Thanks to the open web, it’s more viable than ever for creators to take back ownership and control of their work, their audience, and their livelihood. No one knows this better than Molly White, a researcher, writer and software engineer. This episode was recorded live at SXSW 2025.
Rebuilding Social Media From Scratch!
Rebuilding Social Media From Scratch!
Emelia (@thisismissem.social)
It's pretty funny how everyone has seemingly forgotten why W Social went closed source: initially they were open source, and various people from the community looked through their fork of the bluesky codebases, and went "lol wat no".
FediForum | Growing the Open Social Web:<br>An Online Un-Workshop
Since the Twitter takeover by Elon Musk over three years ago, the Open Social Web has been adopted by an enthusiastic community. People world-wide are building and using open social platforms and open social protocols to better interact with others online.
W Social, Public Institutions and the Theater of European Digital Sovereignty
European public institutions are betting big on digital sovereignty and open source software. And yet they recently moved their Bluesky accounts to W Social, a private, for profit network owned by Swedish entrepreneurs that has quietly gone closed-source.
FediForum | Growing the Open Social Web un-workshop, 2026/03/02
“No One’s Coming to Save Us. Why Communities Must Build Their Own Internet” -Rudy Fraser, Blacksky
Anil Dash on The Web We Lost
Rudy Fraser on Blacksky, Mutual Aid & Reclaiming Social Media
Social Networking Utopia — Matt
In discussing the network topology of social networks — whether centralized like Facebook or federated like ActivityPub — I think the ult...
revolution.social with @rabble
W Don't Have Time | Offprint
"Trust community, not wealth" Holding power accountable on the open social web.
Today some of the most innovative creators & podcasters are launching social websites that will bring millions of their fans to the social web: verge.surf.social decoder.surf.social versionhistory.surf.social vergecast.surf.social wired.surf.social 404media.surf.social poweruser.surf.social
