Podcast
Dot Social
Hosted by Mike McCue · EN
Learn about the Internet’s next wave on the open social web and what it will unlock for how we connect, communicate, and innovate online. Hosted by Flipboard CEO Mike McCue.
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Leaving the City of Big Social, with Fediverse Enthusiast Chris Trottier
Mar 4, 202500:46:38Tap to summarizeWhen 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
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Making Better Networks for Humans, with Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi
Dec 11, 202400:55:45Tap to summarizeUnlike traditional social media, the fediverse operates without a central authority. This creates a unique set of challenges and opportunities for how it’s governed. Luckily, there are thoughtful stewards who want to see decentralized social media succeed in the most human — and humane — fashion. Two of the most prominent are Erin Kissane, a writer and researcher working on new networks, and Darius Kazemi, a senior engineer at the Applied Social Media Lab at Harvard University. Earlier in 2024, the pair researched and wrote a 40,000-word report on governance in the fediverse. Now they are deep in other projects designed to move the fediverse forward, including Erin’s new studio devoted to network work and Darius’ Fediverse Schema Observatory (software built to enhance the ecosystem’s interoperability while being sensitive to user data). You’ll hear about these projects and more in the latest episode of our Dot Social podcast.Highlights of the conversation include:The impact of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election on this workThoughts on the migration to BlueskyA model for how to socialize software in the fediverseWhat needs to be done next: a prioritized listThe nutritional label analogyFunding and sustainabilityBridging protocols and avoiding fragmentationMentioned in this episode:How to buy shoes in the fediverseFindings report: governance on fediverse microblogging serversApplied Social Media Lab at Harvard UniversityIFTASBlackskyFedifyBonfire Networks🔎 You can find Erin at wreckage/salvage or learn more about her via her personal site. She’s also posting on Mastodon and Bluesky. 🔎 Darius’s home on the Internet is at Tiny Subversions. He works at the Applied Social Media Lab at Harvard University and he posts on Mastodon. ✚ You can follow Mike at @mike@flipboard.social and @mike@flipboard.com💡 To learn more about what Flipboard's doing in the fediverse, sign up here: http://about.flipboard.com/a-new-wave
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How Decentralization Benefits Publishers, with 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and ProPublica’s Ben Werdmuller
Oct 16, 202400:52:56Tap to summarizeIt’s tough being a media outlet these days. Audiences are fractured, referrals from search engines are dropping, and publishers are at the mercy of algorithms they don’t control.Savvy journalists at forward-thinking newsrooms are not letting this happen to them. Instead, they’re doing the work that arguably has been most critical all along: building direct connections with their audiences. It’s common to do this through email lists and subscription models, but the open social web offers a new, more equitable ecosystem for quality journalism to thrive. Two people on the frontlines of this movement are Jason Koebler, a journalist and co-founder at 404 Media, and Ben Werdmuller, the senior director of technology at ProPublica. In this episode of Dot Social, the two talk about their fediverse experiences so far and why they’re hopeful for publishing in the future.• Addressing online media’s biggest challenge • Solving problems around discovery • Core selling points of decentralized social media• Will Threads become the whale in this pond?• Ghost vs Substack• The threat of AI-generated content and how it plays algorithmically Mentioned in this episode:“What We Learned in Our First Year of 404 Media”“Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statementJohn O’Nolan’s Dot Social episodeThreads announcement from 8/28“Protocol Wars - The Fediverse Explained!”(WVFRM podcast)🔎 You can find Ben at https://werd.io/ and @ben@werd.social. You can find Jason @jasonkoebler@mastodon.social and 404 Media at @404media@flipboard.com ✚ You can follow Mike at @mike@flipboard.social and @mike@flipboard.com💡 To learn more about what Flipboard's doing in the fediverse, sign up here: https://about.flipboard.com/a-new-wave/
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How the Open Social Web Will Change Everything, with Bluesky’s Jay Graber
Oct 1, 202400:58:55Tap to summarizeThere’s a reason journalist and Bluesky board member Mike Masnick calls the platform “the most interesting experiment going in social media.” Originally launched as a project within Twitter in 2019, Bluesky has since become an independent company intent on making social more like the web. What does that mean, exactly, and why does it matter? Bluesky founder and CEO Jay Graber says social media is stagnating because “we're in this trap where users are locked in and developers are locked out.” It’s time to open things up again, she states, like in the innovative early days of the internet. Highlights of this conversation:• Bluesky’s origin story • The case for decentralization — and Bluesky• Developer activity and other “wacky experimentation” • Workings of identity online and DIDs (decentralized identifiers)• Bridging AT Protocol and ActivityPub• Bluesky’s exciting cultural momentsMentioned in this episode:Hard Fork podcast episode featuring Jay Graber🔎 You can find Jay at @jay.bsky.team✚ You can connect with Mike McCue at @mmccue.bsky.social and at @mike@flipboard.social💡 To learn more about what Flipboard's doing in the fediverse, sign up here: https://about.flipboard.com/a-new-wave/
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