#Seppo! - PrototypeFund - round 13

Funding
#1

Prototype Fund 13 #Seppo! - post independently in the Fediverse.

PROTOTYPEFUND13-086

applicant

First name Marcus
Name Rohrmoser

Do you have an account at GitHub, BitBucket or similar accounts? If so, please provide the appropriate link.

Application form

Project title #Seppo! - post independently in the Fediverse.

Describe your project briefly.

  1. Rent web space
  2. put seppo.cgi there
  3. Call http://example.com/seppo.cgi, done!
    and you can already like and post etc… Self-responsible, without other terms and conditions and house rules, networked with the whole Fediverse. On your own Mastodon compatible repository. Without future administration effort.
    “Is actually quite charming to post to your own server without having to run a whole instance - as long as cross-posting to the Fediverse and commercial platforms works. Then yes.”
    So Patrick Breyer, Priatenpartei, EU Parliament, on whether he would use #Seppo! Patrick Breyer: "@mro@pleroma.tilde.zone Ist eigentlich ganz charm…" - chaos.social

To which thematic field do you assign your project?

Civic Tech

What social challenge do you want to address with the project?

Active participation in electronic public life increasingly requires nodding to small print and waiving rights. Because you’re always dependent on help to like or post - databases, scripting engines and web applications are too costly to install and maintain. But help comes on its terms.
To do something against this pre-enlightened state, #Seppo! consequently leaves out these parts and can therefore be operated responsibly by
oneself without technical know-how. Like a bicycle, which you don’t need to know anything about welds or paint to operate. You don’t have to build one to use one.
If you want to use the reach of large monopoly platforms, you can automatically post there simultaneously. Always with a discreet reference to the original source. In this way, one’s own content becomes accessible and inclusive to all net citizens - regardless of whether they want to participate in surveillance capitalism or not. If platform censorship strikes, the content will still make it onto the net. And if accounts are blocked, the reach is lost, but only a part of it. Not the complete online existence. You remain able to act, keep your voice.
There is nothing comparable so far.

#Seppo! - an effortless act of digital sovereignty.

How do you want to implement your project technically?

Careful, now it’s getting technical as requested:
In a secure and not-for-profit controlled ecosystem, OCaml, I develop a CGI program, seppo.cgi.
On first visit a web service unpacks itself, which is purely based on static files for read access and consists exclusively of plain text plus images. There is no database, no configuration is necessary. The CGI is available for shared webspace and own Linux servers up to the smallest Raspberry Pi.

Participate in Fediverse (Mastodon/ActivityPub) and cross-post to the major closed platforms a la POSSE - IndieWeb
By scaling to n=1 there are no “malicious users” and no user management. And overall a very low complexity in the result.

P.S.: by the way, someone is giving away camel stickers OCaml Stickers via 🐌 … going on! - Training - OCaml

Have you already worked on the idea? If so, briefly describe the current status and explain the planned innovations.

There is a proof of concept https://demo.mro.name/shaarligo

Username demo
Password demodemodemo

New will be

  • meticulous housekeeping UX,
  • Integration with Fediverse/Mastodon/ActivityPub,
  • Images,
  • Improving POSSE to Twitter,
  • implementation without GAFAM, European toolchain.

Link to the existing project (if available)

What similar approaches already exist and what will make your project different or better?

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, Pleroma, Peertube, Pixelfed, etc. either have encroaching T&Cs or their databases and scripting engines are only installable and updatable by professionals.

#Seppo! satisfies shared hosting and can be installed, updated, deleted or restored by everyone. A simple text editor is enough to inspect all data.

Who is the target group and how should your project reach them?

Individuals and small groups such as

  • Net participants with up to 10k followers,
  • Associations and NGOs without staff,
  • Schools and youth projects,
  • Female users on Mastodon and Twitter who want to write entirely on their own,
  • Women publicists who value decades of continuity,
  • Free spirits who don’t want to accept T&Cs,
  • Web hosts who want to offer this service.

#Seppo! reaches them through

  • Lobbying of first-time users and multipliers,
  • Lectures, flyers and promo at conferences e.g. CCC, FIfFKon, Bits & Bäume,
  • Tech podcasts (BitsUndSo etc),
  • Word of Mouth in Fediverse.

Which software projects have you worked on so far? For open source projects, please provide a link to the repository.
amongst others

Experience, background, motivation, perspective: What do you want us to know about you (or you) and consider in the selection process?

What is important to me is access and personal initiative integrated into social responsibility, therefore

and support

Are you applying for the grant as a team?
No

Names of the team members

I have to get the variety mainly by feedback from first-time users, e.g. you!

How many hours in total do you (or does the team) plan to work on implementation during the 6 month funding period?

720

Briefly outline the key milestones to be implemented during the funding period.

first

  • Personas and user stories for the central use cases including lifecycle and housekeeping,
  • Security audit especially of the filesystem storage concept in the context of mentoring,
  • non-functional UX design prototype,
  • Project Plan/Calendar.

Parallel approx. every 3 weeks

  • UX tests with users from the target groups (a la Steve Krug). In

each case approx. 3 weeks for

  • Posts via CLI without web server (storage, engine),
  • Posts via web interface,
  • Reply, Boost per ActivityPub,
  • (Un)Follow, I/O, per ActivityPub,
  • Images,
  • POSSE to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, possibly via 3rd party relay,
  • optionally further APIs: micro.blog, AtomPub, WebSub, pinboard.in

Checklist

I have read the checklist for applicants.

Privacy agreement

I have read the Privacy Agreement and consent to the use of my information in furtherance of the Prototype Fund’s program goals.

Residence

I am over 18 years old and have my main residence in Germany.

Open Source License

I agree to make the project results available under an open source license (e.g. MIT license), publicly available (e.g. via GitHub or BitBucket).

https://seppo.app/en/

Past protoype fund applications that were rejected