Carl Sullivan (@csullivan.flipboard.social.ap.brid.gy)

Facing the Looming Threat of A.I., Publishers Turn to Decentralized Platforms [John Markoff in The New York Times] A lovely piece about Mike McCue, who, through Flipboard, Surf, and his general activities through the community, has become one of the open social web's most important figures. > "Three decades ago, as vice president of technology at the groundbreaking tech company Netscape, Mr. McCue helped democratize information access through the World Wide Web. Now, he’s positioning his company’s new Surf browser as part of a growing community of so-called decentralized social media options, alongside emerging platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon." Of course, Surf is different to Bluesky and Mastodon: it sits across them, rather than an alternative to them, and demonstrates the power of the open social web by treating them both as just part of a single, connected experience. This is the point that A New Social is making too: it's not about picking a protocol, because the protocols can easily be joined together. It's about an open social web that we all own together versus a series of closed, corporate silos with private ownership. It's gaining momentum: > "In addition to Meta’s decision to base Threads on ActivityPub, news organizations like Bloomberg and the BBC have begun experimenting with the technology, as have blogging platforms such as Medium, WordPress and Ghost." The piece goes on to describe the enthusiasm among early adopters as being similar to the first few years of the web itself. I was there for both things, and I agree. And let me tell you: I am _beyond_ enthusiastic. #Fediverse [Link] https://werd.io/2025/facing-the-looming-threat-of-ai-publishers-turn-to-decentralized