It’s almost time to say goodbye to the @newsmastfoundation.org home for the last two days - the #ONA26 Midway. We’ve had lots of conversations about audience engagement, community, and building social networks for journalism. We look forward to rolling out pilots in the US over the coming year.

What may be the most heartening part of #AtmosphereConf, besides the community, is that it's a *technical* conference at which people present on politics, authoritarianism, epistemic challenges (in the opening keynote!). Because, for technologists, *that's* the job.

@kissane.myatproto.social keynoting to rapt attention.

Next week, we'll be at the Online News Association's annual conference 🗞️ @michael.eurosky.social will be joined by @jaz.co.uk as they look to introduce news audiences in the US to the power of the Social Web through their own custom news + social apps. #ONA26 #Journalism

It's finally here! The new Newsmast Foundation website 🎉 Our new website focuses on our Apps for Change programme which is bringing real values-aligned organisations and groups to the Social Web. Check it out 👇 newsmastfoundation.org

Here's an update and re-introduction to @newsmastfoundation.org . We're building community apps and platforms in five flavours: news, content creators, professional networks, hyper-local and local language. In the UK, Germany, Brazil, Africa, Canada and the US. www.blog-pat.ch/your-communi...

Join us in London on Feb 4-5, 2026 to discuss how we can preserve an open, equitable web, where no one company holds the keys. Here are the initial announcements 🎉 #ProtocolsForPublishers protocolsforpublishers.com/pfp-london-d...

Local news and community in one app 📱 We are incredibly excited and, honestly, really proud to be launching The Bristol Cable iOS app with @thebristolcable.bsky.social today. If you're a Cable member, check it out! #SocialMedia #DigitalCommunity

This week, @playawfulthings.bsky.social & @michaelfoster.bsky.social are heading to Germany for the European Digital Sovereignty Summit and @eurosky.social Live 💫 Links to learn more about each event are below 👇 #SocialWeb #Eurosky #DigitalSovereignty

Can we build an internet centered around human rights? I sat down with @mallory.techpolicy.social.ap.brid.gy to talk about building the social web for all of us. youtu.be/BBrJpbN4Lw4?...

I'm so psyched about @bonfire.bonfire.cafe.ap.brid.gy's work on making the open social internet good for real communities by putting in the culture work right from the very beginning. I'm a scavenger and a pragmatist *and also* I think the way we do things matters. www.wrecka.ge/sparks-fly-up/

Really excited about Bonfire's launch! Along with their first release, they started a fundraiser for their roadmap, which includes projects with us at @anew.social to integrate with Bridgy Fed and Bounce 🙂 More details coming in a blog post next week! Check out their fundraiser here:

What we’re witnessing is pure intimidation masked as performative politics. The chaos in cities like Chicago isn’t just a spectacle; it’s calculated cruelty aimed at making blue strongholds kneel to fear. We won’t stand for this attempt to undermine our democratic values. #politics #democracy

Writing about why the existence of Bounce is so personal for me, and it's been tough to relive memories of the communities I've lost. The web is a beautiful place, but it's always at risk of being stolen from us. I feel so fortunate to be a part of a coalition of builders + users fighting for it.

I was at the Thompson Reuters Trust Conference last week. Blinded by AI and blindsided by Trump, liberal institutions are in survival mode. How can those of us working in the Open Social Web fight back? Sarah Connor offers inspiration. www.blog-pat.ch/the-end-of-l...

“The ecosystems we have today offer plentiful ways for people who care about community self-governance to support the work of building out viable systems for high-context governance and connecting them together” - tiny quote from an insightful piece. techpolicy.press/trump-admini...

Really excited to roll out Bounce Beta 2 today! Now you can migrate your Mastodon account to any existing Bluesky, Blacksky, or any other ATProto account 🚀

This is so important and organizing on the open social web may be the most vital, free, and billionaire-proof places left to do digital organizing. #nokings

Vital, highly condensed, very well prioritized stuff on why the open social web matters so much—and how it can help people do the necessary work of society in our very rough moment—from @ben at #fediforum. The keynote is being recorded and I'm so glad, because I will be recommending it widely.

A Monday morning reminder to support @blackskyweb.xyz, @transrights.northsky.social, @slices.network, and anyone else building AppViews/AppView infra. We need redundant spaces yesterday, and these folks are doing the legwork to make it happen.

As #Fediforum is tomorrow, and covers both #ATProto, #ActivtyPub and other open social web dev tech, good to remined all that I have the BlueSky feed for this live and updated: bsky.app/profile/did:... cc: @surf.social #surffeeds

While the newest drama is playing itself out, here’s a great opportunity for us to lay an old one to rest: github.com/swicg/activi... @thisismissem.social has jumped in with an open and collaborative spirit already. If @danabra.mov can check in here too, we can bury this 🥩 and *get on with it.*

If the last three years of decentralized social media has taught me anything, it's that protocol just doesn't move the needle for regular folks, no matter the technical benefits. But the people who work on the technical end are really into it. Getting them to meet in the middle is hard. (Thread 🧵)

Safely landed and posting from my own PDS 🛬😌

Things are coming together at @newsmastfoundation.org. Here’s the big idea we’re working on: What if every community could have their own social platform, driven by an own-branded mobile app, as easy to build as Facebook Groups? #Fediverse #SocialMedia #Community www.blog-pat.ch/building-app...

