I can't see @mu.social without thinking of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MU_puzzle

Interested to see where this goes... FWIW, I do think tools that help individuals really control how they interface with the internet (like Cloudflare's, but also like AT Proto) will be on the winning side of the AI transition

Robin Berjon@robin.berjon.com · 4w ago

Imagine things being so bad that your best solution is to cut yourself off from Google Search traffic. I don't think that people realise just how much of a bad actor Google has been, for year. No other company has damaged the web nearly as much. 🧵 www.adweek.com/media/publis...

Been thinking about plc.directory as a single-point-of-failure So as a learning exercise, I threw together DIDMARC - an example of an independent witness for the directory 🔍 This approach uses Starknet to be fully trustless, but a trusted mirror could perform similar checks to identify abuse

Just finished @laurenshof.online's powerful piece: "No Change" It is a critical read But I'd push back a bit on the history; I think the sovereignty of nations has, by its nature, always been in flux. And the desire for decentralized "sovereignty" without the state is part of the same story 1/n

FR#166 – No Change

Many people in Europe see the open social web as a path to digital sovereignty. This week demonstrated a problem: the assumption that European governments actually want to be sovereign.

connectedplaces.online

Testing out @mu.social 👀

So a surprising benefit of running LLMs locally is that it has given me a chance to introduce the tech to my kids on more-or-less my own terms

If you are wondering about all the (open, free) tech that is needed to build something like Sifa... ... there's a page for that: sifa.id/credits

Was encouraged to see The European Social Stack announcement (https://european.social/). TLDR: this is good for more than just Europe.

Reflections on "Don't be evil"

European digital autonomy is a global good

blog.andyschwab.link

My first computers were backroom cast-offs: a TRS-80, XT 8088 clone, etc. Their limits, and the workarounds they demanded to make them useful, were my intro to CompSci Having a bit of that experience again getting open models running on (woefully) underspec'd edge devices - and it's kinda fun 😀

Running Qwen locally on a system that is clearly not designed for it reminds me of telnet chat over 1200baud modems... ...watching... the... words... appear... It is, nonetheless, exciting that it works! But I also need to upgrade some things

Hey! @bmann.ca and @trezy.codes are interested in a list of people that are available to do consulting / contracting work on ATproto, and we can share that list with companies that need you. If you want to appear on this list: 👇️

I just finished @robin.berjon.com's excellent deep dive on the "search levy" problem - and how to fix it Strongly recommend digging into the arguments & recommendations here; the report is a remarkable distillation of our moment I have thoughts, but need to sort them out before posting further 😅

Funding The Web: From Cartel to Covenant

The Web is slow-motion collapsing for multiple reasons, but at the heart of it all is a little known system: the Search/Browser Levy. Let's fix it!

ftw.fund

funding your upstream supply chain is in your enlightened self-interest

patak@patak.cat · 2mo ago

We've been working with folks from Cloudflare for a long time, and I've seen how important Vite is to them. It's telling that their first move is a $1M fund for maintainers in the ecosystem. Together with Vite's OC funds, this is a ton of support for independent devs. Massive waves ahead.

Valuable reflections on building trust.

David Gasquez@davidgasquez.com · 2mo ago

Really enjoyed this talk from @bcantrill.bsky.social on why trust _is_ infrastructure. youtu.be/WF7J7qtZ8TA Recommended watching!

the implication is that you also cannot build healthier social media by copying design choices that we know now consistently incentivize people to do this

Anuj Ahooja@quillmatiq.com · 2mo ago

You will not change someone's (especially a stranger's) mind by: 1. being rude 2. if you haven't understood the root of why they believe something 3. if you're quoting each other back and forth on a website that limits you to 300 characters per post

"Whatever word we use, I want it to preserve a clear division: humans on one side with responsibility, machines on the other as a boring tool."

Armin Ronacher@mitsuhiko.at · 2mo ago

More musings after some people got upset about the word clanker. lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/5/26/cl...

"When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, [giving] rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities." werd.io/the-pope-use...

