I’m currently in Taipei – my first visit to Taiwan.
This week I’m attending RightsCon 2025, along with my friend Felix from the Mastodon core team. It is a critical time for digital human rights (and for all human rights, privacy, and the future of online communities – and so, so many other things) and I’m keen to learn what I can from the different groups of advocates at this event, as well as to talk about what we’re working on. I’m here to discuss the importance of choosing authentic, user-centric platforms that are not driven by for-profit corporations, or “juiced” by algorithmic engagement.
Flying to Taipei
this evening for #RightsCon next week, where I’ll be on a panel “How we build a new social web” at 9am on Tuesday. I’ll also be speaking at the #RubyJam meetup on Tuesday evening, about Ruby and the #Fediverse. My first visit to Taiwan – any tips?
this evening for Thank you, friends, for the great suggestions and tips ahead of the trip! I’m already using some of the useful knowledge you shared on the socials 
I will be taking part in a panel on Tuesday morning entitled How we build a new social web, where we will be discussing user empowerment and the decentralised, open social web platforms. It is an honour to be invited to be a participant in the conversation here, and I’m looking forward to explaining the importance of independent social networks in the form of the Fediverse.
If you’re interested in following the event, I configured a Fediwall to bring together related hashtags – RightsCon25.
Separate from the main RightsCon conference tracks, I’m also going to be speaking at the monthly RubyJam meetup on Tuesday night, covering The Fediverse and Ruby. I’m planning to take a deeper and slightly historical dive into the role of Ruby in the past, present and future of the Fediverse – a different angle to the keynote I delivered in Japan in December, to avoid direct repetition.
This evening ahead of the conference proper, we attended an excellent keynote by Roger Dingledine, co-founder of Tor, and met with various people from across the Tor community.
As always, I’m reminded of how much I have to learn from the different perspectives shared around me.
aside: I still need to write about FOSDEM, and also my upcoming trip(s), and also, also… agh, must be better at writing!