What I’m up to: March - April 2025 edition
If you're curious about what I'm working on at the moment:
- 👩💻 Self-Hosting: meet my new self-hosted Ghost blog
- ✏️ Writing: The Future is Federated
- 🔮 What's Next?
👩💻 Self-Hosting: meet my new self-hosted Ghost blog
The journey of digital sovereignty starts with… a single
sudo command.
Six months ago, when the world was at a pivotal point with an upcoming election that had momentous ramifications, I had an idea: maybe I should learn Linux… and depend less on Silicon valley tech giants. Their leaders repulsed me with their actions - and their behavior on January 20th, 2025 solidified my resolve.
The rebellion will be federated — Elena RossiniThis is how I plan to rebel against the tech barons and kleptocrats for the next 4 years: through activism, education and FLOSS
Elena RossiniElena Rossini
I thought this knowledge would be useful one day, if I ever wanted to teach my child (now 4) how to run her own decentralized social media networks, years down the line. Maybe I’ll make her a Linux phone… and I could learn how to self-host Fediverse software to show her and her future peers a different way: social networks without algorithms, advertising or invasive data mining.
Well, these aspirations were all very theoretical - I had some goal posts but I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to achieve this tech independence.
Fast-forward six months and my digital life is completely overhauled. I’ve freed myself from Dropbox (moving all my files to an offline system with 4 backups including 2 outside my home); I’ve almost completed a “DeGoogling” process moving all my correspondence and accounts to ProtonMail; I’ve deactivated or deleted all my Big Tech social media accounts (LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Twitter - RIP) and I’m the proud owner of two VPSs: one (Debian) to self-host several Fediverse instances thanks to YunoHost… and one (Ubuntu) to self-host this Ghost blog. I'm now hosting my own federated social networks -
GoToSocial in primis. What's the command that started all this?
👩💻
curl
https://install.yunohost.org | bash
(This is
how I installed YunoHost on my virtual private server.)
My proudest accomplishment this year was learning how to run commands in Terminal. I manually installed the publishing software Ghost on my VPS as well as Varnish cache, became comfortable editing Nginx and JSON configuration files - and when things were out of my depth, I asked for help on the Fediverse and got brilliant tech support in less than a minute. I had no idea what “Nginx” and JSON were a mere two weeks ago. This new knowledge feels incredibly empowering.
a screenshot from Terminal showing my successful Ghost installation
All this to say: this post is now on my self-hosted Ghost blog, so if you had been following
blog.elenarossini.com via RSS,
now it’s time to update the URL to
https://news.elenarossini.com/rss to continue reading my posts.
Why the move, you may ask? I was paying 31€/month for a Ghost(Pro) plan. But as my learning progressed, I thought I could confidently self-host for a fraction of that - and invest the money I saved in Fediverse donations and upgrading my VPS. Plus, more than anything, as someone who has run self-hosted Wordpress sites for over 15 years,
there is nothing that matches the sense of freedom and independence as fully owning your digital home. I LOVED Ghost (Pro) and I still love
Ghost for its gorgeous design and functionalities and I plan on continuing to use it for the long haul.
Thing is, if I can do it, so can you.
Big Tech oligarchs have a vested interest in making us feel that leaving their walled gardens and learning how to run our own social media or publishing platforms is too hard. It isn’t all that hard if you are curious and motivated. That’s why I’m documenting my adventures on my self-hosted GoToSocial account using the hashtag
#MySoCalledSudoLife. If this stuff is something that may interest you, you could follow my adventures via RSS:
https://aseachange.com/@elena/feed.rssAnd if you are looking for recommendations about how to get started, do reach out, I’d be happy to help and give back.
✏️ Writing: The Future is Federated
In the last month I wrote two articles about
PeerTube - a decentralized video hosting software that is
the Fediverse’s answer to YouTube.
My
first post discussed what it’s like to use PeerTube from the point of view of a casual viewer of online videos:
PeerTube: the Fediverse’s decentralized video platform (part 1: first impressions)A walk-through of PeerTube, an open-source, federated alternative to YouTube
Elena RossiniElena Rossini
Why should we pay attention to PeerTube? As I wrote:
There is something genuine and irresistibly endearing about the world of PeerTube that is very difficult to find these days on YouTube. Not just different aesthetics and production values, but also: no thirst traps or desperate attempts to appeal to an algorithm – because the Fediverse doesn’t work like that. Chronological - instead of algorithmic feeds - are the standard on the Fediverse. Creators on PeerTube make videos about topics they are passionate about and post them online without a care in the world about how they will be received. Because there are no algorithms, only their followers and people who search for a specific topic will likely find such videos.
In the second article I discussed
what it’s like to set up a PeerTube account and use the software from the POV of a video creator:
PeerTube: the Fediverse’s decentralized video platform (part 2: creator edition)What is it like to use PeerTube as a video creator? Spoiler alert: it’s amazing!
Elena RossiniElena Rossini
Next up: I will be interviewing video creators who use both PeerTube and YouTube, in order to compare/contrast experiences.
🔮 What’s Next?
You may remember I have been promising
a series of videos promoting the Fediverse for a while now. They will come! It’s just that I had to put the project on pause for a great reason: I was offered two interns - film students from the US, studying in Paris for a semester who could help me out with this project. They have just arrived and the internship portion of the program will start at the end of this month… so at the earliest we will have a first video by late May. Videos take work - SO MUCH WORK.
The timing is actually great because I was invited to speak at a conference about my self-hosting adventures in late May, so I now have an added incentive to have the video ready by then… so that it will premiere at the conference.
More than anything I’m excited at the idea of having my daughter in the audience at the conference. Before her birth I had many wonderful opportunities to showcase my work in illustrious places (Apple HQ in Cupertino, Harvard University, the New York Times offices...) I had to put all of that on pause during her infant and toddler years but now I’m slowing coming back to my creative and advocacy work. I’m moved thinking she will be able to see that side of me… because all she sees me do is take photos, play with her with LEGOs and help her draw (in addition to the thousands practical things mommies do). I’ve embarked on this self-hosting journey for her and it’s the cherry on top to have her watch my first public talk on the subject.
Onwards and upwards!
Elena
💓 Did you enjoy this post? Share it with a friend!
👫 Follow me on
Mastodon (my favorite network!) or
Pixelfed. All my other links are available here:
elena.social📽️ If you'd like to support my work, you could buy or rent my documentary
The Illusionists on the globalization of beauty.
Watch the teaser:
Buy or Rent The Illusionists💌 If you'd like to say hi, my contact information is
here✏️ If this post resonated with you, leave a comment!
