FR#160 – Everyone Wants Servers And Nobody Wants Servers

FR#157 – Social Software Distribution

Open social protocols are expanding beyond social media into the infrastructure developers use to build, distribute, and discover software. Three recent launches show what that looks like in practice.

FR#164 – The Pope on Defederation

This week, the Catholic Church wrote one of the better diagnoses of why decentralised social networks keep struggling.

FR#167 – Change

On coordination in a decentralised network, and the European Social Stack declaration.

Bluesky and the AT Protocol: Usable Decentralized Social Media

Bluesky is a new social network built upon the AT Protocol, a decentralized foundation for public social media. It was launched in private beta in February 2023, and has grown to over 10 million registered users by October 2024. In this paper we introduce the architecture of Bluesky and the AT Protocol, and explain how the technical design of Bluesky is informed by our goals: to enable decentralization by having multiple interoperable providers for every part of the system; to make it easy for users to switch providers; to give users agency over the content they see; and to provide a simple user experience that does not burden users with complexity arising from the system's decentralized nature. The system's openness allows anybody to contribute to content moderation and community management, and we invite the research community to use Bluesky as a dataset and testing ground for new approaches in social media moderation.

A New Social

Our mission is to liberate people's networks from their platforms, enabling The Last Network Effect and leveling the playing field across the open social web.

A New Social

Our mission is to liberate people's networks from their platforms, enabling The Last Network Effect and leveling the playing field across the open social web.

The AT Protocol's interesting design - LittleBit

Bluesky's backend was made to be more than a social network

After Eurosky: W Social connects social network for Europe to Bluesky technology

Bluesky's AT protocol forms the basis for an increasing number of social services. Now W Social aims to establish a European network for verified users.

W Social's Beta Is Live. The Problems Didn't Wait. - Ewan’s Blog

I am definitely not touching W.

Why I'm betting on ATProto (and why you should, too)

Social media was supposed to connect us, but most of it has turned into ads, division, and loneliness. I'm betting on ATProto as a way to fix that, and not just for developers. Whether you're a scientist, journalist, or just someone who wants the internet to feel human again, I think ATProto matters for you too.

Nobody Cares About Your Protocol | John ✦° | Offprint

Nobody joins a social network for its architecture. An honest look at why Bluesky lags Threads, plus real ideas to close the gap.