I’m excited to report the publication of Mastodon for Dummies, my new collaboration with Chris Minnick. This book will help you escape from Elon Musk’s Twitter — or any other corporate social media platform. You’ll get started with the open-source Mastodon alternative.

Check out the Books page for the story of how this book came to be. After an extended hiatus from book authoring, I couldn’t ask for a more worthwhile topic.

What’s different about Mastodon?

Mastodon differs from corporate social media platforms in these important ways: Book cover for "Mastodon for Dummies" by Chris Minnick and Michael McCallister.

  • No one owns Mastodon, and anyone can set up a community.
  • You are a valued member of the community, not an advertising target.
  • There’s no algorithm that decides what you see. Your feed depends solely on who you follow.
  • Community and conversation come first, not virality.

What else is in the book?

Chris and I quickly (the book is just 150 pages) walk you through the process of choosing a homebase on Mastodon. You’ll learn how to connect with other users, including your Tweeps who’ve joined the platform. Not sure how to be conversational on social media? We can help you post effectively too.

We tell you how to build a business on Mastodon too. You’ll find that it’s a very different vibe than Twitter, but if you really put your customers first, you’ll do well.

Besides all the good information we provide, you’ll find all the features — and fun — you expect from a For Dummies book. (Confession: With apologies to the publishers I’ve worked with over the years, I’ve always wanted to write one of these. Another bucket list item checked off!)

Working on Mastodon for Dummies

I’m honored to partner with Chris Minnick on this project, and I can tell you he’s a great guy and a writing dynamo! He has called Mastodon for Dummies his “most important” book, and I have to agree with him.

Anyway, if you’re on Mastodon, do give me a follow: @workingwriter. You can also follow MichaelMcCallister.com directly at https://www.michaelmccallister.com/author/mike/.

Let me know if you have questions about the book, Mastodon, or anything else.

Years before I even knew about the Internet, I covered politics in my hometown, Milwaukee. Starting at my college paper, the UWM Post, and continuing through a series of local alternative weeklies. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on that beat, but a few weeks ago, I got the bug again.

Representative Robyn Vining, from her Wisconsin state assembly page.

 

 

When a hitherto-unknown politician (at least unknown to me) started running ads about her campaign for state assembly, I got curious. This week, I finally silenced the voices in my head by publishing “Who is Robyn Vining? Why is she running ads on TV?”

The story tells you a little bit about her, and some rampant speculation about her reasons for spending campaign money on TV ads, a medium where many more people will see her ads than can vote for her.

FYI: The story isn’t behind a paywall; anyone can read it.

Let me know what you think of this piece, either in the Comments below or on Medium itself. Should I do more of this? If you happen to be an editor and like it, drop me a line. We should probably talk about other things to write about. 😉

 

Reece Manton's Indie Microblogging project
Manton Reece’s Indie Microblogging project is a big success on Kickstarter

As I was starting to write the last post, WP Tavern published this piece about Manton Reece’s successful Kickstarter campaign  to support both his new book, Indie Microblogging, and its associated micro.blog service. I thought this was pretty cool at first, but looking deeper, I’m even more excited. You see, Manton Reece thinks a lot about the web, and along the same lines as I do. He also posted comments on the news of Medium’s economic troubles. The money quote will sound familiar if you read my post:

The message is clear. The only web site that you can trust to last and have your interests at heart is the web site with your name on it.

Reece’s plan is to help get the web back to its basic principles, allowing anyone to claim a space of their own to communicate with the rest of the world, find an audience, or a tribe. Depending on their motivations, they can be laid-back conversationalists, or folks who want to band together to change the world.

A diagram of Zooko's Triangle - a theory of th...
A diagram of Zooko’s Triangle – a theory of the qualities of naming systems (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, most online conversations take place on Twitter and Facebook, properties of corporations big and small, funded (as Ev Williams of Medium noted yesterday) by other corporations using advertising to achieve their own ends. Like the Web luminaries that organized last year’s Decentralized Web Summit, Reece thinks we need to get back to the Web as the most important communications tool ordinary people have ever had access to.

A quick summary of the promise of Reece’s idea: The Micro.blog project focuses on giving people ownership of the kind of messages now seen on Twitter. It doesn’t seek to replace Twitter, as it allows posting to both your website and other sites. At the same time, if Twitter filed for bankruptcy tomorrow (a realistic possibility, judging from the occasional gloomy forecast of the tech press), you’d still have your tweets.

I really look forward to seeing the results, and learn more about this project. Check out the links, and consider supporting the Kickstarter to get your own e-book.