Acorn

Composable Trust, Part 1: Communities Without Credible Exit - Eclectic Corvine Muses

We guarantee that users aren’t subject to platforms. Yet communities are still subject to their stewards. Can we fix this?

Introducing Acorn: Community Infrastructure That Grows With You

Featured image: Emergence by Paul Lewin

Community by Design

Social media empower distributed content creation by algorithmically harnessing "the social fabric" (explicit and implicit signals of association) to serve this content. While this overcomes the bottlenecks and biases of traditional gatekeepers, many believe it has unsustainably eroded the very social fabric it depends on by maximizing engagement for advertising revenue. This paper participates in open and ongoing considerations to translate social and political values and conventions, specifically social cohesion, into platform design. We propose an alternative platform model that includes the social fabric an explicit output as well as input. Citizens are members of communities defined by explicit affiliation or clusters of shared attitudes. Both have internal divisions, as citizens are members of intersecting communities, which are themselves internally diverse. Each is understood to value content that bridge (viz. achieve consensus across) and balance (viz. represent fairly) this internal diversity, consistent with the principles of the Hutchins Commission (1947). Content is labeled with social provenance, indicating for which community or citizen it is bridging or balancing. Subscription payments allow citizens and communities to increase the algorithmic weight on the content they value in the content serving algorithm. Advertisers may, with consent of citizen or community counterparties, target them in exchange for payment or increase in that party's algorithmic weight. Underserved and emerging communities and citizens are optimally subsidized/supported to develop into paying participants. Content creators and communities that curate content are rewarded for their contributions with algorithmic weight and/or revenue. We discuss applications to productivity (e.g. LinkedIn), political (e.g. X), and cultural (e.g. TikTok) platforms.

Who actually owns your network?

Every time I moved a community to a new platform, the exit cost members and history. Platforms come and go; the lock-in architecture underneath is why. Part of 'Apps as Views, Not Vaults': the things you make are yours; apps are just the viewers.

Acorn | Open Source P2P Project Management for Software Teams

Agile project management made simple. Open-source, peer-to-peer, perfect for remote teams.

Roomy

A community platform integrated with the AT Protocol

Roomy

A community platform integrated with the AT Protocol

AT-Communities #1: the Concierge, the Vault, and the Fuck-ass Astro Website – Essential Randomness

In which I try to make sense of communities on ATproto.

Northsky

Social media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.

Skydit — communities, on your own terms

Reddit-style communities on the AT Protocol. Your posts live in your own Bluesky account.

Riven

A modern platform for original content, genuine conversation, and a feed that's actually yours. Built on the AT Protocol.

Open Forks of Boring Apps With Authority - Woodys Rows

The Atmosphere can win by becoming the foundation for software people already need to use because of real-world relationships.

Why Online Democracies Fail - Eclectic Corvine Muses

A compendium to my upcoming proposal for community infrastructure within the AT Protocol

Overview

What is Blacksky? Blacksky Algorithms is building the future of self-governable online communities with tools that make complex infrastructure simple to deploy. Most social platforms control what users see, how communities operate, and who gets to feel safe online. Blacksky changes that by providing one-click infrastructure for independent, self-governed digital spaces. Our platform lets communities […]