Matthew Lang

This post at the MIT Technology Review emphasises what most of us already know. Still, it’s always worth reiterating the importance of having an open web with open protocols.

If we get this right, so much is possible. Not too long ago, the internet was full of builders and people working together: the open web. Email. Podcasts. Wikipedia is one of the best examples — a collaborative project to create one of the web’s best free, public resources. And the reason we still have it today is the infrastructure built up around it: the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation protects the project and insulates it from the pressures of capitalism. When’s the last time we collectively built anything as good?

— We need to protect the protocol that runs Bluesky

It is still early days for Bluesky’s AT Protocol. Still, I’m hopeful that such a protocol will herald a more open web with more collaborative projects not dictated by ads and capitalism in the future.

Joel Gascoigne on the resurgence of blogging. Did it ever leave?

It feels like blogging and personal websites are back. And tinkering and sharing experiments, too.

I suspect this never actually went away, but I think in the absence of a social network based on open standards, it became less interconnected.

It’s wonderful to have a broader gathering place again.

— Joel Gascoigne

Like Joel says, I am glad to see blogs and personal websites gaining more exposure again and, more importantly, that we’re gathering in places to share our blogs as well. We’re reconnecting with other bloggers once again. We have more places to meet, not just the one.

These days, BlueSky, Micro.blog, and Mastodon are my regular hangout places. They are open meeting places in that they either employ open standards or create open standards to improve social media decentralisation. They have chronological timelines, don’t do ads, and all support RSS feeds.

I’m more than happy to share on these platforms, and I hope that others will continue to as well.