Building Bridges: From Museums to the Fediverse

In January 2024, we announced an ambitious new experiment in Brazilian public policy: exploring the potential of decentralized social networks. This initiative led to the creation of the social.museus.gov.br instance, where we began integrating the digital services of Ibram-Museus—such as Brasiliana Museus, MuseusBR, Visite Museus, and others—into the Fediverse. This was made possible by the Tainacan digital repository application, developed by Ibram-Museus in collaboration with Brazilian public institutes and universities. Designed as a plugin for WordPress, Tainacan allows for the activation of new functionalities through additional plugins. The release of the ActivityPub plugin in late 2023 was a game-changer, enabling WordPress installations to connect seamlessly with the Fediverse.

Our initial experiment involved publishing posts from this blog directly to decentralized social networks, resulting in a significant increase in traffic. Next, we activated the ActivityPub plugin on the MuseusBR website, which registers museums and memory sites. This allowed each registered museum to generate a post, effectively alerting the network to the existence of that institution. We soon realized that every item in museum collections published on Tainacan could become a post—or even a new profile—on the Fediverse, particularly for assets of broad public interest. This opened up exciting possibilities for services like Visite Museus and the Register of Missing Museum Assets, where information about events or museums could be automatically disseminated to followers on the Fediverse. Even the forum environment used in the Reconexões Project and during the National Museum Forum could benefit from Fediverse connectivity, expanding and enriching online debates.

A Call to Action: Building an Open Social Web Communication Framework

In light of these opportunities, we are launching a public call to hire two specialized consultants. Their mission will be to design and implement a web communication framework that integrates Ibram’s digital services with decentralized (open) social networks adhering to the ActivityPub protocol—all within a tight three-month timeline.

The Vision: A Decentralized Future for Civil Service Communication

The ultimate goal of this collaboration is to create a framework that integrates Ibram’s digital services with decentralized (open) social networks, enabling automated content dissemination through institutional accounts on the social.museus.gov.br instance. This framework will facilitate the circulation of information about museum events and visits (Visite.Museus), digitized collections (Brasiliana.Museus + Tainacan in musei), online debates and workshops (Forum.Museus), missing museum assets (BensDesaparecidos.Museus), and comprehensive museum data (MuseusBR). Importantly, this information will actively engage decentralized social networks, moving beyond passive publication on institutional websites.

This initiative represents one of the first strategies in Brazilian public policy to address the monopolistic control of commercial social networks by BigTech companies. By embracing decentralized technologies, we aim to reclaim public space on the internet, recognizing it as a medium for collective organization, cultural production, and social expression. And by fostering collaboration, innovation, and open-source development, we hope to create a model that other institutions and public projects can adopt.

The internet is not just a tool but a space for social existence, movements articulation, and the creation of shared meaning. As such, the design and governance of digital technologies are inherently political issues. The time has come to reimagine the internet as a space for collective empowerment and cultural expression. Ibram believes that museums can lead the way in this transformation, and we invite you to join us in this journey toward a more inclusive and democratic digital future.