The Pope used his first encyclical to warn about tech centralization

"When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, [giving] rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities."

werd.io

This has been Google's game for years, since well before LLMs. They treat any independent source of information as a bug which needs crushing. Want a solution that's better than just hoping that everyone just switches (which is hard)? I've got you covered: ftw.fund.

Funding The Web: A Wise Choice

The Web is slow-motion collapsing for multiple reasons, but at the heart of it all is a little known system: the Search/Browser Levy. Let's fix it!

ftw.fund

TechCrunch@techcrunch.com · 3mo ago

Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

What's verification on the open social web for? With @gui.do and @emily.space we put together a draft statement and roadmap for democratic account verification. For everyone, without IDs. The draft is here, please contribute and comment. Open until 31 May tangled.org/sherif.euros...

At @eurosky.social they don’t only offer to host your account. They also contribute to enriching the ecosystem by showcasing a library of applications, and they keep feeding the debate on ways to improve the whole infrastructure. Hats off to them!

Sherif EA@sherif.eurosky.social · 3mo ago

What's verification on the open social web for? With @gui.do and @emily.space we put together a draft statement and roadmap for democratic account verification. For everyone, without IDs. The draft is here, please contribute and comment. Open until 31 May tangled.org/sherif.euros...

I wish this weren't behind a paywall, but Ben Thompson's latest on Stratechery about AI Datacenters is brutal, and honest, and important: stratechery.com/2026/data-ce...

Data Center Discontent, Understanding the Opposition, Fixing the Problem

There are understandable reasons for people to oppose data centers; the only solution that will work is simply paying them off.

stratechery.com

Yes.

Eli Mallon@iame.li · 3mo ago

if it's public it should probably be on atproto

I... really appreciate this thread The PLC directory is a big, existential risk in a partitioned internet world (if, say, nations weaponized domain tld operator control) Addressing this risk has sticky trade-offs, but is important work long term

Edmund Edgar@goat.navy · 3mo ago

I think we already know how to do decentralized identity, the issue is that is has trade-offs, the most relevant ones here being 1. need for an RPC endpoint to resolve 2. blockchain cooties I guess people won't accept those trade-offs as long as the centralized thing seems to be working for them

To measure things honestly means "propagating the uncertainty" Incidentally, that is exactly what Agency Graphs are meant to do: github.com/sodal-projec...

Andrew Nesbitt@andrewnez.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 3mo ago

The Mismeasure of Open Source: https://nesbitt.io/2026/05/09/the-mismeasure-of-open-source.html

Europe needs independent social infrastructure, not just an app. This is what we're building. eurosky.tech/build/

I take a very long time composing stuff, and I can be, um, loquacious in my desire to be precise. In the past, I would double, triple, and quadruple check my content for typos and such. Now, I find I'm tempted to leave a few errors in, just so people know I didn't paste a prompt response 🙃

I think durable value generation has a unifying frame: restoring intuitive sense-making in the era of super-abundant information "feeds + ads" solved this with a trade-off: gain simplicity & context*, lose autonomy & control There are better equilibriums, and this post is a good place to start 👍

brendan@schlage.town · 3mo ago

Wrote up some thoughts on new *atmospheric generatives* Things that can generate value even in environments where everything can be copied, like: contextualization • fluidity • aggregation • relationality Riffing on a @kevinkelly.bsky.social piece from years ago; extending for the atmosphere!

Wrote up some thoughts on new *atmospheric generatives* Things that can generate value even in environments where everything can be copied, like: contextualization • fluidity • aggregation • relationality Riffing on a @kevinkelly.bsky.social piece from years ago; extending for the atmosphere!

On atmospheric generatives…

How can we build moats on an open network? How can we make money when all the data's free? Here, I sketch some ideas for new generatives — contextualization, fluidity, aggregation, and relationality — for value creation in the atmosphere.

scraps.schlage.town

New worker-owned #localnews outlet dropped in #Vancouver www.defactomedia.ca/welcome/

The act of ruthlessly stomping out my good intentions in a process colloquially known as "inbox zero" is... complete.

Indiana Jones Waving Farewell

Alt: An old man waving goodbye

static.klipy.com