Causal Islands Conference
@causalislands.com
The future of computing - Berlin, October 2024 https://berlin.causalislands.com/ - San Francisco, Tiny Talks, Aug 2024 - LA Community Edition, March 2024 - Toronto, April 2023 “Advocating widespread dissatisfaction with computing”
Tickets for Local-First Conf 2026 are now on sale July 12–14 · Berlin · 300 people · single track Theme: user empowerment in an age of fluid software. We're going beyond CRDTs and sync. If you're building for user agency, this is your conference. Tickets live now → localfirstconf.com
We’ve got a save the date announcement today for this year’s Local-First Conf @localfirstconf.com - July 11th to 14th in Berlin. We’re supporting the conference & leaning into some “Day 3” content with some malleable software and other topics. Add your email to be notified!
Local-First Conf 2026
Join us for the third edition of Local-First Conf. Connect with a rapidly-growing community in an intimate setting. Berlin 12-14th July 2026.
localfirstconf.com
Check out @chadfowler.com's new blog, "The Phoenix Architecture". What if software was continuing to be rebuilt?
Chad Fowler@chadfowler.com · 10mo ago
The third path here -- beyond personal computers or renting them from the cloud -- is walkable mixed density co-op computing. @paul-rony.bsky.social covers this in "From groups to individuals, micro-computing and us", @causalislands.com Berlin. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJjR...
From groups to individuals, micro-computing and us, Paul Rony
YouTube video by Causal Islands
youtube.com
Chris Person@papapishu.bsky.social · 10mo agoIf you pay attention to any large industry long enough and follow it to its logical conclusion you eventually end up sounding like a communist even if you started off testing CPU case fans. youtu.be/cUrJVdF2me0?...
I've been trying to articulate why the fawning, complimentary responses from AI chatbots feel so insidious to me. I've finally figured out how to explain it. Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...
A Treatise on AI Chatbots Undermining the Enlightenment
On chatbot sycophancy, passivity, and the case for more intellectually challenging companions
maggieappleton.com
Welcome to Bluesky @automerge.org I'm glad you're consistent and not conflicted.
Automerge@automerge.org · last yr.We're not late to the Bluesky party, we got here *eventually*! At least we're being consistent 🤓
Want to hear about the latest in Automerge? Come join the Community Call Kickoff on August 20 (and sign up for the calendar while you're at it!) lu.ma/zv6tpuu4
Automerge Community Call · Luma
☀️ Automerge Community Call Kickoff! 🌿🍉 Celebrate the season and kick off something new with our new Automerge Community Call! We’re gathering for a relaxed,…
lu.ma
One more week to submit to LIVE, one of my favourite conferences! Let's see your "new user interfaces that improve the immediacy, usability, and learnability of programming" liveprog.org
Josh Horowitz@joshuahhh.com · last yr.One week until MONDAY, JULY 21st, which I call "LIVE Workshop Christmas". (It's Christmas for me and the PC, cuz we get to look at all the cool stuff you submit! I guess for you it's more like "the submission deadline".) liveprog.org
Automerge 3 is here: the heart transplant is complete! Huge improvements in memory usage and (in most cases) correspondingly big performance improvements too. Backwards compatible on disk and the network so there's no reason not to upgrade today: automerge.org/blog/automer...
Automerge 3.0 | Automerge CRDT
Automerge is a local-first data sync engine that makes it easy to build collaborative apps. Today we're excited to announce version 3.0 of Automerge!
automerge.org
We had @geoffreylitt.com join us in Toronto back in 2023. Today he’s releasing the Malleable Software essay with the @inkandswitch.com team.
Ink & Switch@inkandswitch.com · last yr.Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps www.inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea...
New longform @inkandswitch.com essay! 📜 Malleable Software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps by me, @joshuahhh.com, @pvh.ca and @seaofclouds.com inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea... It's about why people need agency over their software tools, and how to make that happen.
Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps
The original promise of personal computing was a new kind of clay. Instead, we got appliances: built far away, sealed, unchangeable. In this essay, we envision malleable software: tools that users can...
inkandswitch.com
As a kid, I learned to program in HyperCard, a fantastic thing from Apple in the 1990s which empowered normal people to make homemade software. Last fall @pontus.granstrom.me started exploring and reinterpreting these ideas for 2025. Excited to share our writeup: pontus.granstrom.me/scrappy/
Scrappy
make little apps for you and your friends
pontus.granstrom.me
New thing! @jrcpl.us and I have been exploring home-made software. We made a prototype of a tool for making scrappy little apps for you and your friends. pontus.granstrom.me/scrappy/
Scrappy
make little apps for you and your friends
pontus.granstrom.me
If you’re in NYC and curious about checking out Folk Computer we’re having another open house event Saturday, May 31! lu.ma/ydi03zax
🏵️ Folk Computer May Open House · Luma
From 1:30pm to 2:30pm, we'll be giving tours of the current state of Folk, our physical computing system. At 2:30pm, we'll give a short talk about our last…
lu.ma
Check out the first of @grjte.sh posts about combining #localfirst software - using @inkandswitch.com’s Automerge + Tiny Essay Editor - with ATProto for Lexicon data typing and public distribution. I’m excited to read all the write ups about the Groundmist project!
grjte@grjte.sh · last yr.10/ atproto + local-first software unlocks new possibilities. Your writing, voice notes, fitness data - all can be private by default, but effortlessly shared. If you're working on similar topics, I'd love to hear from you. 👉 Read the post: whtwnd.com/grjte.sh/3ln...
if you'll be in Berlin for @localfirstconf.com and are sticking around after... the Userandagents.com community is hosting a casual space for #localfirst people to hang / hack / chat for the Thurs/Fri after the conference! registration and more info: lu.ma/v457jxp2
USER * AGENTS * BERLIN · Luma
The User & Agents community invites you to come hang out and make things together for TWO WHOLE DAYS following Local-First Conf 2025 in Berlin! We'll be coming…
lu.ma
Our new research track is called Universal Version Control and it's about exploring how to bring the power of version control to every person, on every kind of document and every kind of collaboration. www.inkandswitch.com/universal-ve...
Universal Version Control
Industrial research lab working on digital tools for creativity and productivity
inkandswitch.com
For anyone going to @localfirstconf.com, don’t forget about the pre-conference Localfirst community day lu.ma/v8ggp0u9?tk=...
Local-first Conf 2025 - Community Day · Luma
RSVP here to attend the pre-conference community day with workshops and unconference activities. More details to follow but RSVP to get your place and save the…
lu.ma
ONE WEEK UNTIL THE LONDON ALGORAVE You can buy a ticket here for an early bird price before it goes up tomorrow lu.ma/ig4y8mii - Ticket revenue goes towards venue and artists - Event is listed in two places for maximum reach and inclusion! please only buy in one place :) - The night will be good
Algorave at Corsica Studios · Luma
It's time for another Algorave Algorave Algorave Algorave Algo— Room One features the usual combination of awesome live coded visuals and audio. While Room…
lu.ma
Notes from the Lab - March 2025 Custom HTML attributes, space transforms, peer-to-peer WebRTC + DOM sync, and much more! github.com/folk-systems...
This is the logo for a new Ink & Switch research track. What are your guesses for the name of this research area?
I recently had a great chat with @rebeccahiscott.bsky.social at the Creative Independent. You can read the interview here…
Multi-disciplinary artist Jack Rusher on the need to sustain your creative drive in the face of technological change – The Creative Independent
Multi-disciplinary artist Jack Rusher discusses habit as excellence, what scientists and artists have in common, and the influence of AI on creativity.
thecreativeindependent.com
The first Sync SF is happening on Monday, March 17th https://lu.ma/sync-sf Kyle Mathews - Electric, Gatsby Sam Bhagwat - Mastra, Gatsby J Chris Anderson - Fireproof, Couchbase Natalie Vais - Google Firestore, Spark Capital Jack McCloy - Snowflake Yonatan Feleke - Vella, lofi.software
Sync SF · Luma
Interesting in building products on a local-first / sync engine architecture? Come along to the first Sync SF, a meetup to learn and talk about better ways of…
lu.ma
What if hypertext were zoomable? Then you could zoom forever, in circles... I made this the other day and came up with a data structure that allows the coordinate origin to move through the graph, to keep memory fixed and avoid floating point precision limits. folk.systems/canvas/space...
There are folks in the @causalislands.com orbit that have been talking about this for several years. Here’s a presentation by @geoffreylitt.com who is exploring malleable software youtu.be/bJ3i4K3hefI
Dynamic documents as personal software - Geoffrey Litt
YouTube video by Fission
youtu.be
