The video version of our latest episode is now on #PeerTube! We chatted with @quillmatiq.com and @snarfed.org about A New Social, what they're working on, and some interesting side conversations about where the Fediverse is heading!

Here's this week's issue of Relay, a roundup of things happening across the Social Web. Governance changes, questions of decentralization, and some new developments in the field.

FediForum special event next week! Join us for an hour with Robert W. Gehl, who wrote a great new book about the Fediverse: "Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the struggle for democratic social media." Come and hear excerpts from the book, and ask questions! We read […]

I wouldn’t say this is 100% accurate but enjoy it for what it is.. a nerdy concept explained with meme cats. 🐱 #caturday #oauth

The Social Web Foundation has been experimenting with the lesser-known other half of the ActivityPub protocol. Here's what they're up to.

On a brighter note, I do think it's really cool that this conversation about decentralized protocols is decentralized at the protocol layer and still accessible across networks

If you @-mention @henryzoo.com it will print to his printer. #ATProto_NYC

The first issue of our Social Web newsletter, Relay, is out. Take a look!

We're trying something new, and starting a newsletter that adds more voices to the coverage of the Social Web. Check out Relay!

After a brief demo at FediCon 2025, a new, open source fundraising system for the #Fediverse has been released to the public. It's native to the network, and you sign in using your own Fediverse account.

We Distribute is evaluating whether to launch a crowdfunding campaign to support our organization. Right now, almost everything we do is created, produced, and edited by one guy, @deadsuperhero.com. If you're interested, feel free to fill out this survey: cloud.wedistribute.org/apps/forms/s...

Is a large corporate entity scraping a community-run open social network to train AI models for profit? Dropsite News claims to have received a leak, and the list contains a significant amount of #Fediverse instances.

It was a huge honor to be able to host a panel and interview some really incredible people at FediCon. I got the privilege to interview some incredibly thoughtful people that I admire and look up to. If you like this, check out @wedistribute.org.

There's a lot of cool stuff in the pipeline for the open source federated alternative to Tiktok and Vine, including a Web UI and a boatload of new features. Let's dive in, and see what's coming in the next release.

What We're Building.

Leaflet looks like a great project, exciting to think about forks for science (micro?)publishing on ATProto! I also really like the bsky posts as inline comments feature

For our latest episode of The Decentered Podcast, we interviewed @rabble.nz! It's an awesome interview that talks about Twitter, Secure Scuttlebutt, and the evolution of #Nostr.

I wrote a mini atproto project today. Meet at://giveaways! Host a giveaway from a post and choose winners from likes, reposts, or both! giveaways.baileytownsend.dev

Confession: I didn’t put this 100% together until today. But it’s totally right. We can’t require you to go somewhere else

@wordpress.org is continuing to iterate on their integration with the #Fediverse, adding new capabilities to subscribe to people right from your dashboard. Here's why this matters for the future of WordPress on the Social Web.

We're pleased to share that Encyclia has joined our success stories. @encyclia bridges academic research to the #fediverse by making #orcid researcher profiles and publications discoverable through #ActivityPub—built with #fedify#fediversefor seamless interoperability across Mastodon and other fediverse […]

It was an honour to talk about Channel.org and @fediforum.org on the Decentered podcast last week! If you haven't checked it out already, you can catch the latest episode on the link below or wherever you get your podcasts 🤠 Thanks to @wedistribute.org for having me! #Podcast #SocialMedia

🤯 https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/pull/3943

Taking a look at the Wordpress ActivityPub Roadmap, at the very end I see this: > Client-to-Server API (exploration) > At this stage, we’re exploring and evaluating this based on community interest and potential use cases. Client to Server API for ActivityPub is not widely utilized (or at […]

An open source, self-hostable music platform will soon allow people on the #Fediverse to buy music and support artists. Here's why it's a big deal.

You can check out our daily live coverage of #FediForum here!

This is not a drill! 🚨 We have launched our second season of The Decentered Podcast, with some pre-event commentary about the upcoming @fediforum.org event happening tomorrow.

