under Pillar II, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Cluster 4, Digital, Industry and Space.

The Fediverse, an open social media alternative, faces significant scaling challenges when it comes to adoption by public institutions. These challenges are interrelated and span across different levels of governance and operational aspects.

• Horizontal Challenge: The primary obstacle is replicating successful pilot projects across diverse public institutions to achieve widespread, long-term adoption. Many institutions have experimented with Fediverse-based platforms like Mastodon, but these efforts often remain isolated and short-term due to bureaucratic barriers and a lack of institutional commitment.
• Vertical Challenge: There is a need for uptake across various levels of governance—local, regional, and supranational. While there are examples of pilots at each level, they are not yet the norm. The EU Voice/Video pilot, for instance, was successful but did not lead to long-term institutional commitment due to capacity, resource, and bureaucratic issues.
• Transversal Challenge: Network effects are crucial for the alternative social media presence of public institutions to reach citizens, the public, and a wider audience. The Fediverse aims to create spaces that foster deliberative culture and civic dialogue, but achieving this requires cross-pollination between grassroots communities, advocacy groups, and public institutions.

To address these challenges, a series of unconferences is proposed. These events will create a space for enabling factors to overcome barriers at macro, meso, and micro levels:

• Regulatory/Institutional (Macro Level): The unconferences will promote openness to experimentation and long-term infrastructural commitments by institutions. By facilitating social learning and resource sharing, they will help existing and new initiatives identify how to anchor democratic innovations within public institutions for wider adoption.
• Resource-Based (Micro Level): The unconferences will address resource constraints by providing access to skills and support networks. This includes sharing experiences in technical infrastructure, legal compliance, content creation, and community management.
• Design/Procedural/Logistical (Meso Level): The unconferences will bring together stakeholders to influence the characteristics of democratic innovations. This includes developing roadmaps, raising funds, and creating common guidelines to make the adoption and maintenance of alternative social media easier and more replicable across different institutional settings.

By fostering cross-community and peer-to-peer social learning, these unconferences aim to ease adoption and ensure the long-term sustainability of democratic innovations in the Fediverse.

The primary objective of the project is to organize three unconferences across different regions of Europe, serving as both events and research opportunities. The findings from these unconferences and accompanying studies will be compiled into a webinar and shared through an academic article and a policy-focused report.

The expected outcomes include:

• Network Expansion: The unconferences aim to scale out the network of public institutions and related stakeholders, including technical developers, civil society actors, and digital campaigners, within the realm of alternative social media. This expanded network will simplify the onboarding process, promote peer-based social learning, and facilitate ongoing resource and knowledge sharing.
• Initiative Catalyst: Following the first unconference in March 2026, participants have already initiated new projects, such as a starter kit for onboarding new organizations into the Fediverse. This demonstrates the potential of unconferences to catalyze scaling efforts.
• Resource and Knowledge Sharing: The project expects to foster a collection of shared resources and knowledge, which will collectively increase the adoption of decentralized/alternative social media by public institutions.

The project, running from October 1, 2026, to September 30, 2027, is structured into four work packages (WPs) focused on organizing unconferences and disseminating findings.

• WP1 (October 1, 2026 - February 7, 2027): This phase involves organizing and facilitating the first unconference in collaboration with a venue partner. Tasks include participant intake, establishing communication processes, and gathering backgrounds, objectives, and challenges.
• WP2 (February 8, 2027 - April 25, 2027): The second unconference is organized and facilitated, with similar tasks as WP1, including participant intake and communication process establishment.
• WP3 (April 26, 2027 - June 27, 2027): Preparations for the third unconference are made, focusing on organizing the event, participant intake, and communication processes.
• WP4 (September 2, 2027 - September 30, 2027): This final phase involves five major tasks:
• Operational Risk Management: Developing and updating an operational risk management plan and setting up a distributed support network.
• Website Management: Designing and adjusting the website to facilitate a webinar, handle participant recruitment, process webinar content, and prepare the Policy Report.
• Interim Report (Milestone): Assessing the project's status based on WP1 experiences, evaluating task planning, resources, timing, and outcomes, and forecasting next steps.
• Policy Report (Milestone): Producing and preparing the report based on gathered insights, analyzing project results, and providing recommendations for long-term sustainability.
• Webinar (Report & Publication): Preparing, organizing, and facilitating a webinar to present the Policy Report and facilitate an open debate on project results, insights, recommendations, and policy.

