Praise for Move Slowly and Build Bridges
"This is a delightful, readable, and yet sober account of a momentous effort to reinvent social media so it might be worth having. Gehl's book is essential reading for admins, lurkers, posters, coders, and scholars alike—the first definitive document for the early life of the fediverse." — Nathan Schneider, author of Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life
"Almost everyone is criticising commercial social media these days, but what matters is to rebuild social media on fundamentally different principles. Few people are better qualified than Robert Gehl to explain how this might be done, and indeed has already been done in the fediverse, particularly Mastodon. Drawing on extensive interviews and historically-informed fieldwork, Gehl gives us the best account we have of how social infrastructure really can be built outside of corporate resources, and with serious attention to the voices of minorities. In his telling, the abstract principle of federation emerges from a history of intense social struggle. So, if you want a realistic, honest, and deeply informed account of how social media platforms could be different, and in fact somewhere already are, then read this book." — Nick Couldry, author of The Space of the World: Can Human Solidarity Survive Social Media and What If It Can't?
"In our hypercommercial media and information landscape, a people-powered social media network can seem unimaginable—but Gehl presents a flourishing alternative, where people, not corporations, are in control. Fediverse members have care-fully cultivated a space that challenges Big Social, even as challenges arise that require community attention, deliberation, and investment. Move Slowly and Build Bridges is highly recommended reading for users, architects, and scholars of alternative media." — Christina Dunbar-Hester, author of Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest and Politics in FM Radio Activism and Hacking Diversity: The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures
"I just finished Robert Gehl’s new book on Mastodon and can’t recommend it enough: it’s the book I wish I had when I joined here 3 years ago; it’s the book that fills in back stories to recurring topics here that I couldn’t quite grasp; it’s the book to give others — friends, developers, researchers, policy makers, grant bodies — on what the fediverse is about; and it’s that amazing thing — an academic text that’s enjoyable and easy to read." — Ulrike Hahn, Director of the Centre for Cognition, Computation and Modelling, Birkbeck College, University of London.
"Robert W. Gehl's book Move Slowly and Build Bridges is a must read for people curious about the Fediverse as well as people already familiar with it. Even though I've been a Fediverse enthusiast for years, thanks to Gehl's insightful, superbly researched book, I have learned so many new things about it. Some complain that because of decentralization the Fediverse has no cohesive culture or history. Gehl's book proves it ain't so - far from it. Gehl interviews many developers and champions of the Fediverse, painting a picture of a really unique, special online space. The Fediverse reminds us of what it’s like to have genuine connections - away from the gamified sociality of Big Tech platforms. Forget personal branding and individual goals: the Fediverse’s real strength is its focus on community and building new, human-centric online spaces, fulfilling the original promise of the internet. I was already passionate about the Fediverse but reading Gehl's book took my enthusiasm for it to new levels." — Elena Rossini, documentary filmmaker