Don’t call it a blue conference.
During the weekend, the first concentration dedicated to those building with the AT protocol, or Incomplete -The technology that authorizes Bluesky’s growing social network of 33 million users-has been in Seattle. At the event, there were current developers, engineers, founders, and even members of the Bluesky Group, including CEO Jay Graber. Many in the community met for each other for the first time after only communicating online.
But although Bluesky is the largest application based on Atproto at the moment, the social network itself was not the Atmosphere conference focus. Here, Bluesky was just another programmer – though apparent, given the management of Atproto, the social networking protocol that offers a framework for building a decentralized social network.
Instead, the conference was dedicated to the Protocol itself and its many potential, which include building not only other types of social applications but also communities and gives people a way to Log in to web applications and services with an open social identity Through the OAUTH IDAnd many more.
The conference was about users to control their data, as well as their algorithms and their overall internet experience.
In short, the 150+ people involved, along with others in the community who have essentially watched, work to rebuild the tissue, placing power back into the hands of people who really use the tissue.
This also means to some extent, taking power away from the billionaires technological oligarchs “Caesars”, as Graber’s viral t-shirt is mocking Mark Zuckerberg recently reported. These technology CEOs are now controlling the majority of our online experience, from searching for social connection, communication with and beyond productivity.
It is not surprising, therefore, that self -proclaimed anarchists, mutual aid devotees and open source supporters could be found among those attendees at the Atproto conference.
But for some present, long -term idealism has been moderated by the reality of what they have already built and attended failure, including public products such as Twitter and previous attempts in decentralized applications.
This time, they aim to learn from these mistakes.
Starting the event, Blain MitsaThe co-author of the model Oauth and the Webfinger Protocol and a former twitter programmer, talked about his time on the social network now called X. while there, he created the word “tweet” and designed answers before watching Twitter “destroyed”. However, he still thinks Twitter as “the most visceral representation of public communication and ideas that everyone has ever created”.
Cook, who He was removed from Twitter because he was trying to deceit itCompared to today’s decentralized social fabric, which includes bluesky, as more with a jungle – something that makes sense for individual creatures in it, but is seemingly chaotic to external observers.
This is especially true in these early days, where multiple protocols are used, including not only Atproto, but also of ActivityPub (supporting applications such as Mastodon and yarn) ,. Listener; GooseberryAnd others. Even the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, works in decentralized technologies designed to give power back to users.
“I have met in my bones for almost decades now that a freer social system has been as powerful and inevitable,” Cook told the public, “and it is always a revolution that is really stuck with me.”
Cook’s speech set the tone for the event: one that recognizes the mistakes of the past, but also has hope for the future.
Later, Bluesky Jay Graber’s CEO spoke about the promise that the web was once held and how he later grew up pessimistic as he turned into a tool for the surface and control instead of being released and creating.
“We have built a cyberspace culture, but we ended up giving our lives on large, centralized platforms whose CEOs have been designed as self-made monarchs of the kingdoms we have built for them with our data and our time.
“We have to remember where the power is because we gave them this power and we can take it back.”
In the conclusion of her speech, the audience broke out with applause and blows that lasted a good half minute. This was not a simple conference of developers. This was a movement.
Other presenters have shown their works, in detail various aspects of Atproto technology and talked about what was ahead. Some proposed solutions on current issues.
The speakers at the event contributed their special experience, whether it faced the challenges on electronic communication, finding ways to finance or even experiment with wild ideas, such as running bluesky in a Raspberry The computer of a boat.
Black Founder Rudy Fraser hit an emotional note on Saturday when he talks about the use of Atproto to build communities. Today’s plan offers moderation and support that makes the social media safer for black users, including those who migrate from the e -community known as Black Twitter. In the end, Blacksky can run on all its own infrastructure based on Atproto and offer his own customer who sees consumers.
However, the conference participants reminded that new technologies alone are not the answer – there is a need for an entire ecosystem of support and funding for these efforts.
For example, technologist and feed builder Ændra rininsland He spoke on Sunday about the struggles faced by the Trans community – and continues to face – even on open social platforms.
Part of the challenge is that people who perform moderation services such as Bluesky Labelers (who mean or automatic positions that you don’t want to see) often are personally and financially burdened by their efforts. They can burn and break, as Rininsland said he had – twice.
But in spite of that, he still expressed optimism, showing works such as Northsky Socialwhich is based on the ideas made by Blacksky to use Atproto to create a safer social media experience for the LGBTQIA+community.
“They are ambitious goals, but we are trying,” Rininsland said. “Trans people will not be silenced by it or any other administration. And if that means we have created a whole parallel infrastructure, our entire cursed social network, then you bet your donkeys.”
As opposed to the “Careless people ”who built FacebookThe Atproto community aims to mitigate the damage that can introduce new technologies and are looking for experts who can help them guide them as they build.
On Sunday, Erin Kissane, a general and editorial general who once wrote A 40,000 -word essay on how Facebook contributed to Genocide in MyanmarShe joined the distance (while under the weather, no less!) To share with the participants her deep understanding of how to build safer online communities.
At a time when much of the technology is the clearance of the initiatives of diversity, justice and integration (Dei) in the interest of supplying Trump’s administration policies, Kissane’s advice went in the opposite direction. It advises builders to actively seek “the smart and up -to -date prospects of the most vulnerable people in groups you build for before and during changes and changes”.
“If you can keep the most vulnerable people safe, you can keep everyone safe,” Kissane said.
These are not radical ideas, but there have been politically charged issues.
As the event concluded, some participants left to start piracy immediately in projects with links formed during the weekend. He promised to continue talking and connecting, and an active conversation of disagreement with people who have now met in person.
‘I go to many facts in the [San Franscico]”Tessa Brown, co -founder of the Secure Chat app app Genital networksaid to TechCrunch. “And it’s like … It all started today, and everything is just the future. There are no lessons from the past.”
By comparison, Brown added: “Everyone here is so careful about how we arrived right now … feels very different.”
TechCrunch reported from the atmosphere conference in Washington’s Seattle.
