We are excited to invite you to our upcoming unconference, "Nodes on a Web: The Fediverse in/for Public Institutions", on 19/20 March 2026 at Marinebasis in Amsterdam.

Are you involved in Fediverse or ActivityPub development? Or are you part of a public institution already using the Fediverse for outreach? If so, this event is for you! The unconference offers a chance to meet, share experiences, and collaboratively strengthen the development of alternative social media for the long term.

This event is organized by the SABOA Foundation (FediVariety) with support from the Dutch Government (CIO-Rijk) and the City of Amsterdam.

The Fediverse 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, with some funding from initiatives such as NGI, which is nearing its end.

Our goal is to unite individuals involved in these initiatives and the wider Fediverse developer community. We want to share insights and ideas on how the Fediverse can thrive for public institutions in the long term. This includes developers, administrators, communication and content managers, coders, maintainers, digital activists, and open-source enthusiasts. Together, we will tackle questions such as:

• What is the future trajectory of the Fediverse?
• How can we best support the development and adoption of decentralized social media?

Our gathering will follow an unconference format. This means there won't be a fixed agenda; instead, participants will shape the content, often deciding on topics on the day of the event. It's all about openness, interaction, and collaboration. Our goal is to create a space for exploring ideas, sharing initiatives, and forming new partnerships.

We'll start with a keynote and offer a few pre-prepared workshops, but we mainly want to hear from you! Everyone is encouraged to propose their own topics, including workshops, presentations, joint roundtables, and informal discussions.

The main objective is to promote knowledge sharing in a relaxed atmosphere, allowing everyone to engage in meaningful conversations. Feel free to come prepared with a topic or join spontaneous discussions. We look forward to hearing what matters to you! Potential topics include:

• Moderation techniques and tools
• Protocol and feature development
• Roadmaps
• Governance frameworks
• Engagement strategies
• Terms of service, codes of conduct, data protection assessments
• Funding
• Your topic?

For veryone who is already or interested in using alternative social media in the realm of public institutions/administrations.

This can include developers, administrators, communication and content managers, coders, maintainers, and contributors, open-source folk who work for public institutions, and many more!

19/20 mars 2026: 1,5 days — Thursday (full day) - Friday (half day)

Marinebasis Amsterdam; an excellent spot for a great gathering! Let's prepare our ships. ~;\

Kattenburgerstraat 5, gebouw 027-S.

https://marineterrein.nl/en/home/

noaw@fedivariety.org