Bluesky Rome on #Flashes

On big social platforms, moderation is a black box: if you get deplatformed, there’s little explanation & no one to talk to. Blacksky is different. Community-led moderation means real people, real accountability, and rules shaped by the community. Ep with @rude1.blacksky.team & @rabble.nz out now.

some thoughts on explaining atproto by comparing it to news wire services like AP or Reuters (h/t @seabass.bsky.social)

Power is the rock on which truth founders. The mainstream media, with a few exceptions, is a single-issue lobby group, whose purpose is to assert the rights of capital. Here's what I've learnt about the industry in 40 years in journalism. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

I'll be speaking at the Stop Trump demo in Parliament Square today. A fascist autocratic clearly itching to declare martial law is not welcome here. share.google/sWEe8YGl3euj...

Users today want instant immersion. From Blacksky to a hometown Group, Anisota to the Provincetown Indie, feed readers to blogging newsletters, there are collective, curated ways to create immersive online experiences, connecting users to communities. www.blog-pat.ch/homes-from-h...

I'm so excited for our Bounce Beta launch today, not just because everyone can finally try it out, but also because of the foundations it lays for what we can build next. (1/4🧵)

Hello WAFRN! #punk youtu.be/iaT9QDw4YNo?...

"The tech products, curation, content, education and support are all part of a bigger process of community onboarding, building and growth." - @michaelfoster.bsky.social Part 3 is live now! This one takes a look at the Newsmast Foundation and our work 👀 www.blog-pat.ch/newsmast-unp... #SocialWeb

@newsmastfoundation.org has many moving parts, and it hasn’t always been clear how it all fits together. Now we’re aiming to simplify things. Slow down, become comfortable with what we’re doing, and fit it all together in one #SocialWeb onboarding programme. www.blog-pat.ch/newsmast-unp...

"The more the Fediverse can be baked into systems already in use, as with the Wordpress plugin and Ghost 6.0, the easier it will be to make connections without platform or protocol battles." - @michaelfoster.bsky.social Part 2 of the post-FediCon blog series is out now! Check it 👇 #SocialMedia

The most piratical thought at FediCon was presented by @j12t.org Stop battling oligarch-owned big-tech walled gardens in their own space, where they have all the power. Move away, to open, unexplored territories. Third Spaces mix this growth with a grassroots vibe. www.blog-pat.ch/third-spaces...

I spent the day with Curtis Yarvin and the "dissident right" at a garden party in Surrey and wrote quite a few words about it. My cover story for today’s FT Magazine on.ft.com/4ooXS4t [GIFT LINK! 🎁]

Being part of nature is good for us. A nature writer and lecturer has spent 15 years rewilding land in Essex and says that even small acts of renaturing can impact on our well-being and local wildlife. @eastangliabylines.co.uk

"At FediCon, as much happened in the cafes, bars and lobbies around the conference hall as during the talks. Lots of servers in the Fediverse are patches, or Third Spaces. They’re communities." Read Paths & Patches by @michaelfoster.bsky.social www.blog-pat.ch/patches-path... #SocialMedia #Fedi

Patches, paths and The Matrix. First thoughts from FediCon, a vibrant #Fediverse gathering in Vancouver on 1-2 August 2025, put together by @reiver.bsky.social and team. Part II and III to follow. Thank you to all who organised, presented and attended. It was fun! www.blog-pat.ch/patches-path...

Media Revolution is a campaign by @media-revolution.bsky.social to transform the global media landscape and we are so proud to be involved 🙌 Launching today, the campaign aims to build coordinated awareness and action for 100 days. Learn more here: mediarevolution.org #MediaRevolution

Newsmast × Bonfire We’re excited to share that Newsmast and @bonfire.indieweb.social.ap.brid.gy are working together! #Announcement #SocialWeb #Fediverse

I'm biased but Channels can be so much fun. Giving the Fediverse the ability to create custom feeds just as you can here on Bluesky. I've talked through the experience and why I love it so much on my latest blog, featuring @trees.channel.org forbetter.ghost.io/channel-magic/ #CustomFeeds #Fedi

Had a great time at @atproto.london last night! Thanks again @aendra.com and @davenash.com - lovely to meet you both and everyone else who attended 🥰

Oh, the irony www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🗣️ PEOPLE, NOT PLATFORMS So excited to finally drop our first batch of merch! We've been asked by so many people to throw our motto onto *all the things*, so we hope you love them as much as we do! I've been wearing my hoodie literally everywhere. Check out the store here: store.anew.social

I just bought my tickets to this year’s #Fediforum, and if you care about the Open Social Web - both Bluesky and Mastodon/Fediverse enabled offerings and beyond—you should too. Very worth your time.