World without Caesar: How ATPROTO community is rebuilding the web to restore energy to people

Do not call it a Bluebody conference.

During the weekend, the first Personal gathering Created for those who build with the protocol, or ATPROTO The technology that operates the growing social network of Bluesky, which includes 33 million users, has been held. At this event, developers, engineers, founders and even members of the Bluesky team, including CEO Jay Gray, were present. Many in society were meeting with each other for the first time after only communicating via the Internet.

But though Blouse It is the largest application based on ATPROTO at this time, the social network itself was not Air Conference to focus. Here, Bluesky was just another developer – albeit prominent, given his danger to ATPROTO, a social media protocol that provides a framework for building a social network of not central.

Instead, the conference was allocated to the protocol itself and its many capabilities, which include building other types of social applications, but also societies and giving people a way to Log in via applications and web services With an open social identity Via Oauth Approval StandardAnd more.

The conference was related to the reuse of users on their data, as well as their algorithms and their comprehensive online experience.

In short, more than 150 people are attending, along with others in society who have actually attended, rebuilding the web by restoring power in the hands of people who already use the web.

This also means, to some extent, take energy away from the lack of technical billionaires – “Caesar”, like Graber’s The viral T -shirt mocks Mark Zuckerberg recently to; These technology executives now control the majority of our online experience, from searching to social communication, to communication to productivity, and beyond.

It is not surprising, then, to be found self -described, worshipers with mutual assistance, and defending the open source among those present at the ATPROTO conference.

But for some in the attendance, the idealism has long been reduced from the fact that they already built and saw them failing, including public products such as Twitter and previous efforts in decentralized applications.

This time, they aim to learn from these mistakes.

Event starting, Plain CookThe co -author of Oauth Standard and Protocol Webfinger, and the former main developer on Twitter, talked about his time in the social network that is now called X. While he is there, he formulated the word “tweet” and designed responses before watching Twitter becoming “damaged by the capital and the lack of imagination.” However, he is still considering Twitter as “the most filling acting of human communications and ideas that anyone has ever created.”

Cook, from He was expelled from Twitter to try to cancel a centralCompared to the decentralized social Internet today, which includes Bluesky, like the forest – which is logical for individual creatures within them but it seems messy for external observers.

This is especially true in these first days where multiple protocols are used, including not only ATPROTO, but also Activitypub (which supports applications like Mastodon and Subjects), Nostrand VarcasterAnd others. Even the web inventor, Tim Berners Lee, It works on decentralized techniques Designed to restore energy for users.

Cook told the public: “I knew in my bones almost decades now that a more free social system was possible and unavoidable,” it is always a revolution stuck with me. ”

Determine the speech of the event’s tone: one recognizes the mistakes of the past, but it also carries hope in the future.

Later, the CEO of Bluesky Jay Gray talked about the promise that the web was once held, and how it became pessimistic later because it turned into a tool for investigating and controlling instead of liberation and creation.

“We have built a civilization of the mind in the electronic space, but we have finished giving our lives to the large and central platforms that the executive managers themselves as owners of the kingdoms that we built with our data and our time.”

“We have to remember where the power is really because we gave them this strength and we can restore it.”

At the conclusion of her speech, the audience broke out with applause and voices that lasted for a good minute. This was not just a developer conference. This was a movement.

Other offers showed their projects, detailing various aspects of ATPROTO technology, and talked about what awaits us. Some proposed solutions to current issues.

The speakers in this event contributed to their specific experience, whether it addresses the challenges related to online communication, finding financing paths, or even experimenting with wild ideas, such as running Bluesky on A. Tuts One computer.

border Founder Rudi Fraser reached an emotional note on Saturday when talking about ATPROTO to build societies. Today’s project offers moderation and support that makes social media a safer place for black users, including those who migrate from the Internet community known as Twitter Black. Ultimately, Blacksky may work on all the ATPROTO infrastructure for its headquarters and its customer who faces the consumer.

However, those present at the conference have been reminded that new technologies alone are not the answer – a full environmental system of support and financing is also needed for these efforts.

For example, technician and feed builder ændra rinensLand On Sunday, he talked about the struggles faced by the transient community – and still facing it – even on open social platforms.

One part of the challenge is that people who run moderate services such as Bluesky (who teach or automatic posts do not want to see) are often personal and financially burdened by their efforts. They can burn and collapse, as Reninand said it was – twice.

But despite this, she still expresses her optimism, referring to projects such as Northsky SocialThat builds on the ideas put forward by Blacksky to use ATPROTO to create a safer experience on the social media of the LGBTQIA community.

“They are ambitious goals, but we are trying,” Renising said. “Persons will not be silent through this or any other administration. If that means that we have created a fully parallel infrastructure, our social network is an entire curse, you are betting on your donkey. We will do so.”

Unlike “Important people “who built FacebookThe ATPROTO community aims to alleviate the damage that can provide new technologies, as they are looking for experts who can help in their construction.

Sunday, Erin Kissane, content and strategy editing books once Article 40,000 words on how Facebook contributes to genocide in MyanmarJoin a distance (while under the weather, no less!) To share with those present, her deep understanding of how to build safer societies online.

At a time when a lot of technology is Recovering their diversity initiatives, stocks, and inclusion (Dei) In order to provide food for the Trump administration policies, Kisan’s advice went in the opposite direction. Builders advised actively searching for “smart and enlightened views of the most vulnerable people in groups that you build before and during changes and changes.”

“If you can maintain the most vulnerable people, you can maintain everyone’s safety,” said Kisan.

These are not radical ideas, but they have become a political charged issues.

As the event ended, some of the attendees left to start penetrating the projects with the contacts they formed during the weekend. Promises were made to continue the conversation and communication, and an active dispute chat full of people who now met personally.

“I go to many events in (San Francico),” Tessa Brown, co -founder of the safe chat application The bacterium networkTell Techcrunch. “It is like … everything started today, and everything is the future. There are no lessons from the past.”

In comparison, Brown added, “Everyone here is very thoughtful about how we have reached this moment … it is a completely different feeling.”

Techcrunch from the Air Conference in Seattle, Washington.