Things have been a little slow for a while over at @wedistribute.org, mostly because of a really busy spring class semester. Now that I'm done with that, I want to start writing articles again. What's some interesting things happening in the ATmosphere we ought to cover?

How interoperability is at the core of us owning our technology choices, and Big Tech has spent the last decade slowly normalizing the lack of it with marketing speak

Another win for the open social web! Check out @ghost.org's new beta to discover what's next for independent publishing in the #fediverse.

We’re hiring a Head of Product! This is the perfect role for a creative, strategic, and experienced product leader who wants to help shape the future of social. Apply here: jobs.gem.com/bluesky/am9i...

We're also looking for someone for a similar role to work on social media protocol for private groups and communities.

In light of recent controversy and its handling, the twice-a-year @fediforum.org unconference for April 1st and 2nd has been canceled by its organizer.

If you are running an open source or open internet project that’s being hobbled by AI crawlers, at @fastly.com, our Fast Forward program will protect you. We’ve already committed nearly $100M to supporting the open web, and we can help your project too. www.fastly.com/fast-forward …

Just to reiterate, this is @mmasnick.bsky.social insightful take on the lunacy of Dem Senators (or anyone for that matter) going along w/ the dumb idea of eliminating Sec. 230. This is a thinly veiled effort to enhance censorship, anti LGBTQ bigotry. Very bad idea. www.techdirt.com/2025/03/21/d...

Social Threat Modeling gets a shout-out from @kissane.bsky.social at the #ATmosphereConf! Here's some 2018 work with @digitalsista.bsky.social ... and great point about approaching it *collaboratively*. medium.com/a-change-is-...

This is why I’m such a big believer in non-extractive business models and steward-ownership (investment-friendly form of worker-owned business) as an antidote to hypercapitalism. blog.muni.town/weird-inc/

So, it took longer than expected to get around to this, but I finally wrote about my experience attending #FediverseHouse last week. It was really amazing, and I’m glad I went.

Great news for Bandcamp Pro or label account users! You can now link your Bandcamp subdomain to your Bluesky handle. This integration helps strengthen your online presence and makes it easier for fans to find you and your music. Here’s how to do it:

We tested out the new #Fediverse beta in Ghost, and wrote about our initial thoughts. There's a huge amount of potential, and it's already taking great shape.

Coinbase and Farcaster are teaming up, and aim to make a popular crypto wallet into a social client. Debut article by @reiver.bsky.social!

An interesting experiment is taking place within the #Fediverse: the development of small intentional communities that only connect to one another, and no one else.

We're pleased to share more info about the AT Protocol Community Fund. The fund exists to provide community & event support, fund grants, and support individuals and projects. It is fiscally hosted by the Raft Foundation, a 501c3. #ATCommunityFund

The Funkwhale music platform is alive and in active development, and they're working on a feature to filter far-right artists off the network. Some #Fediverse self-hosters are divided on letting a third party decide what should be allowed in their library.

#SXSW rollcall - please join us for an Austin community meetup (aka @pfrazee.com ATX reunion) downtown on Monday, March 10 from 5:30-7pm! RSVP here: lu.ma/rmbsgeuk. Also, if you have a SXSW badge, Jay will give a keynote on Monday: schedule.sxsw.com/2025/events/...

We will be attending Fediverse House, an event put together by @flipboard.com and @surf.social, on March 9th and 10th in Austin, Texas. Come out and say hi!

I wrote about the importance of tools that bring different platforms and protocols together and how I believe that's the future of an open social web owned by people, not platforms. www.augment.ink/bridges-the-...

Maybe you've spent some time on a #Fediverse community server and enjoyed it, but really wanted to start your own. What do you need? How do you do it? We wrote a guide just for you.

The organization behind critical pieces of Trust & Safety infrastructure in the #Fediverse is struggling to make ends meet. Here's what's going on, what the road ahead looks like, and how to help.