Sander van der Waal
@sander.eurosky.social
Research Director at Waag Futurelab, Amsterdam
The first era of Blacksky was building community. The next era of Blacksky is building coalitions. Blacksky to the world and back. 🌍 @jdot.blacksky.team
Blacksky Algorithms@blackskyweb.xyz · last mo.Our very own @jdot.blacksky.team is representing Blacksky at the Dutch “Day of the Community Economy” (DE DAG VAN DE GEMEENSCHAPS-ECONOMIE) held at Oosterpark, Amsterdam In solidarity with the other initiatives envisioning new futures Learn more about the event here dagvandegemeenschapseconomie.nl
Neighbourliness is a shared understanding that we exist in a network of obligations and have some responsibilities to one another #WSocial wecanjustdothings.leaflet.pub/3movp4n7tgc2e
W Social and the ancient art of neighbourliness
Good behaviour matters more than good code
wecanjustdothings.leaflet.pub
Wonder if a Tweetdeck for the Atmosphere would make sense now. Once upon a time that was a great dashboard for the Twitterverse.. is anyone working on this? @eurosky.social ?
So I've been trying to understand the legal structure that W Social has to better understand the separation between W Identity and W Social, and it's quickly looking like it's all for show.
"but where are all the bluesky instances?" i've heard this so many times that i wrote an explainer
There Are No Instances in atproto — overreacted
Like RSS and Google Reader.
overreacted.io
🚨 BREAKING: Overnight in Brussels We sent a clear message to EU leaders: 📣”Fight for us, not for Trump's billionaires.”
This was definitely NOT on my bingo card for this year: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen taking a moment between G7 meetings to promote the launch of the closed-source, for-profit network #WSocial. 🔗 : web.archive.org/web/20260617... It may be a harbinger of things to come
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
The inaction of European governments to Musk's repeated calls for violence are abhorrent. This by @laurenshof.online is a fantastic analysis of the complacency they demonstrate by continuing to use and platform X:
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
Hi! I'm Bret Rhett Chet, here to tell you why you should buy and hodl SpaceX stonk. For a mere $135/share, you get pro forma tangible book value of $7.85/share, an immediate 94% dilution. New investors are putting up 48% of all capital ever invested in SpaceX in exchange for 4.2% of the shares. /1
At the presentation of the first Open Social Awards it's @robin.berjon.com who gives the best description of the Open Social Web: where European Parliament is concerned with the democracy shield, we need a democracy sword! And that's what the Open Social Web can be!
If you’re enjoying #pubconf2026 from afar, talks are streaming here https://stream.place/publicspaces.net @publicspaces
@publicspaces.net's livestream on streamplace node
PublicSpaces conference 2026
stream.place
As expected, @kissane.myatproto.social’s talk - about how to build structures that resist the dissolution of democracy - is phenomenal. Seek it out when it gets posted and spread it far and wide. We need it. #pubconf2026
Matrix, eurosky.social, mastodon, Public Nodes all in the room at the European Commission discussing EU’s future of social media
🚨 NEW REPORT: EU handing industry #Permission2Pollute 🚨 At the request of oil&gas, mining + BigTech lobbyists, the Commission is ripping up permitting rules to fast-track polluting projects like pipelines, mines + data centres. Read more corporateeurope.org/en/2026/05/permission-pollute 👇 🧵 1/6
Permission to Pollute | Corporate Europe Observatory
New report on how the European Commission is weakening permitting rules to fast-track polluting projects, such as mines, CO2 pipelines and data centres.
corporateeurope.org
Goed nieuws: we zijn verhuisd naar Eurosky! Onze persoonlijke data draait nu niet meer op servers van Bluesky, maar op de server van dit gemeenschappelijke Europese initiatief. Op deze manier bouwen we samen een netwerk dat van gebruikers is, niet van big tech. Doe je mee? waag.org/nl/article/w...
Waag | Waarom wij onze Bluesky data hebben verhuisd naar Eurosky
Onze aanwezigheid in te ATmosphere – het protocol van Bluesky - is niet langer afhankelijk van de standaardinfrastructuur van het platform. In plaats daarvan draait onze data nu op de Personal Data Se...
waag.org
“decentralization is a win for everyone” 🤝 It’s a big sky and we only win by working together
Daniel Supernault@dansup.bsky.social · 4mo agoSome of us in the ActivityPub world feel jealous of AtProto’s success (like me). But more decentralization is a win for everyone. With Bridgy from @anew.social connecting protocols, this isn’t competition, it’s momentum. We’re stronger together, so let’s build the social web humanity deserves 🚀
🚨 New report from People vs Big Tech: Algorithms on X & TikTok disproportionately push content from far right parties to new users, squeezing out moderate parties. EU & French authorities must enforce the Digital Services Act to protect democracy. peoplevsbig.tech/x-and-tiktok...
X and TikTok algorithms favour the far right at the expense of moderate parties - People vs. Big Tech
Paris, March 10, 2026 – Just days before the first round of the municipal elections, a new investigation by the nonprofit organization People vs. Big Tech
peoplevsbig.tech
Statement EU Commission on U.S. decision to impose travel restrictions on certain EU individuals: "The EU is an open, rules-based single market, with the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in line with our democratic values and international commitments." ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
It's time for Europe to recognise what the American National Security strategy means for us. This clip from Merz shows the kind of words we need from our European leaders. Let's hope 1. they get repeated everywhere and 2. they will be followed by action
(((Tendar)))@tendar.bsky.social · 8mo agoGerman Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the end of the Pax Americana, yesterday in Munich, Germany. “Dear friends, the decades of the Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe, and for us in Germany, as well. It no longer exists as we know it. And nostalgia won’t change that.
It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵
Today I'm at the launch of the EDIC Digital Commons. A collaboration between the govs of NL, DE, FR, IT and other countries to jointly work on open source initiatives that improve our Digital autonomy in Europe. Exciting to see all the talk of Digital Sovereignty put into practice!
My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’
Jonathan Kingham@jonkingh.bsky.social · 8mo agoThis is so disgusting.
Catherine Tait, Philipp Schild, @amlung.bsky.social, @sandervdwaal.bsky.social and @ivansigal.bsky.social discussed how interoperable infrastructure can reinvent media’s relationship with audiences, break down platform monopolies and preserve journalistic independence. vimeo.com/1140417552?s...
Panel: Owning the Pipeline - European Media in Interoperable Distribution
Owning the Pipeline - European Media in Interoperable Distribution with Philipp Schild (Funk); Catherine Tait (New_Public); Robert Amlung (ZDF); Sander van der Waal…
vimeo.com
I spent the day at #EuroskyLive and it is so energizing to hear developers make a better case for European innovation and competition policy than a whole high-level summit on digital sovereignty yesterday...
"What we see with media organisations is that they have to go to YouTube and TikTok to find their audiences but then they get shadowbanned when they mention genocide." — @sandervdwaal.bsky.social #EuroskyLive