Dot Social

What do TikTok, Mark Cuban and Bluesky have in common? Skylight. When the future of TikTok was thrown into question in January 19, 2025, Skylight CEO Tori White and her co-founder/CTO Reed Harmeyer saw a moment and seized on it.  But they took a new approach, one that puts creators in charge of their content, their audience relationships, and their reach. Giving creators all of the control and fun, and none of the uncertainty, fuels Tori’s mission.  Today, Skylight is a great example of the open social at work, bringing videos from across the AT protocol community into a single experience people can enjoy. The conversation includes: • Skylight’s origin story • Making the case to creators to join the social web • Benefits of ecosystem collaboration, like live-streaming and feeds • Social web tipping point • Monetization models  • What’s next for Skylight  • Financial sustainability, decentralizing resources Mentioned in this episode: Skylight Social Repurpose.io Creator Bill of Rights 🔎 You can find Tori at @buildwithtori https://www.buildwithtori.com/  ✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social.   🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/

AltStore co-founders Riley Testut and Shane Gill are the perfect example of necessity being the mother of invention. When Apple denied the launch of their retro video game app, Delta, in 2016, they realized that indie app developers needed another solution — one that could bring apps to communities without Apple dictating the rules and taking a cut.  Founded in 2019, AltStore is that solution. The creators of the first decentralized app store share their journey, including what an open app store means for developers and how they’re investing in the fediverse. The conversation includes: 1:11 Genesis of AltStore 3:00 Getting Delta in Apple’s App Store 5:34 The Fortnite factor 8:10 The value of an alternative app store 12:04 The difference between putting an app in AltStore v App Store  14:41 Indie market for apps 18:03 Ecosystem safety 21:30 Is AI increasing the total number of apps out there? 22:45 Vibe coding and paths for app distribution 24:42 Fediverse and eureka moment 32:26 People-powered discovery — a broader movement  34:29 Building communities around apps 36:44 Patreon integration, supporting developers directly  38:38 Curating apps and source collections 40:07 Solutions for in-app payments 43:27 Pieces of the next generation ecosystem   45:56 Decentralizing app innovation 46:32 Relationship with Apple now 51:23 What’s on the horizon for AltStore 54:21 How to experience AltStore Referenced: Explore AltStore: https://explore.alt.store/ Riley + Shane’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cw/rileyshane 🔎 You can find Riley and Shane at https://altstore.io/.  ✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social. 🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/ Disclosure: Dot Social host Mike McCue serves on the board of AltStore.

Join John O’Nolan, founder of Ghost, and Matthias Pfefferle, ActivityPub plugin developer, as they unpack the renaissance of the blogosphere. They dive deep into the challenges of formatting, identity, and interoperability in the evolving web landscape. The duo discusses the nostalgia for a decentralized internet and the role of long-form content in our digital future. They also explore innovative content-sharing protocols, the importance of collaborative efforts, and the need for a more engaging and community-driven online experience.

Molly White, a researcher and software engineer known for her work on the Citation Needed newsletter, discusses the power of digital sovereignty for creators. She highlights the importance of owning your online identity and strategy for monetization outside traditional platforms. Molly reveals methods for moving content freely, leveraging personal websites, and the benefits of decentralized platforms. The conversation also touches on surveillance capitalism and calls for stronger protections for creators' rights in the age of AI.

Rudy Fraser, Founder and CEO of Blacksky and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center, discusses the vision of a decentralized social media landscape where communities, not algorithms, are in control. He shares insights on building vibrant online communities and the importance of mutual aid, discussing how personal data servers can safeguard user identities. Fraser explores innovative moderation strategies to foster trust and emphasizes creative fundraising models to support community initiatives. His passion for empowering users shines through as he charts Blacksky's independent path.

In this thought-provoking discussion, Cory Doctorow, a blogger, journalist, and digital rights activist, dives into the concept of 'enshittification,' revealing how corporate greed erodes our online experiences. He highlights the dangers of platform monopolies and the urgent need for regulatory reforms to reclaim user agency. Doctorow also champions the benefits of RSS feeds over centralized platforms, explores behavioral economics through the Ulysses Pact, and shares insights from his upcoming book, 'Picks and Shovels,' focused on the tech landscape and its challenges.

