Gradients of intimacy and creating shelter: An interview with Erin Kissane

Cozy Community Software — Open Indie

As Commune edges closer to an early-access release, I've been musing on the concept of the cozy web vibes that we intend to cultivate in ...

epistemic garden - mapping how ideas spread online

We're building tools to help communities understand their information landscape and protect against harmful coordinated narratives.

Neighborhood Steward Fellowship | New_ Public

An eight-week program bringing together leaders of local-oriented online spaces to experiment with fun new practices and ideas

The Dark Forest and the Cozy Web

An illustrated diagram exposing the inner layers of the dark and cozy web

FediForum | Growing the Open Social Web un-workshop, 2026/03/02

Ambient Co-presence

Creating a subtle, peripheral, and synchronous sense of shared space and context on the web

Rewilding the Web: my workshop report from Edinburgh

Notes from a wonderfully interdisciplinary Edinburgh workshop on 'Rewilding the Web', ranging coopetition and biological variety through the philosophy of self-organisation, polycrisis governance, protopian science fiction, and moderation seen through the lens of artisanal cheese.

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Connected places: understanding how the new social web works

Trails and public spaces — Rafael M. Batista

A reply to Kenny Peng and colleagues on designing social media around trails — and why the campground or the piazza may be the better analogy.

Local Lab | New_ Public

Helping local communities create flourishing digital spaces

Federating friendly spaces - Roomy

hearkening back to the cozy vibes of old-web neighborhoods

Creating Scientific Theories with Online Communities using Gut Instinct

People's lived experiences provide intuitions about their health. Can they transform these personal intuitions into scientific theories that inform both science and their lives? My research introduces social computing architectures and system principles for people to brainstorm and test causal scientific theories. These ideas are instantiated in the Gut Instinct system (gutinstinct.ucsd.edu). 344 voluntary online participants from 27 countries created 399 personally-relevant questions about the human microbiome, 75 (19%) of which microbiome experts found potentially scientifically novel. To test their theories, end users design structurally-sound experiments, improve them via community reviews, and run them with other participants. Controlled experiments show that participants create better hypotheses and experimental designs when they have access to procedural training. My research illustrates a novel way to tackle complex, creative tasks online by building expertise in online volunteer communities.

New_ Public

We are researchers, engineers, designers, and community leaders working together to create digital public spaces where people can thrive and connect.