One third of Americans say that social media has negatively impacted their mental health. Almost two thirds say that social media has been bad for democracy. But the majority of us still use social media on a daily basis. We clearly need better social media - enabling user choice or even platforms built and run by the users. The Fediverse is a coalition of social networking platforms that connect together, letting users interact across platforms while maintaining their independence. Evan is one of the authors of the ActivityPub standard that drives the Fediverse. He will discuss how the Fediverse went from a dream to a reality, and how individuals and communities can start exercising control over their own social platforms.