Is this run by the NL gov? I wish all govs would have something like this. Unfortunately gov are usually about 1 generation behind the state of the art in terms of understanding technology at any point in time.
From today, a gigantic internet cable runs from the earth to the moon. Because the moon revolves around the earth, the cable also passes your schoolyard. All children and adults must therefore make a jump over this cable once a month.
Students can choose a username. They can identify themself or choose not to. The application (mastodon) receives a pseudonymID from the identity provider (educational institution).
Thanks for clarifying, this makes things slightly better than I had originally assumed. The personal connection still being on file with an authority remains a pain point though.
I have only declared my concerns with regards to the unintended side-effect of this project as explained in my top level comment. I have no qualms with and never even brought up this "principle of the initiative" as you call it.
“If a user no longer has access to their institution account, they will also no longer have access to SURF's Mastodon pilot environment. This is because we check "at the gate" via SURFconext whether the user is in the target group. Mastodon has excellent "move", import and export functionalities as standard. This is because Mastodon values the autonomy of users and therefore wants them to be able to move easily to another server.
During the pilot, we will investigate whether, in addition to Mastodon's standard functions, technical solutions are possible for scenarios where someone no longer has access to an institution account. Potential research directions include eduID and other solutions that explore lifelong learning. We should also explore with the whole sector the extent to which we want to facilitate or support a sector environment for alumni, guests or partners.”
SURF and Universities of the Netherlands are jointly exploring Mastodon as an open source platform for education and research in the Netherlands. In which public values are paramount. They launched a pilot in February 2023. Dutch students and researchers can join and discover how students, researchers, staff and institutions can experiment with Mastodon in a low-threshold way.
Setting up a Mastodon environment requires considerable expertise in ICT infrastructure, software, security, privacy, but also in moderating content. By joining forces, educational institutions do not have to do this alone.