Throughout the project, the website and social media channels will be updated to reflect participants and emerging themes. An interim report is planned for the start of WP2.

The project has a pan-European scope, encompassing countries within and beyond the European Union. The first unconference in March 2026 attracted participants from the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Poland, Norway, Spain, and Belgium. Future unconferences are planned in Spain, Germany, and Albania.

Advantages of Geographical Diversity:

• Expanded Audience: Easier travel possibilities for participants from various countries.
• Diverse Participants: A broader range of attendees and perspectives.
• Contextual Relevance: Collaboration with partners and contexts best suited for each unconference's theme.
• Governmental and Public Administrative Contexts: Bringing together individuals from different governmental and public administrative backgrounds.

Target Audience:

• The project targets individuals already involved or interested in using alternative social media within public institutions, administrations, and civic organizations. This includes developers, administrators, civil servants, communication and content managers, coders, maintainers, contributors, journalists, public broadcasters, and more.

Current Landscape:

• There is significant interest and numerous champions within institutions, along with examples of adoption. However, there is a lack of a consistent framework for sharing experiences and best practices. The unconferences aim to fill this gap by providing a platform for collaboration and knowledge exchange.

The project aims to achieve two main societal impacts:

• Short-Term Impact: Expanding and strengthening the network of current and new practitioners by creating capacity-building initiatives and common resources for adopting alternative social media.
• Long-Term Impact: Onboarding new public institutions and organizations to use alternative social media, providing the public with access to official communication and social media content without being locked into privacy-violating systems.

Evaluation Approach:

A mixed-methods approach will be used to evaluate the impact:

• Qualitative Group Interviews: At the end of the project webinar, interactive sessions will assess whether new collaborations and knowledge-sharing have occurred among participants.
• Quantitative Network and Sentiment Analysis: Conducted on a rolling basis during the project on the Fediverse, supervised by a principal investigator. This will help trace connections made during the unconferences to study their impact.

Network Analysis: This will determine if the project is reaching new and diverse audiences, different levels of administration, and measure horizontal, vertical, and transversal scaling.

Long-Term Indicators: Beyond the project scope, a proxy for long-term impact will be whether public institutions sponsor future unconferences, indicating progress towards the long-term goal of providing citizens with access to public information without relying on social media monopolies.

The project is led by a consortium comprising a public research institution and a civil society organization, combining robust research with effective advocacy for the adoption of social media alternatives by public institutions.

Coordinating Organization: Utrecht University (Critical Infrastructure Lab)

Utrecht University is dedicated to public engagement and social impact, aligning with its 2030 Strategic Plan to create value for society through collaboration and co-creation. The Critical Infrastructure Lab at Utrecht University focuses on developing alternative infrastructural futures that prioritize people and the planet over capital and control. Dr. Maxigas (Peter Dunajcsik), the co-principal investigator, leads the track on digital communication standards like ActivityPub, the protocol powering the Fediverse. His expertise includes policy-making, digital advocacy, and research on technological trajectories.

Partner Organization: Stichting Advies Bureau Ongevraagd Advies (SABOA)

SABOA is a non-profit foundation committed to fostering a healthier, more equitable society through proactive consultancy and effective altruism. The FediVariety project, one of their significant contributions, promotes Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for public administrations, with a focus on the Fediverse. FediVariety, funded by the NLnet Foundation, investigates the integration of the Fediverse into public administration and offers insights for its adoption. Key team members include Victoria Neumann, a post-graduate researcher specializing in Human-Computer Interaction and Science and Technology Studies; Peter Mechels, a strategy consultant and digital transformation expert; and Björn Wijers, a technical adviser and open-source advocate. Together, they create engaging narratives on societal changes and advocate for digital autonomy and ethical technology.