Which alternate term for the Fediverse do you like best: Wood Wide Web, Fungal/Fungi Web or Fungiverse? - eviltoast

Wood Wide Web: Already a term in biology. “Research has shown that beneath every forest and wood there is a complex underground web of roots, fungi and bacteria helping to connect trees and plants to one another. This subterranean social network, nearly 500 million years old, has become known as the “wood wide web”.” (BBC)

Fungiverse: Most similar to the term fediverse though I never understood the “universe” part of the term. What does it mean in this context? Its more a social network, right? Much more like the internet it is based on a certain protocol.

Fungal/Fungi Web: Shorter than Wood Wide Web and maybe easier to say. In contrast to Wood Wide Web, maybe it’s also better to not confuse tech and nature here. I also in general like the term “social web” more, because it emphasizes that it is basically going on top of the usual web just through a new protocol.

I think Wood Wide Web would be best, because it could emphasize that it should be energy-efficient and have the goal of connecting people to collaborate toward a sustainable future. Also: in a story that plays in a world in which humanoid plants live, it would just make sense that they discover the Wood Wide Web at some point. What do you think?

    • blue_berry@feddit.deOP
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      1 year ago
      1. Why universe? It has nothing to do with virtual reality and it sounds very sealed. But what we currently see with the introduction to ActivityPub to Wordpress for example is that it actually becomes a part of the Web. Its more similar to the web than it is to virtual universes.

      2. The concept “federated” only makes sense in the current context. We have centralized social networks. They are bad. We want something else and think federation could do it. But it would be nice to have a metaphor that somehow stands on its own legs without relying on the old system. And the main thing that ActivityPub brings us is that the web becomes a social place.

      That’s why I find “social web” better. It’s more future-oriented and less defensive.

      • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        The universe sounds sealed to you? Do you know what the universe is? Also what does that have to do with VR?

        • blue_berry@feddit.deOP
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          1 year ago

          The universe sounds sealed to you? Do you know what the universe is? Also what does that have to do with VR?

          If you put it that way of course not. But look at it that way: people are in their own universe. They are a universe away from other parts of the web. I think that sounds pretty sealed. Also counterquestion: why universe to begin with. Why not web or net? I feel like it was chosen just because it sounds cool.

          If you want a graphic, that’s how I see it (the black lines symbolize pulling for engagement, e.g. through links):

          The right one resembles much more of what I think of the so-called Fediverse.

          • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            The universe contains everything and everything is connected to everything else via gravity.

            The phrases you chose are using the universe’s vastness to talk about distance.

            • blue_berry@feddit.deOP
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              1 year ago

              No, I meant it like: there are corporate networks, each are their own universe. There is the fediverse: also its own universe. That’s sealed.

              What now if the other universes are gone? A universe of federated services doesn’t make sense if you have no other universes.

      • ElectricMachman@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago
        1. But ‘universe’ doesn’t necessarily relate to virtual reality either. In fact, ‘universe’ is probably the least sealed term you could use, given that as far as we’re aware, the universe encompasses everything.
        2. ‘Federated’ has been a term in IT for a long, long time, and has always been used to refer to two extant systems with a protocol in common. In this case, it’s (for example) Mastodon and Lemmy, communicating via ActivityPub; but you could equally federate two Active Directory instances.
        • blue_berry@feddit.deOP
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          1 year ago
          1. Every social network is it’s own universe. So basically if you speak about the multiverse of social networks universe sounds pretty sealed.
          2. Fair enough, I’m just not sure it’s THE defining feature of the social web that I have in mind. For me it’s more the dezentral aspect and that’s for me best represented with fungi