With the news of the secret $100 million investment in Bluesky by Bain, I keep thinking about protocols.
Maybe the perceived "drawbacks" of #ActivityPub are ultimately strengths?
#ATproto handles identity in a way that allows a single sign-in across apps. But wouldn't this make it easier to profile you? Is this why crypto VCs are so attracted to it?
And ATproto has funding in the 100s of millions by VCs but at some point they'll want to turn a profit. There is ZERO pressure here to ensh*tt*fy
Imho they are strengths, for sure. The spec shortcomings, protocol decay, and chaotic commons' inability to address them weigh up to a certain amount of resilience in the ecosystem that manages to grow *despite* these drawbacks. And also #ATProto simply by being better specified, documented, and accessible to implementers, has led to such uptake of the de facto standard, that it has become a lightning rod for the kinds of commercial attention we rather avoid for the fediverse (generally speaking).
However, we can do better than chaotic commons, and foster chaordic organization around ecoysystem formation, such that one day we can say that #ActivityPub is truly "commons based", i.e. people are in control, by the people for the people, and able to sustainably evolve and grow naturally.
Chaordic organization is quite fascinating, and it aligns to the social dynamics that are at play on the fediverse between people..
https://coding.social/blog/reimagine-social/#chaordic-organization
Elena Rossini ⁂
🫧 socialcoding..