The first step towards creating a better future is taking the time to imagine one. So, as digital optimistics, we loved to see what our friends at Press Forward have envisioned for a better local news in ✨2036✨

@baratunde.com, host of the How To Citizen podcast, explains what makes our new app Roundabout different: “It's really about finding your neighbors and doing stuff together instead of performing for followers you'll never meet. And it's pretty important that the business model is non-extractive.”

New_ Public Co-director @eli.bsky.social tells legendary @pbsnews.org anchor Judy Woodruff why we need flourishing digital spaces that serve the public, beyond just the for-profit platforms making hundreds of billions from our data.

Want to get more involved in socially responsible tech and improving digital public spaces? We love the great work happening at the Prosocial Tech Collab! They recently updated their website, laying out the resources and community available to those interested in this field. prosocialtech.org/

What is the relationship between social media and memory? As our digital footprint ages with us, nostalgia becomes more common. Some comment sections have become rare sources of warmth on the internet.

Social infrastructure makes our communities more resilient and safer. It also prevents isolation and inequality, connecting neighbors and building social trust and belonging. What if we had digital spaces as vibrant and flourishing as the best IRL social infrastructure?

Do you have a YouTube video you love just for the comments? For journalist @jessicafurseth.bsky.social, YouTube’s searchable platform can be a doorway to genuine interest and human connection across the web. Share your favorite video with us – it just might become someone else’s new favorite video!

New_ Public Co-Directors @deeptidoshi.bsky.social and @eli.bsky.social on the kinds of deeper local connection you can sometimes find in the local paper. We’re building Roundabout, our prosocial community app, to foster local connection online and bring people together offline. joinroundabout.com

New_ Public Co-Director @eli.bsky.social notes that with generative AI, unlike social media, there’s a lot of portability: “It was never true that you could download a copy of Facebook on your laptop to use however you wanted.” This is a new dynamic!

What brought you to the internet? Before the algorithm, before AI brainrot, it was probably a desire to connect and be seen. Journalist @jessicafurseth.bsky.social shows us that human connection persists in the comments sections of YouTube’s longest, oldest, anti-algorithmic videos.

Yes, we need rules to regulate social media, but new rules on old, Big Tech platforms can only go so far. We need new platforms, new infrastructure, and a lot of ingenuity to make something better. joinroundabout.com

What kind of an internet is possible outside of Big Tech’s profit incentives and surveillance? For journalist and editor @chezpanique.bsky.social, it would look a little weirder (cyberpunk computer games, anyone?) and a bit more hand-drawn and creative.

Americans drastically overestimate how many people are posting toxic content. When shown that only about 3-7% of Redditors post hateful or aggressive comments, participants think better of their fellow posters. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

When writer and tech entrepreneur @anildash.com first heard about Wikipedia, his reaction was: “Well… good luck to those guys.” That was 25 years ago. Now, he recognizes Wikipedia’s unbelievable collective generosity and reflects on how it’s adapted to each new era of the internet.

Europeans should be able to shape their own online spaces, which is why we’ve been working with public service media in Switzerland, Belgium, and Germany over four years. Now, open, decentralized protocols like Activity Pub and AT Protocol represent a new avenue for European digital sovereignty.

A majority of Americans (72%!) report a sense of belonging in their local communities and neighborhoods, according to Social Connection in America’s latest survey report. This is why we’re building Roundabout, our local community app. socialconnectioninamerica.org/2025-report/

How do we build more escape hatches from closed Big Tech social media? @fediforum.org is looking for ideas on how to grow the Open Social Web! Submit a position paper for their Un-workshop by Feb. 16th, hosted by @j12t.org and @mmasnick.bsky.social: fediforum.org/2026-03-grow...

A thread worth reading

AT Protocol, the infrastructure powering Bluesky, “represents one of the most concrete opportunities for Europe to create their own social networking infrastructure,” says Dutch data analyst Laurens Hof (@laurenshof.online). Here are four case-studies on European projects that give us hope:

As we confirm speakers & talks, we're also extending travel support offers. With @newpublic.org coming on as a parter, we have dedicated support for Europe travel. Not to be outdone, @bsky.app has increased their commitment and having some folks from Japan join us. More detail on this soon!

We've got a huge list of updates ahead of the end of early bird tickets, including announcing confirmed workshops for Thursday & Friday

Great summary of the current situation.

Our research into local digital spaces shows that community stewards, the admins and mods who care for these spaces, make a real difference! That’s why Roundabout, our local community app in closed beta, is organized around stewardship.

I wrote for New_Public, about European projects building on atproto

We're thrilled to announce that New_ Public is supporting the upcoming #ATmosphereConf, the global conference for AT Protocol. Join @atprotocol.dev on March 26-29 in Vancouver, BC – early bird tickets are still available!

Decentralized protocols like Activitypub and AT Protocol seem to be reaching a new level of maturity. @rude1.blacksky.team and Co.’s Blacksky is an inspiring example of how a community can grow organically, secure independent infrastructure, and reimagine self-governance.