From the outside, Bluesky may seem like a Twitter clone. But anyone who’s close to the technology — and the team — knows that they’re building something much deeper: they’re rethinking the internet’s architecture to create a more flexible, user-centric web.Bluesky’s CTO Paul Frazee is the perfect person to explain all this, as he’s fantastic at tying technical concepts to their practical application and wider impact. In this interview with Mike McCue, recorded live at the Fediverse House at SXSW 2025, Frazee unpacks Bluesky’s first principles, what makes AT Protocol different from ActivityPub, why identity portability is a radical shift, and how decentralization could lead to more humane social spaces.Other highlights include:Bluesky's growth spike and architecture first principlesThe challenges of bridging between federated networksWhat it means to build for composabilityHow stackable moderation worksPaul's take on full federation Why this is a greenfield moment for developers Bridging cultural echo chambersMentioned in this episode:Beaker Browser post-mortem🔎 You can find Paul on Bluesky @pfrazee.com. ✚ You can connect with Mike McCue all across the social web, including on Bluesky @mmccue.bsky.social.🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard: https://about.surf.social/

n 2007, the hashtag was a simple, yet revolutionary, idea that changed the way we organize and amplify content. Today, it is either endangered or more useful than ever, depending on whom you talk to. On the open social web, hashtags are an important unifying mechanism — not just for content but for people too. Why is that? How did we get here? What’s next for this small but mighty feature and for the web at large? Here to tell us is Chris Messina, the inventor of the hashtag, the creator of the DiSo Project, and the No. 1 hunter on Product Hunt. In this episode, Messina goes wide to explain where this next 20-year cycle of the internet is taking us. From the community-pulling power of the hashtag to decentralization and the massive shifts ignited by AI, he threads the needle on it all.Addressing Elon Musk’s disparaging comment about hashtagsThe history of the hashtagUnder-appreciated elements of the hashtagGrappling with identity and reputation in a decentralized worldAlignment between ActivityPub and LLMsMentioned in this episode and/or acronyms for clarity:bitly.com/tagchannels - original hashtag specDID stands for “decentralized identifier” and is a self-owned, verifiable digital identity that operates without a central authorityPGP is an encryption standard used for securing communication, data integrity, and authentication 🔎 Learn more about Chris at his website, ChrisMessina.me, or find him on Bluesky @chrismessina.me, Mastodon @chrismessina@mastodon.xyz, and Threads @chris.✚ You can connect with Mike McCue all across the social web, including on Bluesky @mmccue.bsky.social, Mastodon @mike@flipboard.social and Threads @mmccue.🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/

When you’re building an open source community you’re a part of a collective effort with a common goal. In the fediverse, there are early adopters doing a lot of the heavy lifting now. They’re the voices you want to follow to make sense of the place. One such person is Chris Trottier. Chris describes himself as a “fediverse enthusiast” (he’s also passionate about video games). He’s a sage presence who makes smart observations and has a 10,000-foot view of all the innovation happening on the open social web — not to mention a few ideas of his own. Highlights of this conversation:Why he’s rallied around ActivityPubThe promise of social and the promise of the fediverseSelf-hosting an instanceInteresting apps and products built on top of ActivityPubAdopting a survivability mindset (as VCs, developers)Services mentioned in this episode include:Friendica - https://friendi.ca/ - a decentralized social networkMisskey - https://misskey-hub.net/en/ - a microblogging platformAkkoma - https://akkoma.social/ - “sorta like the child of Twitter and email”Macstodon - https://github.com/smallsco/macstodon - a Mastodon client for Classic Mac OSDOStodon - https://github.com/SuperIlu/DOStodon - a Mastodon client for MS-DOSAmidon - https://github.com/BlitterStudio/amidon - a Mastodon client for Amiga computersSora - https://mszpro.com/sorasns - a futuristic iOS app for Mastodon, Bluesky, Misskey; uses local machine learning to rank posts and feature contents to youBluesky Firehose - https://firesky.tv/ - republishes every new post/reply from the Bluesky firehose in real-timeCastling Club -  https://castling.club/ - chess game built on top of ActivityPub🔎 You can find Chris in the fediverse at @atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org✚ You can connect with Mike McCue on Mastodon at @mike@flipboard.social or via his Flipboard federated account, where you can see what he’s curating on Flipboard in the fediverse, at @mike@flipboard.com💰 Mastodon is a non-profit that runs on donations from the community. You can help Mastodon succeed by supporting the organization via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mastodon

Erin Kissane is a writer and researcher focused on the fediverse, while Darius Kazemi is a senior engineer at Harvard's Applied Social Media Lab. They discuss the challenges of decentralized governance and the potential impact of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election on network building. The conversation touches on user migration to platforms like Bluesky and the importance of interoperability. They explore sustainable business models for these networks and advocate for user-centric approaches to data safety, emphasizing collaboration in enhancing the fediverse's ecosystem.