"FediVariety: Scaling Social Media Alternatives for Public Institutions"

Our ScaleDem grant application for the EU Horizon Program builds upon the resounding success and enthusiasm generated by the inaugural FediVariety unconference, held in Amsterdam on 19-20 March 2026. We are grateful for the overwhelming support received through numerous individual letters endorsing our initiative. Below, you will find a general support letter, signed by participants of our first Amsterdam unconference.

FediVariety: Scaling Social Media Alternatives for Public Institutions

March 31

To whom it may concern,

We are writing to express our wholehearted support for the grant application submitted by the Critical Infrastructure Lab and the SABOA foundation (FediVariety).

We believe communication is crucial in democracies. Currently most public institutions are using platforms that are beholden to their owners' political views, commercially-driven algorithms and privacy-violating data extraction. Alternatives like the Fediverse need broader adoption.

We participated in Fedivariety’s “Nodes on a Web (NOAW) unconference: Fediverse for/in Public Institutions” on the 19-20.03.2026 in Amsterdam.

It brought us together, a diverse coalition of individuals and organisations of civil servants, digital campaigners and activists, journalists, technical developers, librarians and many more involved in bringing alternatives to commercial social media platforms to public bodies.

The unconference created a space for communing together in a productive and relaxed atmosphere, where participants lead the discussions and topics of interest. Formats like the unconference are important to our efforts to bring more interested communities together to discuss, learn and share experiences. It strengthened and broadened our existing networks.

We are supporting this application to create more unconferences across Europe to reach new people and organisations and advance the adoption of free, open alternatives which foster civil dialogue and deliberation online.

Sincerely,

Tommi Marmo (DWeb, The Netherlands / Italy)

54 Grad Software GmbH, (Flensburg, Germany)

Chaos Computer Club Flensburg e.V., (Flensburg, Germany)

Samuel Brinkmann (Flensburg, Germany)

Hamish Campbell (#OpenMediaNetwork, United Kingdom)

Sabina Barcucci (European Funding Lead, Berlin, Germany)

Nicole Mikołajczyk (Fediverse.pl, Hakierspejs Łódź, Poland)

Babette Knauer (University of Groningen Library, The Netherlands)

Josca Westerhof (University of Groningen Library, The Netherlands)

Lennart Carstens-Behrens (Fediway, Leipzig, Germany)

Hannes Witerspan (Fediway, Leipzig, Germany)

Kirsten Coppoolse (Baarn, The Netherlands)

Christiaan Verhoef (Baarn, The Netherlands)

Johan Groenen (Advisor on Public Tech, Tiltshift, The Netherlands)

Sebastian Marg (Digitale Gesellschaft e.V., Berlin, Germany)

Vilém Novohradský (European Public Social Network Initiative, Praha, Czechia)

Jantien Borsboom (PublicSpaces, The Netherlands)

Hannes Witerspan (FediWay, Leipzig, Germany)

Lennart Carstens-Behrens (FediWay, Leipzig, Germany)

Koen de Jonge (Open Internet Discourse Foundation, Procolix, The Netherlands)

Coen Wesselman (Open Internet Discourse Foundation, Procolix, The Netherlands)

David Schogt (Waag Futurelab, The Netherlands)

Nikolaus Poechhacker (IdeaLab, University of Graz, Austria)

…