Prosocial Discourse
The multi-polar Social Web of my dreams has been beautifully exemplified in two recent articles.
First, there’s How decentralized is Bluesky really? by Christine Lemmer-Webber, co-author of the ActivityPub protocol.
Christine’s article opens with:
recently I have received some direct encouragement from a core Bluesky developer that they have found my writings insightful and useful and would be happy to see me write on the subject. So here are my thoughts.
She also goes on to praise Jay Graber, the Bluesky CEO:
For that matter, I think the part of Bluesky I probably respect most personally is Jay Graber. I was not surprised when she was awarded the position of leading Bluesky; she was the obvious choice given her leadership in the process and project, and every interaction I have had with Jay personally has been a positive one. I believe she leads her team with sincerity and care. Furthermore, though a technical critique and reframing follows, I know Jay's team is full of other people who sincerely care about Bluesky and its stated goals as well.
In conclusion..
Bluesky is built by good people who care, and it is providing something that people desperately want and need. If you are looking for a Twitter replacement, you can find it in Bluesky today.
This post was positively received by the Bluesky team, lauded for its deep detail and even-handedness. It filled a void that had been created by a flurry of reactionary takes written in bad faith, motivated by us-vs-them binaries and tribal protectionism.
A few days later the aforementioned bridge-builder and ‘core Bluesky developer’ Bryan Newbold responded with his Reply on Bluesky and Decentralization, which opened thusly:
This is a reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber's thoughtful (and widely read) “How decentralized is Bluesky really?” blog post.
I am so happy and grateful that Christine took the time to write up her thoughts and put them out in public. Her writing sheds light on substantive differences between protocols and projects, and raises the bar on analysis in this space.
Fellow netizens, this is what prosocial engagement grounded in mutual respect and curiosity looks like. It is exactly the kind of adulting I want to see (and frankly expect) from our protocol elders — a title they’ll just have to accept, even if begrudgingly.
In closing, a note on Bryan’s musings on appropriate terminology:
Overall, I think federation isn't the best term for Bluesky to emphasize going forward (…)
What would be a better term? At some point we started using “social web” more, and I think that matches the atproto architecture well. There is some tension around that term because it is used by the W3C Social Web Community Group, and the recently launched Social Web Foundation, both of which are ActivityPub / Fediverse projects.
The amicable exchange that just happened between Bryan and Christine is the web at its most social, and it took place on several different platforms and protocols, interlinked by the mighty URL.
That’s the social web I always have and will continue to be part of.