Ok, yes, the state of the social internet is not ideal. We’re so numb to horrific violations of decency and disrespect, that we mostly accept that “this is just how it is.” But here are some thriving spaces and powerful ideas we discovered last year that give us hope for 2026 and beyond✨ 🧵👇(1/6)

Join Blaine Cook, New_ Public’s Principal Software Engineer for Roundabout, at a @getdweb.net virtual meetup this Wednesday from 1-2pm EST Blaine will present on Roundabout, our new local community app! Folks from @awana.digital and @dod.ngo will also present.

Many Europeans want to be free of American and Chinese Big Tech apps. Open, decentralized protocols like ActivityPub (powering Mastodon) and AT Protocol (powering Bluesky) may be the key to a new sovereign social media infrastructure.

Happy 25th birthday @wikipedia.org! 🥳 Celebrate the collaborative internet experiment that shouldn’t have worked (but somehow did) through this interactive look at Wikipedia’s journey.

DWeb Virtual Meetup: Latest from the DWeb Ecosystem — featuring @mauve.moe of @awana.digital, @blaine.bsky.social of @newpublic.org, & @l5y.tech of @dod.ngo Join us next week, Wed Jan 28 10 am PT / 1pm ET / 19 CET Register here >>> www.eventbrite.com/e/dweb-virtu...

I did a lil video tour of my favourite indie web haunts with the lovely people at @newpublic.org

If you’re feeling trapped within the Big Tech apps you rely on, Canadian tech critic @parismarx.com shares his list of global alternatives and his progress in trying to divest. “It’s not an easy task to reject services that have become so ubiquitous and are made to be easy to use.”

Everyone’s posting about 2016, with a heavy dose of nostalgia. In 2016, Instagram switched their default feed from purely reverse chronological feed to algorithmically-sorted. In retrospect, this marks the beginning of a shift towards a passive, spoon-fed internet. Design matters for connection.

The Internet is alive! @chezpanique.bsky.social builds on her viral newsletter and takes us on a tour of the indie web. These are hand-coded, independent websites, outside the walled gardens created by tech giants. “It’s a canvas for boundless creativity and really you can be yourself.”

You never know what’s going to happen in the comments. Here, over a decade ago, a commenter on a Times of London article bore their soul, and other commenters showed up for them. @benwhitelaw.bsky.social l says, “I believe in the comments, and I think they have a future.”

Hi @newpublic.org, we've since posted a write-up of why that Danish study got us convinced: www.prosocialdesign.org/blog/we-find...

Last chance to be part of our 2025 survey – we’d love to hear your thoughts and questions about New_ Public, what you’d like to see us focus on in 2026, and your experience accessing information in your local community.

This is what we’re thinking about right now. Let’s peel the onion together 🧅 New_ Public Co-Director @eli.bsky.social wants your opinion: How will we be talking to each other online in two years?

Rather than settle for the status quo of social media, artist and writer @joshuacitarella.bsky.social imagines a truly “public” platform, as useful and universal as the post office. What’s possible when we disconnect from the underlying business incentives that have shaped the social internet?

Have you noticed that a lot of news sites are restarting or reimagining their comment sections? Which news orgs are doing comments exceptionally well right now? www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/news...

Why are we disconnected, and how could we reconnect? The US Chamber of Connection just released the Social Connection Index, a “practical, data-backed blueprint for rebuilding social bonds, trust, and belonging across communities.” Take a closer look at the full report:

Last year, we shared a lot of innovative research findings showing that having meaningful connection and conversation on social media isn’t a lofty dream — it’s possible! Here are some of our favorite studies from 2025. 🔬🦠💬

We need far more new, independent, and sustainable infrastructure for social media! Welcome!

Our friends at the @prosocialdesign.bsky.social recently updated the effectiveness of apps for regulating your time spent on social media, like @hankgreen.bsky.social’s Focus Friend, from “tentative” to “convincing” based on new research from Denmark. www.prosocialdesign.org/library/digi...

In the 2010s, too many newsrooms shuttered their comments sections. But now there’s a mini renaissance happening, according to @benwhitelaw.bsky.social. He ran the comment section for the Times of London, and learned firsthand about its value (in building community, and revenue!)

For Ctrl-Alt-Speech, @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and I are putting together a bingo card for 2026 news regarding online speech, content moderation, and internet regulation. What should we include?

Big fan of @brihreed.bsky.social's Nieman Lab prediction and the way he unpacks his own changing mindset about social media regulation in the US. Go and read, then fight your way through the other 200+ predictions www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/jour...

How did Belfast, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo double down on social infrastructure? By creating a network of … 👐 Havens 🌉 Hubs and 🛹 Hangouts What would that look like online? www.gehlpeople.com/projects/soc...

To reach a healthy social media ecosystem that serves the public, not billionaires, we’re gonna need a lot of new ideas and tools. Our friends at @metagov.bsky.social have been funding new governance systems that allow for community agency and value community stewards. More is needed!