cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/32283041
As currently they’re only using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
History has shown us time and time again that these corporate platforms are unreliable and untrustworthy.
•Twitter has a moderation problem.
•Facebook has been found interfering with the message delivery of crucial information during emergencies, putting people’s lives at risk.
•YouTube often takes down videos for the wildest of reasons and Google had a massive fight with the federal government over Canadian media outlet compensation. Who’s to say they won’t use their dominant position to sabotage the efforts of governments they don’t agree.
We could email the council requesting that they post on the platform.
They could set up an account on one of the larger well established Canadian instances or even better start up their own.
Friend of mine used to volunteer for the local chapter of a well-known national non-profit. He tried to explain all the technical benefits of setting up a website, yada yada. The board didn’t care and were bored.
He finally set up a small demo on his own. Just a few screens. Ran a small test. Presented static screenshots, along with charts and stats on viewership and engagements. Had mockups of donation pages, volunteer signup screens, newsletters, etc. That was when people saw the value and got interested.
Nobody cares about decentralized social networks, the technology, or how terrible the other outlets are. For a municipality, you may want to focus on maintaining multiple channels of communications and ways to reach and engage the most users. You could then fold the fediverse into it as one more channel. Something they should keep an eye on. They’ll need a way to post the same content to all those channels with the least effort. Something easy that a trained intern or clerk can do.
Guarantee there will be questions of cost of setup, maintenance, and risks. May want to have some answers and slides ready.